2018-11-04 St Veronica Hike: Ras El Metn - Brummana

The St. Veronica Hike took us from Ras El-Metn to Brummana via the village of Qosaybi. The trail started from the Ras El Metn square next to great literary Anees Freiha landmark. We made a stop at the Friends School and the Ras El Metn Grand Serail (see description of both below). At 1000 meter elevation, we made our way down slope to wards the Qosaybi village (passing by the Pine forest of Ras El Metn where villagers were picking the pine nuts crop) home to St. George church and St. Veronica convent all the way to the Jaamani river (a.k.a. Beirut river). We crossed a roman bridge onto the other side. The hike then started an uphill winding climb of around 1.4 km followed by a 3 km flat trail to finish the hike next to Pierre Ashkar villa in Brummana.
Part of the trail was on pavement. the way down was easy and straight forward until the hike exited the pine forest where we had to use machetes, pruners, and sickles to make our path to the river.

The weather was a typical fall weather with temperatures in the mid to upper teens and cloudy damp with the sun making an appearance every now and then and no rain.

The landscape and views were typical of Lebanese landscapes populated by evergreen trees including: pine, oak, Ottoman oak, and olive trees to name a few.

The hike is easy to moderate and I recommend it around October-November.

The Ras El Metn Grand Serail (and the Friends school) was built by the Lamaa dynasty (a.k.a. Fares Abi Lamaa serail a prince from Lebanon) on a hill overlooking the town of Ras El Metn. The serail was sold in 1910 to orientalist Daniel Oliver (a Quaker) who converted it to a school naming it the Friends school. During WWII, Daniel converted it to an orphanage housing orphans, lost, and left behind children. The 1956 earthquake damaged the buildings rendering them unsafe which forced the school to shut down. The school was then bought by Najeeb Salha, a former student.