2014 Race

This year’s Hermon Eilat Race route is entirely off-road. The route was designed by Ariel Yehudai and Menahem Marcus, two veteran off-road warriors that have visited every inch of our country and know Israel’s topography by heart. Ariel lives in Maale Hahamisha and is the founder of the “Bemaale Hahar to Jerusalem” project. Menahem is from Har Adar and is one of Israel’s most popular tour guides.
The route begins this year at the entrance to Tel Dan and stretches for 680 km to the western entrance to Kibbutz Eilot in the South. 

The North
From Tel Dan, we travel south for 60km and reach the western side of the Sea of Galilee (Kineret). On the way we will pass Kfar Sold, Shamir, and the Gonen junction, and then continue along the east side of the Hula Valley and the Jordan Highlands towards Carcom/Almagor. There we connect to the “Sovev Kineret” road at Hukok beach, following which we pass Kfar Nahum and Migdal until we reach the Reket river where we start to climb towards Kfar Hitim. We continue to Yavniel and climb west via a steep bolder towards Moledet. From there, we continue via the fish ponds of Kibbutz Beit Hashita, along the Tavor river, and then west towards Ta'anachim arriving at Megiddo, along the Keini river until Gal-Ed, Givat Nili , and finally Regavim where we will cross Highway 6 and continue onto the “Hamovil Haartsi“ dirt road. 

Hashfela Area
The route continues along Hamovil to Kesem Interchange via Omets, where we complete the first day (end of day 1). From Ometz we continue along the Israel National Trail, passing Elad as we head south towards Route 443. Along road 443 we will run east towards Maccabim , cross the town toward Route 3 near Mevo Horon where we will keep running south to Sha'ar Hagai through the new Jerusalem railway tunnels. We will cross south under Route 1 toward Beit Shemesh, pass the Ramat Beit Shemesh area at the Ella Valley and from there we will continue along the old border to Shekef and further east past Lahav where we will connect to the Israel National Trail approaching Shmurat Sanasana and later Mount Amasa. 

The South
From Amasa via fathers way through Drg'at and until Tel Arad, we continue south east toward Arad Airport (end of day 2). The next day we continue south towards “Rotem Industrial Plants” to Highway 25 where we will turn west towards Dimona. At Rotem junction will turn south towards Yamin junction, continuing to reach “The SCORPION ASCENT” or “Maale Hakrabim” on road 224, and then south to the river Seif, south along the Arava river to “Maale Noah” and then further south and down to the crater crossing the river valley until we reach Gvanim River. There we will continue on the Spindle Oil to Paran River, west on “Palmah Axis” until the “Ovda Valley road” (end of Day 3). Next, we will follow Beer Ora and through “Haemek Hanelam” valley via the Spindle Oil to the Roded river at the western entrance of Kibbutz Eilot (end of Day 4).