The Lebanon Mountain Trail is a reality today thanks to the vision, efforts, and support of many people and organizations. While there is not enough space to thank them all here, it is fitting to acknowledge those who pioneered the establishment of Lebanon’s first national long-distance hiking trail.
Indeed, it takes vision, determination, and a shared sense of purpose to dream up the idea of a trail connecting Lebanon’s high-mountain villages, develop a workable concept and a convincing proposal for such a trail, obtain grant funding for implementation, and establish the trail in a record two-year span (2006-2008). The LMT Association is thankful to ECODIT, a US company with a sister company in Lebanon, for spearheading efforts to establish the Lebanon Mountain Trail, including its side trail the Baskinta Literary Trail, and the LMT Association. We asked Joseph Karam, President of ECODIT, to recount the genesis of the LMT, for the record. Here’s what he wrote:
“The gradual rise of ecotourism as a post-conflict recreational industry in Lebanon has intrigued me and my colleague Karim El-Jisr. Beginning in 2001, we began thinking of ways to help develop local ecotourism products in Lebanon, focusing on the Batroun region. I have also been awed by the Appalachian Trail (AT) ever since moving to the United States in the mid-eighties: a 2,175-mile hiking trail from Georgia to Maine, a six-month journey that several hundred thru-hikers completed each year. Wow, I thought!
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