🧭 Where the routes come from

Every route here is an existing route relation in OpenStreetMap — a trail someone mapped in the field. The large majority are KKL marked singletracks and marked walking trails, so the same route serves a runner, a hiker, and a rider.

The featured routes (marked as such on the home page) got an extra manual check: cross-referenced against the source page, a written description, a verified trailhead, and a photo.

📐 How the numbers are computed

🎚️ Difficulty vs technical grade

Every route has one on-foot difficulty — weighted from length, climb per km, and terrain grade, and relevant to running and hiking alike (hiking just takes longer). Alongside it, routes on bike singletracks carry a separate MTB technical grade (S0 smooth to S5 extreme), because what is hard for a rider is not necessarily hard on foot, and vice versa.

On the search page you can pick an activity (hiking/running trail or singletrack), filter by on-foot difficulty, and filter by MTB technical grade — every discipline finds its own in the same database.

🌡️ Recommended season

A heat index per route, computed from latitude, average elevation, distance to the sea, and length. It cleanly separates the Arava in August (dangerous) from the Golan (pleasant even in summer), and lets you filter and sort by what you can head out on right now — running, hiking, or riding.

The index penalises southern latitude, negative elevation (the Dead Sea rift), and distance from the sea, and rewards altitude. Length adds weight because exposure accumulates. It is a formula, not a weather station — treat it as an indication.

🎨 Difficulty as a bar meter

Difficulty is shown as a neutral bar meter with text, and the trail-marking colours (green, blue, red, black) are reserved strictly for the actual blaze on the trail. In Israel those colours are trail identifiers, not difficulty grades — "the black trail" is a name, not a warning.

🚵 Bike singletracks — on foot too

Many of the trails here are the singletracks KKL built for riders. They are marked, maintained, and excellent for running and hiking too — so they appear here with an on-foot difficulty and an MTB technical grade separately, so everyone knows what to expect.

🎒 Before you go

• Check for closures. Trails close for works, military training, or after fires — check the KKL or Israel Nature and Parks Authority sites.
• Carry water for the whole distance. The water points here are from OSM and not field-verified.
• Watch for firing zones. Some routes pass near military training areas.
• In winter, mind the streams. Water crossings can be dangerous after rain.

The details here are estimates, not a guarantee of safety. See the safety disclaimer. Spotted something wrong — a closed trail, a distance that does not add up, a wrong start point? You can fix it directly on OpenStreetMap, and it will update here on the next build.

🔜 What's planned

• Custom routes — stitching a route from several trails, like the extended Herzl + Anava loop.
• Crowding and seasonality — flagging routes best avoided on weekend mornings or at the height of summer.
• A separate hiking difficulty — on-foot difficulty is currently shared between running and hiking; we may split it later.

Already working: Google sign-in with cross-device favourites sync, and route ratings and feedback.