my personal getting to meron tr:
over the past few days i came to the realization that even if i technically could manage to get a seat on a bus, that would leave me totally in their hands, and at any small whim, i could be not allowed to get to meron. if the bus i would be on would not be allowed to continue further at some random point in the north, i could be left w/o any way of getting to meron.
being that it was important to me not to lose out on it, i decided to make the trip in my own car, despite the risks.
from my understanding on how these things work in israel, and from my experiences in the past 2 years in getting to meron on lag baomer despite it being off limits, i decided that my chances of getting there would be better this way.
@2:20 am i left from the modiin area and drove up north. we went thru the amuka forest to get into the secured zone. at aprox 4:30 we successfully got into the zone (886 road area) and spent the next hour avoiding police patrols and searching for a way to cross over into the ein zeitim forest area in order to be able to get to meron junction.
we made quite a few unsuccessful attempts, which included moving cement barriers, trying to drive thru ditches etc., and twice were almost nabbed by the patrols. every time we were revealed, we had to retreat back towards the amuka forest to hide for a few minutes.
eventually at aprox 6am we managed to move aside a cement barrier blocking entrance into the forest of ein zeitim, enough to be able to squeeze thru.
we weaved our way around the forest paths for about 15 minutes until we managed to reconnect to road 89 about 2 minutes away from meron junction. we then nonchalantly drove the 2 minutes till meron junction, parked on the side of the road, and walked up into har meron at 6:25. at no point were we asked to show tickets.
from start to finish 4 hours and 5 minutes. considering what im hearing from other ppls experiences, i believe thats on the short side.