Mountainbiking in the Israeli Desert - A weekend in Kibutz Samar - Part I

It's been over 2 weeks since my magical weekend of mountain biking in the Israeli desert. It was basically one of the best weekend that I had in a long time, here is why.

Desert View

How it all started 

I was invited to celebrate with the rest of BikePanel magazine staff for the 4 year anniversary of the magazine in a most appropriate way - a weekend of mountain biking. When Guy the editor emailed me with the invite and dates I have to admit I hesitated. It's a long trip from Chicago to Israel and the timing wasn't 100% right for me. It was however a very short debate and very quickly I came to my senses. Thinking to myself, what is wrong with you Sharon - it's a mountain biking weekend in one of the best places to do that with a group of amazing riders. About 2 second later I bought my plane ticket scheduled to arrived 1 day before the ride.

The Set Up

Samar Sunrize

The Rooms

The plan for the weekend was to ride the course of the Samarathon which is a 3 day MTB stage race in the Israeli desert and stay in Samar Bike Hotel. Samar Bike Hotel? Hmmm, I never heard of this place before, but hey I have been gone for over 13 years and a lot have changed. So here is some background. Samar is a Kibutz located in the south of Israel, almost all the way to Eilat (which is the Southern tip of Israel) in an area that is called the Arava. It is basically what I would call the middle of nowhere, Israel. As remote as you can be in a small country like Israel. When you get there, however, it is like an oasis in the middle of the desert. The bike hotel was built by two of the Kibitz members that have a passion for both biking and the desert, and had the vision (and yes I mean VISION!!!) to build a bike hotel (OK it's more like a B&B, but this is exactly what I look for when I go on a biking vacation).

Conversations into the night on the communal table
(Thank you BikePanel team for permission to use this photo
as well as the great company)  

Bike hotel you ask? I will start by saying it is no 5 start hotel, so if you are looking for luxury you are in the wrong place. For that you need to keep driving a few more miles to Eilat or stop on the way at the Dead Sea. It does, however, offer the perfect setup for a weekend (or longer if you wish) of adventure. The rooms are big and offer the basic amenities that one would need. Most importantly they are clean. Meals (which are included) are all served on a big wooden communal table in the center of the hotel. The food is home cooked and tastes great. This table and the Bedouin tent next to it, are the  center of everything. I ended up spending most of my time in that area. The hotel offers a range of bike related services and packages from fully guided rides to consultations to riding routes as well as drop and pick-up services. The hotel is geared more toward mountain biking (and in all honesty for road biking there are better areas not far from there) and it's owners and others in the area have invested a lot of effort in building a trail system like no other. The best thing about the hotel and the staff is the warm and hospitable atmosphere. All this combined with the mountain biking wonderland around the Kibutz provide for a unique experience and will make you want to stay there forever.

The Riding

Hazy day in Maktesh Ramon 

Ready to Ride

As mentioned above the plan was to ride all 3 days of the Samarathon race course course but in a chill pace (well at least that was the plan for some of us). A small group of us got to experience on the 2nd and 3rd days some more technical trails as part of an Enduro group. You can check out their adventure here.

I borrowed Guy's personal bike (as he was testing the new Niner RKT 9 RDO and after a quick pedal and saddle switch I was ready to go.    

Thursday

On the ledge of the Maktesh

We started the first day by meeting in Mitzpe Ramon. A good place to break the drive and have some fun in the unique area of Makhtesh Ramon (which is the world's largest "crater" and was created by erosion. Sorry for the geology lesson here but this is a unique geological landform and can only be seen there).

Nana Winery 

Since the first day of the Samarathon is a Prologue it is very short (25km/15 miles), a prologue to the prologue was added. Yoni from Samar Bike Hotel lead us through a pre-loop and we ended up riding about 42km/26 miles of mixed single track and rugged 4x4 roads, a nice warm-up for the weekend and reintroduction of yours truly to the art of desert riding.

The pre-loop was relatively flat and not very technical (well, that is if you are used to the rocks of the desert). About half way through this section our guide, Yoni, made a small detour and led us to a winery. Yes, a winery in the middle of the desert. How cool. I am told you can actually schedule a tour and wine tasting. This will have to be investigated in the future.

Nana Winery

After the winery we continued towards the prologue starting point and at some point connected to the Maktesh ledge and rode on the ledge until we got to the starting point. There is no better way to show what's it like to ride on the ledge of the Maktesh than with a few pictures.

Riding on the ledge with Yealim in the background 

Thank you Ofer Eavri for this photo

Photo by Guy Halamish

Oops if you are afraid of heights don't look down 

Har Gamal (Camel Mountain)

After a short stop at Gamal (which means camel in Hebrew) Mountain we continued to the starting point where we were welcomed with fresh coffee, refreshments and my new discovery and now my favorite pre-workout and workout snack - bread with raw Tahini and date syrup, it is messy but oh so yummy.

After the short stop we started the prologue section. About 15 miles of more of the same, which means more flowing but rocky single track, more rugged 4x4 roads (I believe the drive on these roads will be bumpier than our bike ride) and more of the vast views of the desert that makes you forget everything stressful in your life and just live the moment.

Flowing Single Track (Photos Guy Halamish)

More Flowing Single Track (Photos Guy Halamish)

With a smiling face and very bruised legs, the result of the rude awakening that I am a rusty mountain biker and that the midwest single tracks are not even close to the "non-technical" 4x4 roads of the Israeli desert in difficulty, we got into our car for the little over an hour drive to Kibitz Samar.

Photo Guy Halamish 

     

Thanks to Guy and Ofer for the photos and the BikePanel staff for the amazing experience it was great meeting you all in person.

Part II will be up tomorrow (Click here for Part II)


Thanks for reading