Track 120: Jbâa El Choûf Reserve - Dareb El Hajal (Niha) - LMT Section 22 - LMT Section 21

I left Beirut at 6h15 am and it took me 1h30 to get there. The last km you will be driving on rough dirt road. Better to have a 4x4. You can keep your car on the main road and walk that dirt road, it is part of the LMT too but you will be adding 2 km on your hike and to be honest I didn't need those extra kms :)
So I left the car at the entrance of Jbaa Shouf Reserve near the water source (Ain El Cha2chou2a) and took the trail Dareb El Hajal going uphill (better to always keep a paper with your name and phone number when you are going away the whole day).
In 3km you will gain around 500 m in altitude. Not an easy ascent but it was early, cool air, well maintained trail , beautiful big oak trees and amazing view over the towns below (Niha, Barouk ...).
Once at the top, you will have an awesome panoramic scenery over the Beqaa valley, Mount Hermon and Litany river. I was wondering from one top of a hill to another and enjoying the area. It was a bit windy with fresh air but I guess in early spring and late autumn you will have to be prepared for cold and strong wind.
After that, I joined a dirt road separating the Beqaa Governorate from the Mount Lebanon Governorate. At this point I started to see the LMT signs and I was following Section 22 (Aitanit - Jezzine).
After 9.7 km from starting point, stay on the LMT, leave the dirt road and take your right downhill.
At 12.5 km you can leave the LMT and start closing the loop. After around 1.5 km you will reach LMT Section 21 (Jezzine - Niha). The length of the trail would be around 20 km.
But I decided to stay on Section 22, passing by some small pine forests, a small stream and lovely rock formations. This part of the hike is downhill and very pleasant.
At 16.5 km you will have to leave the LMT for a while and take your right (if you stay on the LMT you will reach Jezzine after)
The trail takes you uphill again and soon after you will see the LMT signs but this time it is Section 21 (Jezzine Niha).
I enjoyed this part a lot till I reached Niha Fortress. From there the trail takes you uphill again passing by agricultural roads till you reach a big artificial pond on your right and you go downhill towards Al Nabi Ayoub Shrine.
I still have around 5 km and it was getting dark.
You can stay on the LMT to Niha and close the loop but I followed another trail to my starting point. The descent was a bit difficult and the ascent a bit more but I managed to walk it relatively fast till I reached a fenced land. Luckily the door was open but I had to jump the fence from the other side.
From there I reached the LMT and followed it till the car.
I guess being with some other hikers will be more easier but anyway I would say this was a difficult and demanding hike. Be well prepared with hiking sticks (personally I didn't use them), good hiking shoes and clothes and lot of water (I had 4 liters and drunk them all).
The trail is easy to follow, at some point you have to look well for the LMT signs but in general once you see one you will have the second one right after 10 to 20 m.

I love every part of this hike but I would recommend you not to do it alone. I had Rio with me and I am very proud of him. We did the whole trail side by side.

Enjoy and keep it clean !!!

PS: Respect Nature and stay on the trail. Cheers