Stage One

Today was hard. End of post. Just kidding, but really today was really REALLY hard. We left our hotel in St. Jean Pied du Port this morning a few minutes after 6 and made our way towards the starting position, if you will, and were on our way by 6:30. From the get go we were climbing, starting off in town making our way into the mountains. I will admit to having a bit of a temper when we started but just before we left the town there was a house with a gorgeous garden with an assortment of flowers, most notably, columbines. Seeing those before the walk really got heavy gave me a sense of reassurance and happiness as it reminded my of home. For most of the fist stage it's uphill. Now I had heard this many times and seen the profile and thought, “I've done 14ers before and hiked other hilly trails, I've got this!” No. Just no. I honestly don't know how there was so much up in one region. We started and it was very steep, and that's putting it mildly. It's not just steep but it's constant. Steep and constant. After a while the steepness reduces but it's still up, and up, and up, and up and up. When you think there on no way there is any more up, there is. And that's just the terrain. While doing all of this the French/ Spanish bipolar weather makes Colorado look as constant and predictable as knowing your new puppy will at some point be a dog. Rain, wind, sun, luckily no snow but it was a close one. Name it, we got it. Layer on, layer off, layer on, add another layer, take both off. It went on and on. Just past the half way point there was a van with assorted foods and drink. It wasn't until I got there and started to put something more than the croissant that I had for breakfast into my stomach that I realized how fatigued I had gotten. In addition to prices for various items the vendor also had a map and a little hope that said, “1km up, 5km flat, 5km down.” These few words became my mantra for the next 11km. By the time we had gotten up to the top we were well above the fog that had engulfed when we were about an ⅛ th of the way up, and the tops of the mountains peaked their little heads out to continually gave a moment of appreciation every time you stopped and looked around.  After that, there were still some hills, but nothing like what we had already done. As part of our initial descent there was a long path with trees canopying the way. It was like you had stepped onto a movie set or something. At that point though I was beginning to stretch me “up” muscles and they didn't seem to like it that much, or rather I didn't like the feel so much. At about 2 miles until town is when I finally gave in and pulled out my pole knowing full well, through information gathered from previous pilgrims, that there was a rather hairy steep descent into town. And they weren't lying. At first it seemed really bad and my knees were not fans but after a while most of the pain that I had before had disappeared.

Now we are at the Albergue in Roncevaux, Spain. All cleaned and resting, waiting for dinner and mass, and most importantly, sleep. 

Picture Descriptions (top to bottom):
1) Near the top of the Pyrenees 
2) In the canopy coming down
3) There were two trail options to get to Roncevaux. We took the harder, more scenic path and followed these markers in addition to the scallop markers.