Hiking in the Chouf Mountains

This weekend I finally made it out of Beirut and experienced a little of Lebanon's countryside! I signed up with a local sustainable and eco-tourism group to hike part of the Lebanon Mountain Trail (LMT). The LMT is a 275-mile-long network of trails that runs nearly the length of the country, though lots of little towns and villages. It is funded largely by USAID. On Sunday, we hiked nearly eight miles and got up to nearly 4000 feet of elevation--not too shabby, if I do say so myself! (And notice that I'm converting kilometers to miles and feet for those of you who, like me, still struggle with the metric system!)

On Sunday morning, about 20 or so of us assembled in the city and piled onto a minibus for a two-hour drive to the village of Maasser El Shouf, where we started the hike. We stopped along the way to pick up the man who was to be our local LMT guide for the day and to buy some awfully tasty manouchi (flatbread and veggie sandwiches) for breakfast. Almost as soon as we got out of the city we started seeing all sorts of fruit trees, farms, and gardens. We even passed a big patch of banana trees which produced small bananas! I don't know why the grocery store in Beirut sells big ones from Equador when there are so many right outside town. Anyway, there were a few beautiful produce stands next to the manouchi shop.

Soon we reached Maasser El Shouf, a small village in the mountains with lots of little buildings roofed with red tiles.

Our driver then took off, not to be seen again until we caught up to him many hours later in the village of Niha, where the hike ended. The day was sunny and cool--perfect hiking weather, though it was a little hazy in the morning. Our path followed the sporadic purple and white blazes marking the LMT, though without our local guide, it would have been easy to lose the trail. The LMT information cautions against wandering too far off the trail because of the persistent danger of land mines from the civil war. Our route took us through some Druze villages which I'm told were embroiled in bloody conflicts with the nearby Christian villages during the war. All we saw on the hike, though, was some innocuous old metal debris from a mortar round.

Oh, and we saw LOTS of shotgun shells! Turns out that hunting is a very popular pastime in Lebanon, but the only thing left to shoot are small birds. We didn't see any birds flying around, but we heard distant shotgun fire, and even met one of the local hunters. His English was quite good and he was wearing, improbably, a faded and much-worn John Deere cap. Our hike leader asked him if he picked up his empty shells. When he said "no," she started good-naturedly haranguing him about keeping the country clean.

After lots of hiking through fairly arid country, we came to a very elaborate picnic area (courtesey of USAID) next to the spring of Chaachouaa. The heavy concrete picnic tables overlooked a splendid valley, and wild lavender flowers scented the perimeter. After lunch and filling water bottles at the spring, we still had about an hour and a half to go to get to Niha. Maybe it I just feeling refreshed after lunch, but I'm convinced that the last section of trail was the most scenic. We passed trees laden with pomegranites, persimmons, and apples, and passed a few small homes with grape arbors in their yards. Most of the last section, though, was through green and wild-looking countryside, with small streams here and there. Across the valley I could see the stone terraces carved into the steep hillsides where villagers planted their gardens.

persimmons on a tree

When at last we got to Niha and boarded the bus, I was ready to sit down! It had been a wonderful day out in the countryside, where the nip in the air and the turning leaves reminded me that it is indeed Thanksgiving time. When we disembarked the bus in downtown Beirut, the sea-level air felt warmer and more humid than I remembered, the stars were dimmed with city pollution, and the ubiquitous car horns sounded louder than ever. But just thinking about those mountains, the fruit trees, and the wild lavender made the natural world seem closer than before. I can't wait to get out there again!