from Oloron to Somport

[Donald Schell]

Dear Leslie,

Last May my wife and I walked from Urdos (a little further on in the hills
than Oloron, and a bus trip from the Oloron Ste. Marie train stop which is
the end of the train line) and over Somport Pass.  We loved the walk.  It
was very, very beautiful.  We saw no other pilgrims.  From Urdos we walked
along the highway for a couple of kilometers until we saw the Camino (Chemin
de Saint Jacques) signed off to the left and we found ourselves on a clearly
marked good path.  It was early in the season and there had been a storm so
we did pass a tree or two that was partly blocking the path.  When we came
out to the highway again a good distance further on, there was construction
that obscured the way forward and we had to look around to find where the
path continued.  In early May there was about six to eight inches of snow on
the ground for the last couple of of kilometers.  As you approach the pass
the peaks of the Pyrenees are quite jagged and spectacular, but the path is
not too difficult and didn't feel dangerous or percipitous to us.  - - -By
comparison, we walked
Hermit Trail and Kaibab Trail, two of the paths at Grand Canyon this May
that were a degree of difficulty beyond Bright Angel Trail, and found them
beautiful, but occasionally breath-taking in the immediacy of their view of
the canyon below.- - -  Back to the Camino: the walk down to Canfranc was
also very beautiful, as was the next day from Canfranc walking down the
river gorge.  It reminded me of Yosemite sometimes, and parts of the Rockies
other times.

This Saturday my son and I will begin at Urdos again.  In 1998 I walked the
St. Jean route (Valcarlos not the Napoleanic one) with my daughter Maria as
we described in our book, My Father, My Daughter, Pilgrims on the Road to
Santiago.  Walking Somport last May was simply wanting to try something new.
This time it's because it's the way I like to go.

If you go this route, be sure to visit the museum of frescoes in the
Cathedral in Jaca.  They're quite wonderful to see, and in succeeding days
you'll walk past the now abandoned ermitas (country chapels) where most of
the frescoes came from, so it comes to feel very much like part of the
pilgrimage to have seen the frescoes.

love,
donald

(Donald Schell)
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