Day 12 – La-Pierre-St-Martin to Lescun

September 9, 2019 – Departed 8:45 – Arrived 15:45

La-Pierre-St-Martin marks the Eastern limit of Pays Basque. Today I crossed into Haut-Béarn, and tonight I am staying in Lescun (895 m), a picturesque village that is surrounded on all sides by big mountains and cliffs. The architecture looks different too, with big stone houses and slate roofs. The Gîte du Pic d’Anie in the middle of the village is where I will spend the night, and cook my own meal too.

Compared to previous days the landscape has changed too. Leaving La-Pierre-St-Martin I was immediately surrounded by dry rocks and big cliffs. The GR10 goes through it all, cairns occasionally supplementing blazes. An hour into the hike I missed a turn, tried to retrace my steps but all stones looked alike and I somehow ended up walking on top of what looked like vertical slabs of stone with edges as sharp as razor blades, with deep crevices between the slabs. It was a bit stressful. It took me a good 40 minutes to extract myself from this mess and find the path again. The only benefit was that I came across a patch of wild blueberries that was so far from the beaten path that no one had touched it. These were my first and so far only wild blueberries of this trip. Later in the afternoon I also came across wonderfully ripe blackberries that I really enjoyed.

This little adventure reminded me how easy it is to get hurt on the trail. In fact I have met quite a few people in the past few days that have had some health concerns, going from a broken nose – the result of a fall – to knee and ankle issues. A young woman the other day was hoping to hitch hike down the mountain because her damaged knee made walking down too painful. I try to be always super careful but a misstep can happen very easily.

Down from La-Pierre-St-Martin to Pas de l’Osque (1922 m) and then Pas d’Azun (1873 m) were more massive barren mountains and equally massive scree slopes. The path was all small, sharp rocks. Only as the path wound its way down the valley did the vegetation reappear – trees, and down here lots of meadows. The path was still small rocks but mixed with soil and actually quite easy. Overall this was a good day, the hike was not too difficult, and I arrived early enough to spend some time walking through the streets of the village and admiring its houses and lavoir, and then restocking and shopping for dinner at the local épicerie.