2020-06-18 Ehden Loop

A perfect day to do Ehden.
The weather was a highland spring weather with clear skies with dispersed clouds and temperature in the uppper teens to lower twenties. The spring season turned an already green area greener.
The hike started from the gate of the Ehden Cedar Reserve where we climbed a moderate slope hill into the Blue Cliff (Al Sheer El azraq which is made of greyish-bkueish stones) the trail was in the middle of a a pine, oak, cedar, and Cupressus tree to name a few. Ehden was vertically below us with its red-roof houses. The Blue Cliff lead us to the Nabhay hill where the forest of the famous is located. Forest of the famous is a newly established Cedar forest sponsored by local, regional, and global musicians; it is part of the efforts of Ehden to repopulate its mountains with cedar trees.
From Nabhay we took a steeper uphill climb leading us to the Ehden Highlands (Al Jurd in Arabic). It is a barren rocky hills that has its own beauty and mystique; it compliments the forests around. After a short lunch break in the highlands we continued on a rocky trail and entered the Ehden Cedar Forest reserve where we enjoyed a wonderful walk among cedar trees ranging from few years to thousand of years old with each tree has its own story to tell. In the process we encountered a few fallen trees due to the high wind storm Lebanon encountered a early 2020.
The hike was beautiful and recommended for advanced hikers.
I an ranking this hike as difficult bcause of the highland section of this hike.