This is the big day! It’s the true start of our ten-day trek
through the High Pyrenees for me and my brother . The day is going to be a long
one with an 18 km (about 11 miles) walk and a 1,200 vertical meter (almost
4,000 feet) climb ahead of us. The morning dawned cloudy and misty as we left
Lescun at 900 meters (3,000 feet) and began our walk upwards and south along
country roads past small farmsteads followed by a dirt road into the forest.
Then it was a steep muddy track through the mist to the border of Parc Pyrenees
National, the French national park which straddles the border in the high
Pyrenees which we will be walking through for much of our trek.

Then I suddenly felt the sun through the mist and the skies
rapidly opened up to a knock-your-socks-off view of an open grassland bowl with
cows grazing around us surrounded by sharp granite peaks. The climb to the
pass, Col de Pau, at around 2,000 meters was thoroughly grueling on what turned
out to be quite a warm day once the sun came out. From there it was a very long walk along the
ridge that makes up the border between Spain and France for several hours as
the sky took on an ominous (or “omnicious”, as Sarah Palin might say) look. There were occasional rumbles of thunder and
a few sprinkles of rain as we ascended and descended and skirted past Pic
Brieque and Pic Rouge.

The sky turned completely black and the lightning got really
frightening when we were around an estimated half hour from our planned destination
for the night at Refuge de Arlet. Fortunately, we were able to take refuge in
an unlocked shepherds’ cabin just as the heavens opened up with pouring rain
and dime-size hailstones that eventually covered the ground.

We decided to wait out the storm in the cabin, one equipped
with a table and upstairs loft with several mattresses. We ate some of the food
we were carrying with us and decided to stay the night in our own private
little cabin which we figured out from our maps was called Cabane de Lapassa.
Free squatting and totally legitimate for public use as long as you leave the
place in state you found it and carry out all of your garbage with you.