I had a great Muni/Trials ride on Friday with my fellow MUni Rider Nir and my good friend Amit(Who rode a bike). We rode in Park Canada which is about half an hour west of Jerusalem in the Jerusalem Mountains. Park Canada got it’s name in honor of the donations in money and manpower donated by Canadians to the State of Israel while it was fighting for it’s independece from the British and later against invation from seven neighboring Arab countries. Heavy fighting took place around the park during Israel’s war of Independence because the nearby Fort of Latrun blocked the road to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Park Canada is in mountainous terrain that is partly forested and partly cattle grazing lands.
There are tons of ancient ruins in the park. They range from Ancient Hebrew to Roman, Byzantine and Ottaman. (Ruins are my favorite ride because they combine all of the element of MUni and Trials!) We had tons of fun hopping up ancient very uneven stairs and riding back down them. Old walls and irrigation channels were also a lot of fun, but my favorite is jumping from pillar base to pillar base!
Afterwards we also did some nice downhill riding. The slope of the mountain on which we did the largest downhill decent was between 35 to 45 degrees and it was mostly dirt and gravel with large exposed boulders. It had drops of up to 90 centimeters in hieght and was about three quarters of a kilometer in length. I mostly skid down and pedaled only when close to losing balance.
About two months ago I UPDed about 20 times going down this decent. On Friday I only UPDed twice and had to get off to rest my arm once. I was very please with my improved riding!
I rode a KH24 2007 with a Duro 24x3" tire and no brake.
Nir rode a Semcycle 24 with a Kenda Kenetics Stick-e 24x2.6" tire. No brake.
We do rides like this just about every Friday but this was the first time that I took the initiative to bring a camera along.
Well, I guess that the firewall is not letting me upload the pictures.
If anyone is interested then send me a private message with your email and I will send them.
I had a great Muni/Trials ride on Friday with my fellow MUni Rider Nir and my good friend Amit(Who rode a bike). We rode in Park Canada which is about half an hour west of Jerusalem in the Jerusalem Mountains. Park Canada got it’s name in honor of the donations in money and manpower donated by Canadians to the State of Israel while it was fighting for it’s independece from the British and later against invation from seven neighboring Arab countries. Heavy fighting took place around the park during Israel’s war of Independence because the nearby Fort of Latrun blocked the road to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Park Canada is in mountainous terrain that is partly forested and partly cattle grazing lands.
There are tons of ancient ruins in the park. They range from Ancient Hebrew to Roman, Byzantine and Ottaman. (Ruins are my favorite ride because they combine all of the element of MUni and Trials!) We had tons of fun hopping up ancient very uneven stairs and riding back down them. Old walls and irrigation channels were also a lot of fun, but my favorite is jumping from pillar base to pillar base!
Afterwards we also did some nice downhill riding. The slope of the mountain on which we did the largest downhill decent was between 35 to 45 degrees and it was mostly dirt and gravel with large exposed boulders. It had drops of up to 90 centimeters in hieght and was about three quarters of a kilometer in length. I mostly skid down and pedaled only when close to losing balance.
About two months ago I UPDed about 20 times going down this decent. On Friday I only UPDed twice and had to get off to rest my arm once. I was very please with my improved riding!
I rode a KH24 2007 with a Duro 24x3" tire and no brake.
Nir rode a Semcycle 24 with a Kenda Kenetics Stick-e 24x2.6" tire. No brake.
We do rides like this just about every Friday but this was the first time that I took the initiative to bring a camera along.
Thats some pretty cool stuff, definatly looks like a fun place to ride. Hopefully people don’t rain on your parade too much, I don’t think many people think its possible to have fun in that country without them doing something wrong, yet if we were riding that kind of stuff in our own country we wouldn’t really care that much. Plus from the looks of it, you guys did no more damage to it than a storm would do. Plus look at that view!
Whats with Nir’s handle though?! it looks like he put a reeder handle on sideways!
Isreal is a democracy and the people here are quite tolerant. Gays are tolerated and there is very little racism here. Intermairrage is very high.
Leisure sports are quite big here as in any affluent educated society.
Mountain biking is huge here and everyone is very impressed by the unicycling!
The important antiquities are well protected. I would never dare to ride on the more famous or fragile stuff like some of the magnificient mosaic floors.
The thing is ancient ruins are all over the place here. So there is no reason why they shouln’t be ridden. Actually tons of ancient ruins are paved over to make new roads and neighborhoods here all the time.
Besides I don’t think that a rubber tire is going to damage the rocks that the ancients built with. Trust me they built to last!
Unless you’re Palestinian, in which case you are well and truly screwed.
You will have your country occupied.
You will be removed from your country, dumped in a refugee camp and not allowed to return.
For no reason.
You will have an APARTHEID WALL built to separate you from whatever jobs you still thought you could get to earn a living for you and your family.
400 year-old olive trees, a source of income for your family for generations, will be bulldozed to show you who’s boss.
Tanks will be sent into your neighborhoods at the drop of the proverbial hat.
Civilians will be indiscriminately slaughtered.
Thousand upon thousand young men, many still children, will be detained indefinitely and regularly submitted to torture, never charged, never brought before a court.
And it will all be done in the name of peace and security.
And the rest of the world will not blink an eye.
Very tolerant.
Save it my friend.
Go ride your pogo-stick-cycle over your heritage.
See if I care.
I was under the impression that Israel itself is one big set of ruins. Kind of happens that way when humans occupy a spot for millennia. Hard enough not to step on them when you just walk down the street, that sort of thing.
Looks like a fun playground - that mountainside sounds great. And what’s up with Nir’s handle? Is that orientation an experiment?
Hundreds of years ago some people stacked rocks on top of each other… Someone rides his Unicycle over them today, saying that the people around him think its kinda cool… and you unload on him…? Arent you being rather intolerant of the country he lives in? Do you really think that Unicorn is the one who built refugee camps and bulldozed olive trees?
Unicorn, I enjoyed your write up. I think it would be cool to live in a place that has been around for so long that it seems (at least to me) one couldn’t go for a stroll without coming upon tons of ancient ruins…
You totally misunderstood Gild.
He related not to the Unicorn’s riding write-up, (which was nice and well illustrated), but only to his words about people in Israel being tolerant.
That was clearly quoted, and you mixed things up.
Trailsing on ancient monuments/ruins is pretty irresponsible
Is it really the image we want to give to none unicyclists ?
There isn’t a problem really with one tyre, but 3 or 30 weekly ? Daily ? What if some one bails and scrapes a pedal edge down them ? Or if they go for a pedal grab or a grind ?
I’d really love to ride in that park, it looks great, but how long will it be allowed if evvery one is jumping onto the ruins & riding down them ? I quite enjoy myself in the forest, but they are moving the trails around, due to archeological work (we are very close to the most northerly point of human habitation in the last Ice age) it could just be some roman coins or similar stuff or it could be more Ice age relics. One is vastly more important than the other, but I don’t think people should be riding over either.
The big question really is how do we want people to see unicycling & unicyclists ?
As Extreme sports people who care for the environment
Or A bunch of idiots who’ll grind any ledge that passes and upsets everyone else trying to enjoy themselves ?
theyve been there for hundreds if not thousands of year a little unicycling is not gonna cause ruins to explode. so stop worrying about ruining ruins
what was that little square hole
Thanx j-n, and no Keldrige, I don’t think Unicorn is the one who bulldozed the trees or built the refugee camps.
Or assisted Ariel Sharon while he got his troops to encircle those same camps and allowed Lebanese militia to slaughter the trapped Palestinians.
He just seems to be the guy who’s apologising for them.
And I won’t let that go.
Ever.
We came thru this same crap in my country.
I’m not going to stand by while someone white-washes the same kind of nonsense being perpetuated by theirs.
Giving the expression you quoted the alternative meaning of wishing for the victims of Israel’s crimes against humanity to ‘revisit’ them in the symbolic gesture of ‘marching’ on Jerusalem.
Another way of saying ‘lest we forget’.
I’m sure Unicorn doesn’t support the indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians any more than I don’t support the suicide bombings.
With that clearly stated, I have to add that I do understand the situation that spawned them.
40 years of brutalization and I’m not suprised that people reach for extreme and insane attempts at forcing justice.
Even if it’s something as patently pointless as throwing a rock at an armoured vehicle (an offence that is very likely to get a child’s hands broken by the butt of a soldier’s rifle), I can understand the need to try most anything.
A. J. Muste said it best: “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.”
I promised to drag this thread kicking and screaming from the second page because I owe Unicorn an apology.
All he wanted to do was talk unicycling, and I dragged a couple of his comments into the political realm.
I do not apologise for any statement I made in this thread, just for politicising what was essentially a pure unicycling thread in the first place.
I should’ve taken on his mate for not wearing ahelmet, instead I got onto the whole human rights malarkey.
Sorry 'bout that.
Trials heaven!!