The hostess gave up her room for us, but her dog didn’t. Billie kept opening the door and coming in. I, being the softy that I am, let her get up on the bed with me. She slept with me until about 11:30 when her master went to bed and came back in a little before 6 when she started cooking breakfast for everyone. Please, no one tell Ilana–this is her 11 & 1/2 year birthday today.
We heard a lot of movement in the common area but it was only a few minutes after 7. We never got a confirmation of what time breakfast was or what time we had to be out, but we figured things were much more lax here than on the Camino. Wrong, breakfast was at 7:15 and we were later. Everyone has to be out by 8:15, no exceptions. We drank our coffee and juice along with 2 slices of bread with butter and jam–how anyone thinks this is a good breakfast for hiking I’ll never understand. I need some protein and fat. I ate as much butter as I could get on the bread.
As we were leaving, Anne-Laure told us she was staying another day here and cutting her itinerary short. A friend was coming to meet her, so we said our first trail goodbye on the GR10. This will probably be common since most people only hike for a week or two and very few people through hike the entire trail.
Since we were in a ski village, we thought there might be a shop and restaurant around. We skipped buying any food from the refuge because we were hoping to score some fresh fruit, cheese, olives, peanut butter, tortillas, and such. They would have made us sandwiches had we asked, but I am so tired of smoked ham that I passed up the opportunity. When we explored the village, we had to kick ourselves–no shop (even though the guidebook says there is) and only a bar selling coffee, desserts, and ham sandwiches. We got two dry sandwiches to go to get us through the day and to Lescun. We had cafe-au-laits while she made the sandwiches.
It was beautiful and sunny around and above us, but we could see the clouds climbing up the mountain range below us. A quick glance at the guidebook told us we had a small climb (300m or 900′) this morning to cross over the ridge and then a steady decline all the way to Lescun (I keep saying Lescun because it’s one of the shortest and most pronounceable names to me). The trail builders have not been reading the guidebooks.
The rock formations around and above the ski area were very interesting. There were a lot of sinkholes along the trail indicating collapsed caves below. At one point, we were walking crevasses in the rock. Pam, you need to show Greg the pictures and get a run down on how this area was formed. There have been several times we needed Greg to explain the geology of the area (at least I wanted him–I know the Pams kind of glaze over about half way through the explanations but an engineer appreciates a scientist’s explanation).
Andre passed us and confirmed we just had a short climb. He then hiked on ahead. We decided to take a break and eat one of the dry sandwiches (my bread and jam didn’t last long with the climbing). Since we were stopped, we spread out the tent to dry in the wind and sun (while it lasted). Our unknown French friend passed us up and wished us “Bon appetite.” When we got packed up, we passed him having his lunch and wished him “Bon appetite” as well.
It may have been wishful thinking (actually it was, no may about it) but we were convinced we had made the climb and were heading downhill. This is when we lost the trail. Our friend had joined us by this point and couldn’t find the trail either. All three of us were convinced the trail was below us and kept looking in that direction. Pam turned around and saw a cairn way above us. I started heading that way as well as our friend. Sure enough, it was the trail and it was heading up.
He took off while I waited for Pam to climb back up to the trail (an interesting side note–Pam was in the lead when we lost the trail; no accusations, just saying). The trail kept getting steeper and steeper. We rounded one rock outcrop and there was a cable hanging down for us to grab on to. Unfortunately, we did need the cable to make it up. When we got to the top, we realized we were almost at 6000′. The trail ahead wasn’t much better than what we had just climbed up.
Now there were a lot of hikers on the other side of the pass (once we dropped down 100m). Bastille Day was just yesterday so this was a holiday weekend and there were lots of people out. We kept thinking we had to be dropping down into Lescun but the trail was climbing again. Sure enough, we went over another pass almost as high as the last one. I’m going to have to start looking at the guidebook a little more carefully.
After the second pass, the trail dropped–fast! We got down to a kind of floor of the valley and decided to take a break and soak our feet (no day is complete until we soak the feet–the poet in me). There was a stone house with people living in it all the way up here. They had horses, chickens, and pigs running around. The sow had piglets and didn’t care much for Pam taking their picture.
We were still up in the mountains. Lescun sits in the valley around 2800′ and we were still above 5500′. We could see trees in the distance below us, so we started heading that way so we could have our second lunch break. We passed a group camp site that looked like a bunch of kids from some sort of summer camp. They had mules in camp which they had used to bring all the gear up.
As soon as we got in the trees, the path became wonderful. I love forest walking. We stopped for our lunch break (and hopefully a pee break as well, but there were lots of people wandering about–quickness is key). The walk in the woods was very pleasant. We dropped about 700′ in the course 2 miles. Pam said she saw a parking lot ahead–I was skeptical myself. Hallucinations are the first indication that she is ready to stop for the day–second, the complaining starts.
We came around a bend only to find a drop of 300′ into a side valley and we saw a huge vertical face of “Pic d’Anie” but no parking lot. This mountain dominates the valley where Lescun is. I’m not even sure you can call it a valley as we are completely surrounded (360 degrees) by mountains down in Lescun.
We still had another 1500′ to descend into town. Surprisingly, we came across a refuge high above town so we stopped for a cold drink and a short break. I contemplated spending the night here until a bus load of kids showed up and started running around the place. Pam was right, there was a parking lot. She has great vision! She can see 2 miles ahead through the woods and around rock outcrops and spot a parking lot.
The rest of the walk down was kind of muddy and this is where the second indication that Pam is getting tired starts. I tried to keep just far enough ahead to avoid hearing the complaints but close enough to hear if anything happens to her–I walk a tight rope when hiking. We finally were close enough to hear church bells in town and it was already 6.
When we got into town, we headed straight for the shop, but it was closed this weekend for a wedding in the family. Lescun is a charming village and this is the type of setting I could picture myself in as I’m dying of old age–mountains all around, stone cottages, and just beauty in every direction. However, I’m not dying yet.
We ran into Nils, Alici, Jocelyn, and (I’m sorry I forgot her name–she was actually very sweet to us and earned a beer for carrying all the gear the other day). We found out this was their last day of hiking. Like us, they had come all the way from Hendaye. Unlike us, they have to return to reality. We had our second goodbye for the day.
Sitting with them in the central plaza of the village of Lescun (Lescun, Lescun, Lescun) was a young Englishman. James had just adopted a dog, Kunta Kinte from a shelter in Spain. Now they are hiking across the Pyrenees together to raise money for the shelter that saved Kunta Kinte’s life (“Kinte’s walk to freedom” on Facebook–check it out and donate to a good cause). They have already raised enough money to feed the shelter for 6 months.
After we had a couple of beers trying to figure out what we were going to do with the shop closed and tomorrow being Sunday, so the shops in the next town will be closed. We’re getting low on cash and no ATMs for another 5 days of hiking. We don’t have enough food to make the next day in the itinerary. (At this point, we’re really starting to miss George–by now he’d be wanting to die if he had done this trail and he would supply enough meat to last for at least a week.). We decided to just take a zero day tomorrow to shower, rest, and do laundry. We’ll pick up groceries on the way out of town Monday morning.
The campground is about 1/2 mile out of town. As we started heading out, we ran into another English couple, Abbey and David, who had just gotten into town (Lescun) and are headed up to do the Haute Route (the trail that Emma and Ali abandoned to do the GR10 and now James told us they are switching to the GR11 to save money–Spain is a lot cheaper than France; in fact, James is switching to the GR11 as well). When we got to the campground, we said our goodbyes.
As we were setting up camp, Andre came by and we talked for quite a while. Somehow, we got on the subject of trails to do. Andre has actually hiked “88 Temples” in Japan. He described it to us and now we’ve added another trail to the list. We had decided against it when people recommended it to us while we were hiking the Camino, mainly, because no one had actually done the pilgrimage. Andre has and he says it was the best thing he has ever done.
2023 is starting to fill up!