A Deadly Hike

This Sunday a lot of us went north of the Sea of Galilee in the Golan region to the Yehudia Park.  Its a nature preserve just like any other nature place you'd go to.  It was a lot of fun and the hiking trails were actually pretty intense. I was surprised that everyone was able to keep up with the group and I was surprised with all of the girls too. lol.  The main trail that we followed started on top of this canyon.  We hiked down into the canyon and met up with the stream that flows through it.  Our first stop was a pool that the stream falls down into.  it was a pretty tall drop making a nice looking waterfall.  We took our first break there and did some cliff jumping. lol.  That was kinda scary.  It was just a small pool but apparently it was very deep.  Deep enough to jump off a like 30 foot cliff. Maybe it was taller. I'm not sure.  So we went on and the group kinda split up a little bit.  My friend Josh is insane.  I thought I liked to do crazy things and take risks but Josh is fearless.  He was trying to climb up the waterfall...I was like "dude. you're going to slip and die"  but he really believes that God's strength and power is made complete in our weakness...thats all I'll say about that. lol.  I actually ended up leaving him cuz he went off on the trail and i couldn't find him.  So the next pool/waterfall we got too was a little bit taller and there was only one way to follow the trail...that was by jumping off the cliff into the pool. just kidding. there was actually this crazy ladder going down the side of the cliff.  I had my camera and my bag with me, so i climbed down the ladder, but the ladder went straight into the water, there was no way across other than swimming.  So i go down. give my bag to the person above me, get in the water, start to tread water and the girl gives me back my bag and I immediately sank. Haha. So i just started kicking like crazy and got to the rock wall and i was able to keep the bag above the water the entire time but not my head. So i found a place to grab on to on the wall.  So i needed a new strategy.  So i kept along side of the rock wall for a while, then i realized i could hold the bag with one arm above water and use the other arm to help tread across the water.  So i successfully made it across with out getting any of my stuff wet.  We stopped there and had lunch, and more people were jumping off the cliff. Josh was being crazy climbing higher and higher and jumping until finally he landed kinda sideways and decided that was enough.  After that we went further. I kinda got in a bad mood cuz the trail was actually kinda difficult and my shoes were soaked and i was slipping on every rock and i really didnt want to fall into the stream and ruin my camera. But when we got to the third pool josh had caught up with me and went off the trail again. This time i wanted to do it. We came up to another waterfall and he went off the trail and climbed, like rock climbed, hanging on to the wall...down to the water fall. then i tossed him my bag and was doing the same thing except on the opposite side.  Our friend joe was above us on the trail.  This next part is hard to explain, but i'll do my best.  So i'm on the rock wall beneath the trail hanging on for dear life, Josh is on the opposite side of the stream but made it down the wall and was sitting on a rock just above the water.  Beneath both of us is another pool, but we hadn't been in it yet. so we didn't know how deep it was. Up on the trail, by Joe, one of the girls was climbing back up.  She was on the trail, but the trail was pretty intense itself and you had to do a few short vertical climbs.  So she was taking a different way to get higher up and the ground just gave out beneath her.  She fell probably about 15 feet back onto the path right in front of Joe.  She broke most of the fall with her leg but hit her face pretty bad on the rock.  So when all of this happened, Joe dropped his camera, which slid right past me down into the pool. So Joe yells for help, Josh dives into the pool and swims across back to the path. Then i let go of the wall and fall into the pool and get myself to the scene.  So its me, Joe, and Josh and we all kept pretty cool....kinda.  Robyn, the girl who fell, was talking and it didn't seem to be a huge emergency but me and Josh had all these ideas of what we were going to do and Joe was like "no man! we need to find some old people!"  haha. so looking back that was pretty funny.  Then like, out of nowhere some experienced hikers showed up.  One of them was an ex-US Marine and the other was an ex-Israeli Solider, who both knew first aid very well.  So they ended up taking care of her.  One of them had a cell phone and we were able to call in the rescue team.  So a bunch of awesome Israeli guys came down and put her on a stretcher thing that connected to this guys backpack, they strapped her in and carried her all the way out of the canyon.  It was really impressive.  It was hard enough getting yourself out of the canyon.  The trail up was very steep and rugged.  A lot of our group and showed up before the hikers, and for the situation, everyone was pretty calm.  We all kinda backed away and kept our distance so that the guys could take care of her.  It hadn't been more than 5 minutes after she fell that more people started showing up.  So me joe and josh just let the other people take over and we gave them their space.  Josh actually went down and did more climbing. I swam in the pool a little bit longer and took some pictures.  Once we knew rescue was on the way we started heading back to the bus.  Me and Josh rock climbed out of the pool, not taking the crowded path.  That was fun and dangerous.  Robyn was taken to a hospital to have tests and x-rays done.  I actually haven't heard anything about the situation yet.  I'm sure she'll be back on campus sometime today.
So that was Sunday.  OH. and Joe got his camera back. lol.  One of the guys was able to dive all the way to the bottom of the pool and get it.  Dan, who got the camera, actually found it on his first dive down. so that was crazy.  The camera is now in a bag of rice.  hopefully it'll come back to life.  Joe just bought it for this trip.  And i forgot this detail. Joe actually had to stop Robyn from continuing her fall.  She landed on the edge of the path, just above where i was climbing.  If Joe hadn't been there she probably would have rolled off the path and into the deep pool and things would have been much worse...she would have fell on me and knocked me out and i could have drowned. lol. just kidding.  But really. Joe was kind of a hero yesterday.  I'll post some pictures of this trip on facebook.
Welp. See ya later.