Hebs – Bahar Border Marker Hunting Hike. Ras al Khaimah.

You can view the Youtube video posted by our fellow hiker Ganesh here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di9bukgfq5o

More details & pictures posted on wikiloc.
https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/hebs-bahar-border-marker-hunting-ras-al-khaimah-203415458

My Non Commercial and Non Profit Hiking Community friendly personal FB Page dedicated to UAE Hiking information and Trails.
https://www.facebook.com/Patricks-Hikes-101251445547970

Hebs – Bahar Border Marker Hunting. Ras al Khaimah.

Trail Stats:

Distance:	27 kms
Difficulty:	Difficult (Involves climbing)
Elevation gain:	1900 m
Elevation loss:	1900 m
Max elevation:	1150 m
Min elevation:	150 m
Trail type:	One way, return back the same way
Moving time:	8 hours 50 minutes

Hebs – Bahar Border Marker Hunting. Ras al Khaimah.

I have recorded the offroad path from Jais road to this Trailhead at Wadi Haqab as below.
It will help you to access the start point.

https://www.wikiloc.com/offroading-trails/wadi-haqab-access-offroad-119940054

Reaching to the trailhead is bit tricky.
You have to turn right from the Jebel Jais road at 25.800469, 56.099167
https://goo.gl/maps/gx5Xi7oFx4Qx7FGa9

You can see a Mobile phone tower very closeby here.
From here, get into the off-road (sedan drivable) after about 100m turn left and merge into another off-road which is parallel to the wadi.
About 150 meters away, you can see an elevated while painted water tank, you can take this is a waypoint.
You continue driving about 1km, you can see a Military camera station as soon as you pass the camera there is a small building and you can park next to it 25.806622, 56.112798.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/XfGPKjAZaV9Qp5vQ9

There you can see the well laid trail path with thousand steps.
This trail is definitely good for endurance as it has good amount of elevation gain over a short distance. You gain 600 meters elevation in 2.7 Kms distance. Most of this ascent trail is manmade rocky steps and stable path.

You can refer the below link for the Hebs village trail which is main beginning part of this hike.
https://hikerpatrick.com/hebs-villages-one-way-via-1000-steps-ras-al-khaimah/

The trail leads you towards the mountain top to finally reach the Durdur plateau at 800 meters elevation that gives excellent views of Wadi Bih, Jebel Jais, Jebel Yabana, Jebel Qadaah and many more mountains of the Musandam peninsula.

From the Durdur solo house, we continued further on the well visible and maintained flattish trail all the way to the Hebs lower and upper villages.
The villages are well maintained, clean properties and look functional.
There are livestock around too.
You can take a very well deserved resting break here, there are many flat farms and some trees here and there.
You can explore the village, but please do not enter any of the properties without permission.

You can come back the same way, it will be a total of 16 Kms long hike.

In our case, we extended our hike towards the SPAR pass at the base of Jebel Qada’ah, then descended into the Wadi Qada’ah by 150 meters using the well established trail and at the Wadi Ghail trail junction, we turned left towards Bahar plateau using a very well marked trail.

Once we reached the Bahar plateau, we started visiting every visible border marker, 2 of them on the plateau and 1 at the Wadi Bahar.

Overall most challenging hike (included some climbing as well) and had a great day.

The 4th marker at the top of the Jebel Bahar extention was pure climbing, which can be avoided if you follow my descent from the marker to Wadi Bahar.

We climbed to the Jebel Bahar section by scrambling, climbing and hiking to see the 4th marker and descended down over the mountain surface to avoid descent by climbing.
You will need good barehand climbing skills for this climb and no fear of heights.

On our way back, we passed by the Wadi Zebat, which is the original leopard canyon/

From here we returned back on the same way we ascended and on our way back, we visited one more border marker which is above Wadi Bih but between Hebs lower and Durdur villages.

Thus we finished our long day visiting various border markers, 5 of them to be precise.

Overall a well rewarding hike to enjoy the wilderness safely and visiting isolated ancient but still functional villages.

There are options to continue further towards Jebel Qadaah, Wadi Ghail, Bahar plateau and leopard canyon from here.

Grade: Moderate

Base Village: Wadi Haqab

Range: Jebel Qadaah.

Border marker with Jebel Qadaah in the background

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Wadi Bahar border marker

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Bahar Village marker

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Wadi Bih marker

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