September 13 Friday:
The Pilgrims traveled to Baalbek and the Baalbek quarry. (See Murray Route 38) Then, to the dismay of Sam, on to Sirghaya. The leg to Baalbek is approximately 15.6 miles with a drop in elevation to 3,111 feet and a climb then to 3.671 feet. The leg from Baalbek to Sirghaya is approximately 15.9 miles with a climb to 5,582 feet. This section of the pilgrim's trail has several changes in elevation with 4,663 feet at Sirghaya. (See Murray Route 37)
Twelve or thirteen hours in the saddle, even in a Christian land and a Christian climate, and on a good horse, is a tiresome journey; but in an oven like Syria, in a ragged spoon of a saddle that slips fore-and-aft, and “thort-ships,” and every way, and on a horse that is tired and lame, and yet must be whipped and spurred with hardly a moment’s cessation all day long, till the blood comes from his side, and your conscience hurts you every time you strike if you are half a man,—it is a journey to be remembered in bitterness of spirit and execrated with emphasis for a liberal division of a man’s lifetime.