The first webinar in AFLMT’s series asked a simple question: why should anyone care about the Lebanon Mountain Trail? Moderated by Karim El-Jisr, the session brought together four people who have walked the trail end to end: a hiker convinced that every Lebanese should do it at least once, a world trekker who hadn’t heard of the LMT until the year before her thru-hike, a former president of the LMT Association, and a Lebanese American who went on to write his PhD thesis on the trail.
Webinar 1 of 2 in AFLMT’s series on the Lebanon Mountain Trail
The LMT, Why You Should Care: Four thru-hikers on the trail that changed their lives
Four people who walked the Lebanon Mountain Trail end to end talked about its landscapes, its food, and the welcome they found in every village, and about what the trail taught them about Lebanon and themselves.
- Held
- June 29, 2022
- Moderator
- Karim El-Jisr
- Panelists
- Monique Bassila Zaarour, Tala Farran, Nadine Weber Constantine, Kevin Boueiri
On June 29, 2022, the American Friends of the LMT launched a three-part webinar series on the Lebanon Mountain Trail. The first session brought together four thru-hikers, each with a different connection to Lebanon, to talk about the trail’s diversity, its people, its views, and its food, and about how walking it changed their lives.
Each panelist’s story is available as a short video below, and more stories from the trail are on AFLMT’s Facebook page.
“Every Lebanese should do the LMT at least once”
Monique and her family live in Canada and love nature and hiking. For Monique Bassila Zaarour, the trail offers something found nowhere else.
What you see there, what you experience in these mountains, is unique to Lebanon, and the views and scenery are stunning and diverse,” she added. Her group hiked from south to north, and she’s convinced that walking it the trail the other way would have felt like being in a different country entirely.“The first thing I said to my children when I came back home: mom, this is something that you absolutely must do!”
Monica Bassil Zaarour, LMT thru-hiker
A welcome like no other
Tala Farran left Lebanon years ago and has trekked all over the world. She hadn’t even heard of the LMT until the year before she walked it.
“This 30-day thru-hike on the LMT really, honestly changed my life.”
Tala Farran, 2022 LMT thru-hiker
What stayed with her most was the welcome. She had never experienced hospitality like it. She remembers asking a fellow hiker from Portugal what he thought of the trail, and his answer was that he could stay forever. At the end of every exhausting day, she said, the hikers could hardly wait to shower and find out what was for dinner.
From skepticism to competition
Nadine Weber Constantine spoke both as a thru-hiker and as a former president of the LMT Association. When the trail was first proposed, she explained, some local communities resisted it because they were afraid of losing their land if the trail was protected.
“Some municipalities are now competing and asking the LMTA to connect their village to the trail.”
Nadine Weber Constantine, former LMTA president
Villages have seen what the trail brings: guesthouses, work for local guides, and visitors who spend money in the community.
Finding where you belong
Kevin Boueiri, a Lebanese American, spent his childhood between Broummana and Beirut but never fully felt he belonged. His Arabic wasn’t fluent, and classmates didn’t always see him as Lebanese. The trail, he said, helped him answer a basic human question: who am I, and where do I belong?
Part of the answer was family history. His great-grandfather emigrated from Zahle to the United States in the late 1800s, and when asked how far his town was from Beirut, he would say it was a two-day walk. On the trail, Kevin finally understood what he meant.
Kevin went on to write his PhD thesis on the LMT, Trail of Dreams: Journeys of Belonging on the Lebanon Mountain Trail. He was drawn to it as one of the few places in Lebanon where Muslims, Christians, and Druze welcome one another into their homes.
“A Lebanon where one belongs, a Lebanon blessed by diversity and not sectarianism, a Lebanon where people value the environment.”
Kevin Boueiri, 2018 LMT thru-hiker