Google Camino View

We're famous! At least, as much as being on Google Street View makes you famous. As luck would have it, as we were walking on the Camino last year, the Google Street View car cruised by us a couple of times. I knew what it was right away since I had seen pictures of it online before. So we made sure to get on the pictures and note the exact location that we saw it. We have been checking that spot from time to time on Google Maps and had just about given up hope that they were going to use those pictures. But then a couple of weeks ago they actually updated the imagery. It's pretty awesome that the only place we're on Street View is on some random rural road and hanging out with some cafe con leche at a local bar in Spain.


View Larger Map


View Larger Map

The Camino One Year Later

Crossing the Bridge at the bottom of Rue de la Citadele

One year ago today we started walking out of St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port, naive pilgrims without an idea of what was ahead of us. That seems like a lifetime ago. On the occasion of most anniversaries, I reflect on how quickly time has passed by. It seems only yesterday that we did this or that. It was only a year or so ago that we graduated, met friends, lost touch, moved in, moved out, traveled to this place or that; all things that happened years or decades ago.

This year has been different, though. I sometimes try to reflect on all that we did this year, only to have the details lost in the fog of time and memory. It takes looking back at pictures to remember all of the people we met, places we saw, and all the things we did. The pictures bring back only good memories, where it takes reading our old blog post to remember the physical and mental pain we suffered on the Camino. This is what makes the most everlasting memories though: remembering how much we needed the other people around us to keep on.

It seems years have passed by since we walked the Camino. It's hard to imagine that after we walked the Way, we also traveled all over the US, Carribean, and Central America. Our time after the Camino affected me nearly as much as the time on the Camino. We hiked the most amazing, awe-inspiring, and breathtaking trails in the National Parks, and rekindled a love of camping and the American outdoors. The National Parks we visited instilled in me an awe of nature and a pride in America that I haven't felt in years. We snorkeled among beautiful underwater gardens of coral that I didn't imagine possible. The time out living at Kahola gave me a new outlook on conservation and being less wasteful with water and energy. Living in Colorado, and seeing no other soul besides Lauren for weeks at a time gave me a much deeper understanding of our marriage and made me love her that much more.

On reflecting on the past year, I think that I can come up with three things that I've learned: we all need each other for happiness and survival, the Earth is a more beautiful and amazing place than words are capable of describing yet all too easy to defile, and we don't need extraneous material goods in our lives to be happy. What follows from this is that we should spend more time with our friends and families, spend more time outdoors, be more conservation minded, and live simpler with less things. Material goods only serve to bind you to an unhappy life of keeping up with the Jones's; working long hours to afford things that won't make you happy and serve only to fill up our landfills. Whereas, camping, hiking, and generally being in nature will make you happier, lead to lower stress, and give you a sense of how important it is to protect our natural environment. What's even better, is to enjoy these things with friends and family alongside.

A happy Camino family just after receiving our Compostela's at the end of the journey in Santiago, Spain.

Marmot

I wouldn't really call myself a particularly brand-loyal person. For the most part, the whole concept of branding seems rather dubious to me. Paying extra money for a name brand product usually just means you're paying a premium so that you can see the company's advertisements everywhere. However, there are a few brands that I can actually trust to be something better than the generic, and I just have to give a little credit right now to Marmot.

I bring this up because a few nights ago we went to the Gear and Beer event at Backwoods in Overland Park, where Marmot reps fed us free Boulevard beer and food. Now, you may think that anyone who gives me free beer gets my seal of approval. While this is mostly correct, I also have other reasons to think Marmot is the best gear outfitter on the planet. I got my first gore-tex shell jacket for backpacking in 2001, a bright orange Marmot jacket, with a zip-in fleece liner. I wore this jacket for ten years, without getting a single tear, or having the zipper, buttons, or anything else replaced. It was also pretty much the warmest jacket I ever had until I got a Marmot down jacket last year. (Honestly, the Zeus jacket is so damned warm, I can't hardly ever find a time to wear it where I don't overheat. Also doubles as a great camping pillow.)

Since then, I've got Marmot rain pants, a packable rain jacket, fleece, and gloves. Everything I have ever owned from Marmot has been awesome, and after years of use is still in great condition. And now, I can add the Marmot Kompressor Pack to my list (bright orange no less), as I won it at the Gear and Beer party by running up to the front to answer the trivia question of what a Marmot is. (Hint: it's a woodchuck that lives in the mountains. Or was that a groundhog? Apparently, they're really just giant squirrels. Where's Punxsutawney Phil when we need him?)

Now, I know what you're thinking: this guy must be rich! To be fair, Marmot is super expensive, and I don't think that I've paid full price for any of the stuff. It's pretty much all closeouts from the previous year, mostly off of Sierra Trading Post. Hopefully, some day I can do the company more of a service than spreading the word by actually buying some of their things at full retail price.

Aber and Out West: Sequoia National Park

Rain. Sleet. Snow. Hail. Rinse and repeat...

The temperature began to drop as we ascended the "long and winding road" to the Giant Forrest in Sequoia National Park. We entered Giant Forrest and were in freak out mode with every glance out the car window.  The trees were simply enormous! It felt like we had entered some magical elven forest straight out of lord of the rings. It took us over an our to make the climb to our campsite that was simply breathtaking. The huge treas and boulder lined sites really made one feel like you were right on the edge of the rugged and wild.

Ahh! Bear! Run!

The cold crisp air was a welcome change. It began to mist as we finished setting up camp and headed to the trail head for our first trek into the forest. We started with a hike to see the General Sherman Tree, the largest living single stem tree on earth by volume, and maybe the largest living thing period. From there we continued to hike through the forest passing numerous famous trees including the Lincoln, Washington, Senate Group, McKinley, and Arch. Several of the hollowed out trunks that we crawled inside were bigger than our two person tent. The scenery and atmosphere of the forest was beautiful and well worth hike the last half of the trail in pouring rain. We also encountered a bear moseying along between the trails who took no interest in the handful of hikers surrounding him.

Back at camp we battened down the hatches and prepared for rain as the sky remained gray and the cold kept getting colder. We managed to cook some macaroni on the camp stove while huddled under our umbrella. I slipped on all the cold weather gear I had and took cover in the tent and Jay took advantage of a short break in the weather to set up a tarp shelter over our kitchen. We shivered in our tent all afternoon with a few trips to the car to blast the heater for a warm up. Our camp was visited by four dear on their evening stroll.



Just as dinner rolled around the hail started pounding, so much so that Jay was deafened to my instructional shouts as he tried to cook dinner under the tarp shelter. He braved the freezing downpour and we had our dinner in bed of garlic and butter couscous. After nearly 48 hours of freezing cold precipitation I wasn't feeling like the tough, outdoorsy, seasoned camping girl that I usually play the role of. I was done. And when we woke up to heavy snowfall we decided to forgo our third night scheduled at Sequoia and head west for the beach and dryer weather. We shoved all of our wet gear in trash bags and made a run for it.

 

Dinosaur bones.

Aber and Out West: Mojave National Preserve

Enjoying our tiny spot in the shade.

On our way to Mojave we encountered our fist In-N-Out Burger and couldn't resist the temptation to try that iconic patty so we shared a meal and can say that it lived up to its reputation.  We headed down the road entering Mojave and began to wonder if we had made a wrong turn.  The road was shotty and we seemed to be headed nowhere fast.  It appeared that we had actually found the middle of nowhere.  To our relief a tiny visitor's center appeared on the horizon and we found our campsite appropriately named "Hole in the Wall".  This dry, hot, and desolate place was quite a contrast from our previous stops. 

The lizards were plentiful around camp and on all of the trails.  We hiked the 6.25 mile Barber Peak Loop Trail that included a slot canyon that had to be climbed with the aide of metal rings embedded in the rock.  We passed a white and yellow snake on the trail that gave me a good scare when I nearly stepped on it though it didn't appear to be a dangerous variety.  A highlight of the hike was a cactus grove with several varieties in bloom with hot pink and white flowers.  The beauty of the cacti was soon forgotten when Jay accidentally swung is arm and whapped the side of a cactus towards the end of the hike.  Luckily we were able to get out all of the spines with tweezers and a little duck tape.

This park was sparsely populated and had very little infrastructure compared to the Grand Canyon.  It was nice to enjoy the peace and quiet from our campsite shared by ten other people at most.  The night sky was clear and made for great stargazing.  Did I mention it was really hot?  So hot and dry that it was difficult to boil water for noodles without it immediately evaporating.  After a baking night in the tent we were happy to get on the road and head for Sequoia.

 

The snake in the trail!

 

Jay in the slot canyon climbing up the rings.

Working my way up the rings.

Aber and Out West: Grand Canyon National Park

Elk! No way!

On our way to the Grand Canyon we stopped at the Four Corners monument to experience the thrill of standing in four states at one time. About fifteen minutes was enough and we were off to our next stop on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We were met on the entrance road to the park with a serious omen when a crow dropped a snake onto the road directly in front of us. Talk about eerie and foreboding. Our campsite was located in the largest Ponderosa Pine forest in the world and was it ever beautiful. This was one of the most spacious and scenic campsites of our trip. After setting up our station we set off on our bikes to explore the city that is part of the infrastructure on the south rim. We were able to bike to the historic lodge, general store, visitor's center to get our passport stamped, and get a general feel for the layout of the park. We biked within twenty feet of three elk as they munched alongside the trail on this first trip out. There were many foreigners, and with school still being in session, we were among few other native English speakers roaming the park.  We had some lovely German neighbors at our campsite providing an opportunity for Jay to brush up on his German language skills.

Grand Canyon! No way!

Pie! No way!

With three full days at the park we were able to pack a lot into our itinerary. We visited the geology museum, attended an evening ranger talk about the first river exploration of the canyon, toured the exhibits at the historic canyon photography shop, and hiked galore. Our first hike, Bright Angel Trail, was a 3 mile 1,100 foot elevation trek below the rim. It also happened to be Jay's birthday that day so with a little luck I was able to secretly smuggle a miniature pie and candles in my backpack. When we reached the turnaround point on the trail I made an excuse to use the restroom and managed to get the candles lit and a posse of park rangers and other visitors to help sing happy birthday to Jay. Apple pie was great fuel for our long hot ascent back up to the rim. We also hiked the Trail of Time along the rim at sunset and the South Kaibab trail to the 6 mile stop at Skeleton Point. All the trails were riddled with mule scat and we had to hug the canyon wall several times as the mule tours passed by. We were also able to bike 21 miles along Hermit Road stopping at many scenic overlooks.

Nice RV, bro. 

Our evenings at camp were in the twenties and we were happy to have brought firewood for warmth and weenie roasting. We had several run ins with the ravens that roamed our campsite. While we kept all of our food stored away during the day they decided it would be fun to peck about twenty holes in our five gallon flexible water jug. We arrived at camp one afternoon to find the water cooler spurting like a sprinkler in all directions  The ravens also managed to unzip a bag of paper goods while we were gone one day. We came home to find all of our paper plates, towels, baggies, foil, and napkins torn to shreds and strewn across ours and the three adjacent campsites. We spent the afternoon doing a thorough trash cleanup of the tiny shreds of debris. Perhaps the most shocking event at our camp as foretold by the crow and snake omen on the way in was a surprise fire at six in the morning. Jay and I were awakened by the sound of loud popping and eventually a roar when we finally looked out our tent window to find that the camper trailer next to our site was engulfed in thirty foot flames. Someone had called the fire department and rangers but sadly the thing was reduced to ash before they could get the fire out. Luckily no one was inside and the surrounding forest did not go up in flames. Still this made us both glad we were in a tent without the potentially shotty wiring of a camper to pose a threat.

Leaving the Grand Canyon we had many future plans for rim to rim hikes, mule rides and visits to the ranch at the bottom of the canyon.  So much to do and so little time...

Laundry Day?

Professionals. 

That's the 1000' tall cliff that we are standing on the edge of across the precipice.

Self explanatory. 

Yea, thats where we hiked to and back from. Bam. 

Aber and Out West

We're back to soft fluffy beds, hot showers, and four walls.  Our three week camping road trip of the west has come to an end and we are happily enjoying the comforts of civilization in Cuchara, Colorado.  This will be the first in a series of after the fact blog posts entitled "Aber and Out West" highlighting our road trip.  We planned the trip with the goal of visiting as many western national parks as possible.  We purchased an annual national parks membership card allowing us entry into any of the parks for the next year.  We even bought national parks passports that we stamped with each park's unique cancellation stamp that includes the date of the visit.  With time and budget limitations we left plenty of parks unexplored for future trips and are more inspired than ever to keep them high on our bucket list.  The master list of parks we visited on this trip is as follows: Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Mojave, Sequoia, Joshua Tree, Lake Mead, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Great Sand Dunes.

Top of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. 1500 feet up from our camp on the valley floor.  The best hike of the trip!

The trip was marked by extreme weather and terrain as well as many firsts for the both of us.  As neither of us had spent much time west of the Continental Divide we were awed by the new landscapes we experienced while driving to each destination.  We became experts at setting up and taking down our "station" as we like to call it and making and breaking camp became a smooth operation.  Our little Toyota Corolla was visibly burdened by the load of camping gear, three weeks worth of food, and our new bikes attached to the trunk but it performed flawlessly on this nearly 3,500 mile road trip.  The trip ended with us both feeling like we had tapped an incredible resource for fun and adventure for many years to come.  Plans are already in the works for a trip to the National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in our home state.  More posts in this series on the way!

Our "station" at Bryce Canyon National Park.

Westward Bound

We're heading back out on the road again tomorrow morning! We were supposed to leave today, but we got delayed by my bike order by a day. Apparently the shippers in Denver were not ready for a half foot of snow at the end of April for some reason, and the shipment got delayed by a day. In any case, we're all packed up now, with a new bike rack and two shiny new (well, new to us anyways) bikes ready to roll. You can see a map of our epic route below. If we're not back in Kansas by Memorial Day, call search and rescue.


View Larger Map

Doing Some Shoeing

Jay checking our status on the GPS.

 With a solid 8 inches of fresh snow we decided to get out and do some snow shoeing.  We circled around the side of the resort through the forest.  We encountered some beautiful snow formations tucked in to the woods including some awesome wind swept bowls.  They were so pristine looking it made me just want to jump in and waller around in each one of them making snow angels.  We managed to make it to the lower ski runs before turning back to head home through the falling snow.

Fresh snow for shoeing.

Eagle Soar

What a day. We went on a killer hike this morning--equal parts killer on the body and awesome. I wanted to scope out the route up to the South White Peak nearby us here, to make sure the stream crossings weren't bad and there weren't any fences guarded by high mountain cults. So we made the hike, which turned out to lead us through the most amazing high mountain meadow I may have seen. You have to walk for a long while along a steady downhill grade which is pretty boring, and shows you no scenery that you can't see from the road. But then near the bottom before you hit the creeks, you crest over a hill and the view opens up to this meadow nestled down between the Dakota Wall and White Peak. Couldn't have done it better in the Alps, if you ask me. If you come to visit us, we will be picnicking there (assuming there isn't 3 feet of snow on the ground). Yes, Kaitlin, this means you.

A very convenient log. 

It was a pretty brutal hike though, it took us 2 hours to hike 3.5 miles, I guess probably because we ascended about 1200' through the hike. I really think, though, that it mostly seemed hard because we had to walk uphill back to the car. Must remember, always park at the low spot... It will be a pretty epic hike once we tack on the extra 500' of elevation to hit the summit. Also as a side note, we saw a shitload (yes, I did intend the pun) of Elk scat. Probably at least 15 piles of it, some pretty fresh. Now just to find the damn things themselves...we have yet to see any wildlife up in our area of the mountains, just tracks and signs.

View Hike 2013-02-02 10:43 by kartoffeln on Breadcrumbs

So the hike was good and all, but then the day gets even better. We had to go down into town for some things--namely a cross-cut saw so I can manhandle some trees for our fireplace. Speaking of not seeing any wildlife in our area, they apparently have a monopoly on the wild things down in the valley. On our drive there and back and around La Veta, we saw no less than 33 mule dear and 1 bald eagle. Yea, thats right, a bald eagle just hanging out in a cottonwood tree. I don't think I've seen a bald eagle for like 15 years, and never one in this area. I had no idea they even lived in the mountains. Shows how much I know about our national symbol.

And to make things even better, Lauren is downstairs making me some spaghetti pie. (Never fear, I'm sure Lauren will elaborate on this later.) How can my day get any better?! Some beer and desserts? Yes!

I bet if that deer in the left front could talk, it would sound like Al Pacino. 

Time Warp

Its totally crazy that I feel like I was just writing about having 100 miles left. That seemed like so much when I wrote it too! Well now we're going to be in Santiago in 2 days. Its like we've been accelerating through time and space. We have actually been accelerating though space somewhat. In the last 3 days we covered 58 miles. Never thought I would be able to do that. I think the most we ever covered in 3 days earlier in the Camino was maybe 45 miles. If you would have told me that I would be walking this much before the Camino, I wouldn't have even believed you. I knew it was like 500 miles to walk, but really had no idea what that meant. Now, only 25 miles shy of our goal, we have a little better idea. 

Our last days have been fun and not fun. Let's start with the not fun part first. We had heard that it rains a lot in Galicia. Well we stepped about 500 ft over the boarder and it started to rain. It hasn't really stopped since then. Not hard rain, but a solid on and off drizzle. We also haven't been feeling great. Lauren got all dizzy and disoriented on the trail yesterday. I think it was from a combination of taking Valerian root to try to sleep better and wine. Anyway, she felt better after a few hours. I've also not been feeling great. I would imagine it has something to do with walking 20 miles a day and wine. Too much wine! 

Which brings us to the fun part! Wine! And friends to drink with. Our walks have been a laugh a minute walking with our Camino family. Camino Clown, Dean, never let's it rest. We've also been playing "I've got a business." Which generally goes something like: 

"I've got a business."
"What's you're business?"
"I sell vacuum cleaners."
"How's that going for you?"
"It sucks."

Ha! Its basically a bad pun game that Tom of London taught us. It does get rather hilarious sometimes, but maybe that's just the haze of endorphins talking. We need to assemble all of our best ones to see what our masses of readers think. Its really been a lot of fun walking and drinking and joking together though. And in 2 days, the party is on for real in Santiago!

Only 100 to Go... Really?

We are rocking this Camino. Officially today we have less than 100 miles to walk. This sounds like a lot, but we have already walked 380 miles to put it in perspective. We're rolling now with our new Camino family which makes things even better. We have our Camino parents, Dean and Tracy, and our Camino sister Kaitlin (all formerly of the Utah 4, but the fellowship was broken. Although it may be reunited tomorrow, stay tuned for the next 4 hour movie installment.) We also have the quirky Uncle Undies, aka Crocodile Undies, aka Andy from Australia. He had some underwear issues a few days back, as in losing his underwear in the washing and going commando for a few days. We also have long lost Aunt Sherry, a newly discovered addition to the family.

I think the last installment we were still on the Meseta which is now a distant memory. We actually crested the highest point on the Camino at 1515 meters, which rose directly out of the Meseta. We were near the top as the sun rose and we saw the deep red ball of the sun rise through the haze of 100 miles of the Meseta. We stood there and thought: as far as you can see across the plains, we walked that.

At the top of that peak was the famous Iron Cross where you drop your rock (which has become a 20 ft high pile of rocks) to in load your burden. We dropped our rocks and had our moment and were glad we missed all the tourist busses that descend on the place later in the day. Then it was down to the business of walking down off the mount and into the Bierzo region.

Ponferrada was an awesome town in which we treated ourselves to a real hotel room! Our first private room in 4 weeks! Private shower! And the Discovery Channel inexplicably in English. All the show titles and ads were in Spanish but How Its Made commentary was totally in English. Now I know all about horseradish, buttons, and screwdrivers. But really it was pretty amazing to take a shower and dry off with a towel that I didn't have to pack up right away. It was hard going back into an albergue the next night.

We also hit up the bars American style (i.e. before 11pm) to drink wine and beer and eat tapas. Its pretty awesome that when you order a drink here, they give you a free tapa. Its not like peanuts or something either. You get ham, mussels, croquettes, cheeses, little sandwiches, whatever you want really. Also, when you order food for dinner you get free wine with your food. I'm trying to work out how I can lure a Spaniard into a feedback loop of giving me both free drinks and food. Anyways we spent a great night with our Camino family dinking and eating, pub crawling Ponferrada.

That was 2 days ago. The last two days we've had some great walks through the Bierzo with endless vegetable fields and vineyards. Today we climbed up out of the Bierzo at the end of the day to finish our hike. 17 miles total and 2000 ft elevation to finish off the day. I think I should be much more tired than I am. But I was able to enjoy the end of the day without much pain, drinking wine on the main "street" of Laguna de Castilla. We watched 4 herds of cattle be led through town on this street by farmers. Then we had some tripe soup for dinner! Yum.

Tomorrow will be a real test though. We've planned a monster because we're going to try to get to Santiago a day early and spend 2 days there. So tomorrow is going to be a 23 mile day with some serious elevation change, up and down. Right now it seems daunting, but I'm sure once its done, it won't seem to be that amazing of a feat. This seems to be the theme of our Camino. Doubting our abilities, then surprising ourselves when we complete whatever we were fretting about. I think if I'm changed in any way by this Camino, it will be the confidence that I can do much more than I believe I can.

It Gets Easier Peregrino

Today was a good day. I am born again. We walked 13 miles and were in town by 12:30. My feet didn't hurt. My knees didn't hurt. My legs didn't hurt. It was like a stroll in the park. When we got to our albergue, I felt like a new man. Its amazing to think that it could be that easy. I remember just a few weeks ago when 13 miles was almost unthinkable. I know that tomorrow will be brutal once again (17 miles to come tomorrow), but I can still revel in the fact that 13 miles is like a rest day for us now. I just wish I could talk to those peregrinos about 10 days in and tell them what I know now: like most things in life, it gets so much easier. All you have to do is walk 275 miles.

We had a pilgrim party at a crazy artists bar tonight in Reliegos. I'm not being facetious either. The man is crazy. His bar is covered inside and out with his own and other peoples paintings and writing that he stays up all night painting. He kept bringing us food and beer and never asked for money. He sat with us for hours speaking like a possessed man. Of course, I understood none of his Spanish, but I have on good authority (Spanish speakers) that it was crazy talk. I'm not sure how much we had over about 5 hours, but we gave him the 20€ he asked of us at the end. Apparently, this guy is in the movie The Way as well. I believe he plays himself as the crazy bar owner.

It was pretty wonderful though. We just sat in the sun (a small miracle in itself, we haven't seen the sun in about a week), and drank beer and ate tapas with about 15 other pilgrims that straggled in through the day. Mirko, the German civil engineer, photographer, painter and harley rider was there with his wife. They were at the bar 2 years ago and wrote on the wall, "Der Camino macht uns alle reich." The Camino makes all of us rich. We also met Kaitlin again, whom we thought we had lost a few days ago. For the first time, we met St. Martin, as they call him, the German guy who has taken a vow of silence on the Camino. He will supposedly talk when we reach Leon tomorrow. Although he nearly talked when an American guy accused Germans of not knowing how to party. Maybe he's not a saint after all. I suppose we will find out tomorrow. Some other new faces and old faces as well. Its a pretty eclectic bunch, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Whoa! We're Halfway There...

Yeah! Living on a prayer! This has been my music in my head for the last two days. (Without other means of music, walking lends itself to having songs play on repeat in your head for days.) It is appropriate though considering we passed the halfway mark a couple days ago. Spirits are high in the Aber camp. Today was our longest day yet at nearly 17 miles, but it didn't seem much harder than an average day for us now. Our feet seem to be mutating into rawhide punishment machines and aren't hurting as much anymore. (I also do math in my head when I walk...go figure. Anyway, I figured up that we're going to take about 900,000 steps on the Camino)

We've lost some of our original walking mates now, but we're on to a new chapter. We've been walking with Jim and his grandson, Nick from Minnesota for a few days now, and the Utah 4: Dean, Tracy, Jane (actually Canadian), and Kaitlin (actually from Colorado). We've also got the Flying Dutchmen, Mike, Erik, and Op, all of whom walk neatly twice as fast as us. It seems we've lost track of Marius, Tom, Martina, and South African Hank and his groupies. So goes the Camino, many new beginnings and endings.

Tonight, we ate the communal dinner at our albergue. We took part in preparing the salad, and also had some awesome lentil stew with potatoes and chorizo. Also, wine. Always wine. It was so perfect because I was starving. Its amazing his much food you can eat when you spend all day walking. This is how I imagine the Camino in the middle ages, walking all day then coming in to eat hearty stew with 20 fellow travelers in the basement of your albergue. And also being serenaded by an elderly peregrino in Spanish just because.

We've been getting some pretty rad dinners in general lately. Last night was artichokes and ham for the first course, rabbit and meatballs for the second. The night before we managed to get ourselves whole trouts, heads and all, on our plates. (Although, sad to admit that we're seriously craving some Chinese food and McDonalds milkshakes with fries for dessert. We actually haven't seen a single McDonalds, Burger King, or KFC along the Camino. I find this pretty amazing.)

The best part about dinner is the company. We haven't eaten dinner alone for days or weeks now. Lots of people say that they're on the Camino to learn how to live with less. I've learned that you can live with less of everything except other people.

More Tests

I think this Camino is testing me. These last 2 days have been definitely harder than usual. We entered the Meseta to 30 mph sustained headwinds, cloudy drizzly weather and 40-50° F temperatures. Add to this that I started to get sick yesterday and have been spending significant time sitting on the toilet. 

That's not all that bad since immodium puts a quick stop to all that. The worst part is being sore all over. Walking 12 miles doesn't seem like much to us anymore, but after yesterdays hike, my legs ached so bad from my hips down to the tips of my toes that I nearly laid down on the side of the trail and cried. Its just a good thing that Lauren was there to keep me moving forward. Needless to say, I've been loading up on ibuprofen since then and am doing much better. This sickness also seems to be going around and I've heard reports that it usually only lasts a couple of days. 

All this got us to thinking about the movie The Way and all of the things it egregiously omits from the Camino experience. Most of these things weren't our experiences, but all were at least first hand accounts:

Blisters that cover your entire heel,
Constant foot/knee/leg pain,
Everyone getting and staying sick,
Shitting yourself on the trail from diarrhea,
Knees swelling to twice their size from tendonitis,
Bedbugs,
Cold showers that you have to walk across the street to,
And probably more that I'm forgetting.

Oh well, its still awesome after all this when you get to a great albergue like we're in right now with super hot showers and soft beds. That and all your Camino friends are in the same albergue with you to share the pain/shame/elation of the Camino.

Home on the Camino

Ahhh...how wonderful it is to sleep inside a UNESCO world heritage site, for the second night in a row even. I'm writing this laying in bed inside the San Juan de Ortega monastery, which was built in the 16th century. Last night we slept in a 16th century theater, which was built as part of a church of the same vintage in Belorado. The medieval town center of Belorado is a world heritage site.

We went to the pilgrims mass tonight in the monastery church, of which I understood nothing, but its OK, the Spanish do mass with German efficiency: full mass with communion in under 30 minutes. Also, we've met a Bulgarian opera singer on the trail now (who awesomely speaks with an Irish accent) who sang Ave Maria for the mass for everyone. She also sang for us last night outside the albergue as we all sat around like we were in some kind of feel good Hollywood film (except for the wine and rum and drunk Czech guy). We all sang songs from our countries; Lauren and I sang Home on the Range, of course. It was all rather surreal in its Camino-ishness.

I haven't mentioned much about walking here because its just kind of become our life. We wake up, we walk, we get to town, shower, laundry, nap, then dinner and drinks with fellow peregrinos. I literally don't know what the day of the week is, how many days we've been walking, or the mileage unless I really take some time to look it all up. (Although I did just add up our mileage to be 164 miles if you were wondering, 30 miles in the last 2 days!)

It doesn't much matter anymore though because nothing really changes day to day anymore. Our feet hurt, or legs and knees hurt, our backs hurt, but that's just life now. (Speaking of feet though, I believe the entire bottom of my feet are becoming one giant callus. The skin under my heels and under my first two little toes  is numb to the touch.) We've pretty well settled into our backpacks and clothes and have a solid system for water and food going. So its really just more of the same with a little bit different scenery and people every day.

We have been walking with A pretty solid cast of characters also lately, an explanation of which I think will have to wait for another post. The most memorable may be Nico from Italy, who has "Nico" tattooed in big block letters on his forearm.

All the People

We've been walking and eating with a lot more people lately. We always have the typical icebreaker conversations about the trail of the day, whether their feet & knees hurt, what country their from, and how much of the Camino they're walking (and usually in that order). But past that its always interesting to find out why they're on the Camino and how they are able to do it at all.

Lots of people only seem to do the Camino in stages, like Tom from England who is also a civil engineer and who could only get 3 weeks off work this year to do half this year and half next year. Then there's the disaffected European college student who all seem to just travel around after they graduate until they run out of money. We met a girl named Martina from the Netherlands and a German guy Marius both doing this. Theres lots of retirees as well, like the retired 76 year old surgeon who performed some minor blister surgery on Lauren and Martina last night in the albergue with me as his scrub nurse. He's the oldest we've met, but we've heard some rumors of an 82 year old on the trail also.

Of course there's also a bunch of people in their own circumstances. We just met a Danish basket artist today who just sets her own hours. And there's the stay at home mom with her 16 year old home-schooled son who are meeting her husband in Leon. There are also a few other people that we've met that I couldn't tell you much about. We've been in the same albergue for the last 4 nights, Takaguchi, who speaks almost no English, but at least we figured out each others names. We still haven't met anyone else who quit their job to come though.

Have We Really Walked 100 Miles?

Today we topped 111 miles on our Camino, which is 1 mile more than my trek hiked at Philmont when I was 18 years old. Granted our backpacks were heavier then, but we did our trek in 10 days and Lauren and I are only on day 9 right now.

So I guess the point is that walking isn't all that difficult to do even when you're not in your physical prime. Hell, half the people here are retirees. I'm coming to find out that its really all mental. Out feet hurt so much I just want to sit down and quit just about every day. (Although on the good advice of Nurse Rosey that we met on the trail, I started taking Celebrex once a day, which is a prescription arthritis medicine in the US but only $40 for a 30 day supply over the counter in Spain. It works wonders on knees!) However, where when I was younger I probably would have sat down and quit, or at least started throwing things and yelling in frustration and anger (or maybe getting in a fight with my brother, Jeremy), I apparently have learned some more self control in the last 10 years.

People keep talking about how much you change on the Camino, but I'm not really feeling the magic yet. Although, as clichéd as it sounds, if I do see anything now, I see how much easier things are when you just buckle down and keep at the job. I almost imagine that the 60+ year old people may be having an easier go at it than we are, since I'm sure they've learned this lesson long ago.

In other news, we've been seeing some pretty amazing stuff and meeting some great people. I think the best part of the Camino is the loose fellowship along the trail. Its so easy to meet people, and we may walk with them for 2 or 3 days, or see them day after day in the albergues, and then not see them again for days or ever. But they've all been memorable if short friendships that I'm sure we won't soon forget.

We're on into La Rioja, the most famous wine producing region of Spain and its vineyards as far as you can see. We've been sampling their bounty in the form of grapes plucked nervously from the vines and in the wine that is included with the price of every meal. We actually bought a bottle of wine for 1€ and it was pretty decent considering. Tomorrow we will be in Najera for their San Juan Martir y Santa Maria la Real festival, which apparently includes a bull and paella competition. Mmmm...paella.

The walking has been a bit easier going since we're out of the mountains for the most part. We will have a couple big inclines to top yet before we head out on to the meseta in 5 days. All I'm hoping for is dirt trails and no more pavement. I don't think my bruised feet can handle another kilometer of asphalt.

Dreading Hikes and Dreadlocks

Well we survived another day and it wasn't all that bad after all. Don't get me wrong: it was hard, it hurt, and it took us 8.5 hours of hiking, but I think that being mentally prepared for it all by absolutely dreading the day's hike just made it that much easier.

As far as dreadlocks are concerned, we've been using this all natural lye soap called Dr. Bronners for everything (body, hair, clothes) and we think our hair is just going to turn into dreadlocks if we don't get some real shampoo soon. Other items of note: a dog literally eating human shit; walking by sunflower fields, vineyards and blackberry thickets, taking samples of all; walking across a real draw bridge and a 1000 year old stone bridge; playing word games on the trail to keep our minds off the pain. Also, walking the longest single distance in one day of our lives.

The Real Camino Begins

I imagine every pilgrim has approximately the same thought some time near the beginning of their Camino, whether its the first day, or in our case, the fourth day: what the hell have I gotten myself into. This thought sneaks itself in somewhere in between the incessant foot, knee, and back pain. The feeling is much amplified by the fact that everything hurts this bad and you've only been hiking a few days and still have 30+ days left.

I think this thought first crept through my mind yesterday after we had nearly reached the bottom of the seemingly endless decent into Zubiri. It was about 1300 ft in about 1.5 miles. My knee really was not having any of that and Laurens feet also not. My feet don't hurt that bad since my knee generally steals the show. Oh and it rained all day yesterday and today.

But after about 13 miles or so, and we're both ready to give up, we inevitably reach our refugio and all in the world is back in its right place. Hot showers, hot meals, and clean laundry seems a real miracle at the end of each day. We also take great comfort with the other pilgrims. It doesn't make us glad to see them limping around in pain, per se; it does give us some solace that we arent alone in our journey.

Tomorrow should be our hardest day for the next couple of weeks. We have to ascend 1200 ft and descend 1600 ft over 6 miles in the middle of our 15 mile day. I never believed I would say it, but I sincerely wish it was all up hill. Thankfully though, after tomorrow we're out of the Pyrenees and on to the Meseta.