Camino Clothing

With no space left on the covered clothesline outside, I rigged
up this indoor set up. The woman at the refugio was quite upset
to find this, hanging up your laundry indoors is forbidden!
How else was it supposed to dry in the rain!

This week, the laundry gave up a few hidden "treasures." My pink bedsheet let go of a dish towel and a missing sock came out of hiding in a nightgown. But my turquoise "Camino panties" still haven't made a showing!

Shopping for hiking gear was one thing, getting those things needed for the Camino was quite another. Just about every book or website offers a list of items recommended for Camino. No two lists are exactly alike and all of them deal with the things a person would need to walk the entire 800 kilometer Camino Frances. As my Camino companions and I were making up our own lists, it was obvious there were some things we wouldn't need for our shortened version of the Camino Portuguese, nail clippers for example.

I'll save gear for my next post, today I'll talk about Camino clothing. I had one pair of hiking pants which served me well. Our group usually only hiked once a week and on those few occasions when we did hike a bit more, jeans worked fine. Not a lot of bushwacking on Rails to Trails paths and the like! So the first thing needed for Camino was three sets of everything, one for clean, one for dirty/drying and one for wearing.

Since we were heading to sunny Spain in late May, there was summer stuff to buy. I hit all the winter clearance racks at REI, LL Bean and Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) in search of bargains. I found the ugliest color brown hiking pants for $11.97, a performance t-shirt for less than $10 and a lightweight long sleeved hiking shirt for around $15 on sale at REI. Good start! A shopping expedition with Joe and Karin at EMS got me another t-shirt and a really nice sleeveless shirt (so my arms could tan) at bargain prices. I found another cheap t-shirt at Dick's so I was set as far as tops go. But other than that ugly brown item, I could find no lightweight hiking pants on sale. But, this was sunny Spain and I had a pair of watersport shorts that would work so I'm thinking even if I had to pay full price for another pair of pants, it wouldn't be so bad!

Then, there was the pajama dilemma. Every Camino guide recommended that women sleep in a t-shirt and panties. Okay, but I needed something long enough to cover my butt at least. I had a nice Life is Good brand sleep tee, plenty long but it weighed in at quite a bit. And would never dry if I did in fact have to wash it. So the search was on for a man's performance tee that was long enough and light enough. No easy task. I finally found something at Kohl's. Two things actually. A hideously ugly t-shirt and a big old long basketball type shirt. Both on clearance. I would decide later which I would bring on Camino.

A few of the Camino books recommended bringing one dress. I nice lightweight summer shift to wear in the evening. Karin and I both thought it was a good idea to dress up once in a while. I found a perfect dress at TJ Maxx. Sleeveless and of a fabric that would dry quickly. I really liked it too which was a big bonus. I wound up wearing it to work often this past summer!

Now, for underthings. With two good pairs of hiking socks, I would only need one more pair but picked up two, just in case. I had two very lightweight sport bras from cycling and found another at Dick's, this one with just a touch of padding. Perfect for evenings, it would be nice to have a little lift! Now, on to panties!

I guess a little clarification is in order. All of our clothing had to be very lightweight and absolutely had to be fast drying - for laundry reasons and for walking in the rain. So, a cotton t-shirt wouldn't work. Nor would cotton pants or cotton panties!

I was certain that something in the underwear drawer would work. So began the wash and dry experiments. Wear a pair, wash them out in the sink and then hang them up to dry over the shower curtain. About the only thing that would dry completely overnight was a very lovely lace pair that I would not feel, let's say, comfortable about hanging up to dry on a public clothesline. But I now knew what would work and headed to Walmart, where I picked up three pairs of stretch lace panties. All passed the wash and dry test with flying colors. And, they each cost less than $2.50!

I found a great big floppy brimmed cotton hat to wear, no baseball cap for me. I loved that hat and liked how it looked on me. Since it didn't have a strap, I carefully poked holes on the side and added a piece of cording to strap around my neck so I wouldn't lose my hat to the wind.

Okay, now for a pair of shoes to wear in the evenings. I opted for a pair of Teva hiking sandals. They were incredibly comfortable and good looking too. Since they were hiking sandals, I could also use them to walk the Camino if there was a problem with either my boots or my feet.

Now I was set! Or so I thought. As Camino got closer, the weather in Portugal and Spain was looking pretty dismal. We had a cold wet spring here and it looked as if we were going to get more of the same on Camino, only colder and wetter! Each day, I was checking Weather.com for Porto and Santiago. It was consistently calling for temperatures in the 60s by day and drop to as low as the 40s at night. And rain - every day that little rain cloud appeared on my computer screen. As the ten day forecast now covered our entire Camino, it was time to head back out to the stores and get some warm clothes and rain gear.

I can't stand being cold. I can handle 100 degree temperatures but I can't tolerate the cold. I run a space heater in my office virtually every day of the year. I made a quick list, rain gear, warm tops and something warm to sleep in. So the week before Camino, back to the outdoor outfitters I go. My big old warm fleece was too heavy. I picked up a lighter weight but warm one at LL Bean. The shorts were no longer an option so I paid full price for two pairs of hiking pants. Another long sleeved button up shirt and a warm pullover. All those t-shirts would now be used as base layers (and trying to be optimistic, I would have something to wear if it did get warm)!

For sleeping, I was hoping to get some wool long underwear. But there wasn't much in the way of long underwear out in May. I wound up with silk but did get lucky. While going through the clearance rack, I found a performance fabric long sleeved ladies top in size XL. It was nice and long and would be perfect to wear over my long johns at night. So far, so good!

Now, rain gear. I had earlier bought a backpacker's rain poncho but a friend Dave mentioned that a pack cover would be better. He kind of sold me when he said how nice it is to be able to take your pack off in the rain when you're having lunch or whatever. So, I bought a pack cover as well as a Goretex rain jacket in a bright poison green color. And don't forget the rain pants! They were expensive but were on every Camino list I read and figured well, it is going to rain! And thinking about rain, I realized my pretty cotton hat wasn't going to work at all. I found a nice Goretex hat with a big brim and this one did come with a chin strap. For $50, it should!

I kind of laugh when I think about the vast sums of cash willingly and gleefully thrown down for my hiking wardrobe. I spent similar sums for my cycling wardrobe. And yet, when it comes to buying civilian clothes, I am an absolute tightwad. $50 for a pair of nice wool slacks? Forget it! $50 for a pair of hiking pants or cycling shorts - hey, give me two! Crazy!

Then and Now

No longer slow as a snail! I saw this little guy on Camino
and actually passed him, even though it was quite an
uphill!

This weekend is turning out to be a great opportunity to burn off the huge Thanksgiving meal as well as a chance to get in four days of back to back hiking, something I haven't done since Camino!

Thursday morning, I did my 4.8 mile loop around Cooper River Park and it felt great to get in a little exercise before dinner. I was hoping to possibly get in a little walk after dinner but my friend Carol's neighborhood, at whose home I ate an incredibly good meal, wasn't really conducive to walking in the dark.

Yesterday, I went on an Outdoor Club hike at Wells Mills Park in Waretown, my very favorite hiking spot in the Pine Barrens. This nature area is different than most spots in the Pine Barrens, it's full of little hills and is very up and down for the most part. Even the flatter sections are pretty scenic, lots of cedar marsh, a running creek and a large lake. Just a little more than scrub pine and wild blueberry bushes!

This is the first time since I've resumed hiking in October that I've hiked at a place where my Camino companions and I did one of our training hikes. I remembered much of the areas in which we hiked but two spots along the way really brought back some snapshot style memories. The first was the spot where we stopped and had lunch, it was at the point where the park property ends and a Boy Scout camp begins. We actually lunched on some downed logs on the Boy Scout property, one of our very typical socal lunches with meals heated up on stoves and lots of laughing. Yesterday, when I glanced back at those logs, still in the same place - no one moved them, I felt a bit wistful. It was a glimpse into a different place in a different time. Another spot brought back another memory but at least that one was captured on film - it was the spot where Joe videotaped us on his camera. I posted it on You Tube and here's the link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2raQXF3wigY

Anyway, what a difference a year makes, in so many ways! I remember how I suffered on our Wells Mills hike early this year. I suffered on most of our training hikes really. I was the slow one. I also had a bad case of vertigo, a souvenier of a car accident back in 1993 when I broke my condyle, that's the one that connects the jaw bone to the bead bone, and also sustained some inner ear damage that effected my sense of balance. So whenever we walked on narrow boardwalks or near the edge of a rise, I would nearly freeze. I called it The Vortex, I felt as if I were being pulled over the edge.

Things changed on Camino, in just about every way possible! Of the many changes, I no longer have my vertigo. That miraculously vanished on the Camino, it was on a Thursday when I wound up walking alone. Another thing that still amazes me when I do the Outdoor Club hikes is that I am at the very front of the pack, right behind the leader. I flew up those hills at Wells Mills Park yesterday and never felt winded at all. I don't know if I've gotten faster or stronger or if it's just that now, I'm hiking with people who hike at my pace. Whatever it is, it feels really good.

Well, it's time to get ready for today's hike. Another by the Outdoor Club out in Bryden Byrne State Forest, which I still think of as Lenanon State Forest! I'll never get used to that name change. Should be a good one, 10 to 12 miles on another unmarked trail!

Moving - The Backdrop to My Camino

On the train from Porto to Valenca. Already I have forgotten
that one week after I get back from Camino, I am moving
from a house I had owned for the last 20 years!

What is kind of amusing to me is the thought that I have logged far more miles since I’ve returned from Camino than I ever did in the period when I felt I was vigorously training for the Camino. Yet it feels as though all this walking and hiking has taken little if any effort. In comparison, the training hikes seemed so grueling, mentally and physically. I credit this change not just to better fitness but to the new and exhilarating lifestyle I began to live almost immediately after the Camino. It all started with a move the week after I got back!

My second husband died in July 2003. Shortly after his death, I was visiting a friend who lives in Collingswood and totally fell in love with the town. It’s truly a unique and special place and was recently written up in the New York Times. I'll let them tell you about Collingswood, here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/realestate/02livi.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Anyway, as eager as I was to finally escape the doldrums of suburbia, I really felt like I should keep the house until my son, who is from my first marriage, graduated from college. At the time my husband died, my son was about to enter his senior year of high school. There was a small life insurance policy that would enable me to hang onto the house for about five years and for that I was very grateful.

With my son set to graduate in August (he needed a few extra classes during the summer due to a change in majors early on), I put the house up for sale on March 2. As bad as the real estate market was at the time, the house sold in two weeks! Turns out it was the right house for the right buyer who came along just at the right time. One of those moments when everything in the universe lines up just right. Maybe it was meant to be, my reward for hanging in there for my son, despite how miserable I felt living in that town that I had lived in for virtually my entire life in a house that wound up taking every penny I had.

So, in addition to trying to train and shop for Camino, now, I’ve got to pack up and clean out an entire house - not to mention try to find a new place to live. Can I tell you that it was a very stressful time! So many worries, will the buyer back out, will there be a glitch with his mortgage? I lived through gut wrenching home inspections, well tests and termite inspections (always a worry when you live in the woods)! Living in fear that something could go wrong and the deal would fall through.

Still, it was time to start packing. I had no idea how many clothes I had that I never wore until I started going thru the drawers and closets. I’m not a pack rat at all yet I realized I had an incredible amount of junk everywhere, in the garage, the attic, the closets. It was amazing how much stuff I trashed and as I went from room to room, how much more there was to trash.

I wound up keeping only the clothes and shoes that I liked and that fit perfectly. Countless kitchen gadgets, decor things, tools, you name it - if I didn’t use it or have a place for it - out it went. One thing I read often about the Camino is that to walk it, you must lighten your burden, both physically and mentally. This I did with the contents of my house. Later, I would do it with the contents of my backpack!

I think I only did two more long training hikes after the house was sold. I did some walking on my own but nothing significant the entire two months before the Camino. Early on in the moving process, while cleaning out the garage, I dropped a can of nails on my right foot and broke a toe! Not good. I walked around in bedroom slippers for about a week then graduated to a cushy pair of Minnetonka Moccasins. At least the swelling and pain had subsided enough to fit my foot in my boots just in time for Camino!

But I wasn’t sitting idle! My non-working hours were spend working on my move. When I did sit idle, I was searching Craig’s List to find a place to rent. I’ve been a homeowner my entire adult life and had experienced the particular hell of being a woman who had to deal with all the home maintenance, repair and breakdown issues on her own! I was at the point where if something broke, I just wanted to pick up a phone and call somebody. I didn’t want to deal with it anymore.
There were plenty of places to rent in Collingswood. IF you didn’t have a dog. I had two. Even though they are little dogs, dogs they are! I also needed a place with hardwood floors. I can’t stand carpeting! So, that what I thought would be the fun part of the moving process, finding a new place, turned out to be not so much fun at all. Until one night, while going thru Craig’s List one more time, I found my dream place. It was a brick Victorian twin right in downtown Collingswood. It had everything I wanted and more! The landlord wanted to meet me before he would make a decision on the dogs and I guess my "interview" went well because I got the place and was able to take possession on May 1. This was great because I could get the place cleaned and start moving stuff in before I left for Camino on the 22nd.

Still, there was much to get done at the old place but I was spending way too much time at the new place, trying to get it into perfect move in condition for the day I moved in. I was tired. I didn’t know if I would be able to get everything done in time. There was even a time when I thought about bagging the Camino. I remember sitting there one day thinking "I can’t go backpacking in Spain a week before I move. I’ll never get everything done." I got over it though!
During the two months before the Camino, the time I think of as "The Moving Time," I had no social life at all. I felt like I was under house arrest (a feeling that would continue throughout the summer). Other than spending Easter at Karin’s house and attending two cycling team meetings, I never left home, other than to go to work or the grocery store!

But, it all worked out and was worth the sacrifice! When I left for Camino, I knew my new place was completely ready to move in. Anything left to be done at the old place could be done in that final week. What was really cool was that when I was on Camino, I completely forgot about the move. I never thought about it at all until the end of the week, when Ray brought it up! And when I did think about it, it was with optimism. I would finally, after all this time, get to live my dream!

Bad Hair Day After Day

Camino hair! At the Refugio in Tui, May 25, 2008.

Very funny, today I got three nice comments about my hair. I did get a haircut last week, just a trim - nothing dramatic, and this weekend I colored it as I do once a month. Okay, I confess - I’m grey! So I color my hair back to my natural color, which is a medium blonde. Maybe today it was just the combination of the haircut and color, rarely do the two happen at the same time. Or maybe (quite likely) it was a little secret my new hair stylist gave me last week, which if I told you, well it wouldn't be a secret then would it?

I’m very hair challenged. Each summer when the humidity starts hitting around 60 percent, I frizz. I have tried every de-frizzing product produced by mankind but nothing works. I simply resign myself to pony tails, top knots and baseball hats for most of the summer. Even in the winter, I still need to douse my head with a variety of products then spend an inordinate amount of time blow drying strand by strand with a huge round brush.

I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to leave home without doing my hair and putting on some makeup. The thought of not being able to do these things on Camino was a real concern. I very seriously considered toting along at least a small hair dryer, my special brush and some hair care products so I would at least look presentable in the evening. But maybe for the first time in my life, good sense prevailed.

When my Camino companions and I went on our training hikes, we worked our way up to packing the kind of weight we would carry on Camino. As the Camino got closer and we had more of the gear and clothing we would need, we got a much more realistic feel for the weight. I decided one day to pack everything I wanted to see if I could handle the weight. May I say it was the longest, my agonizing nine miles of my life! After that, I got a bit more serious about sorting out the wants and the needs for my Camino.

More on packing at a later time. But I realized that my beloved hair care products, most makeup and skin care items would have to go. I really struggled over this. The thought of spending the entire Camino looking pale and frizzy was not a pleasant concept. I could mask it during the day with a hat and sunglasses but in the evenings, there I would be, au naturale, from the neck up anyway! I tried to reassure myself that all the other women on Camino would be in the same place and I would fit right in but it was no real comfort. Being blonde, I don’t even have visible brows or lashes on my milky white complexion!

But, it was just something I had to get used to. The week before Camino, I started washing my hair in the morning and letting it air dry. It looked bad. But not as bad as I expected. At least by the time I left for Camino I would be used to it, kind of like how it is after you get a bad haircut or a bad color job. You just get used to it.

I did wind up wearing my big brimmed hiking hat every chance I could or sometimes I wore a little pink scarf around my head. I was never fully comfortable though until we got to Santiago where I picked up a nice baseball hat. With that and a ponytail, I looked almost civilized again!

I did learn something from the experience. When the humidity is off the wall, as it often is here in New Jersey in the summer, "Camino" hair really does look better than anything I try to do in my losing battle to fight the frizzies. So this past summer, I did wear my "Camino" hair quite a bit! It was actually kind of liberating! This was the first time in my life I've ever tried wash and wear hair!

Read, Research & Learn

My guidebook prepared us in advance for this
very long and particularly bleak stretch of the
Camino that led through a giant industrial area

I'm struggling to finish the book I'm reading, "Stalin's Secret War Against the Soviet People." I picked it up for 25 cents at the Collingswood Book Fair back in October. That's one great thing about the town I live in, they have some kind of fest going on just about every weekend!

I'm a total history buff and am fascinated by World War II. It just amazes me that just ten years before I was born, Europeans were actually fighting other Europeans. So, whenever I can pick up a history book, no matter what the topic, for 25 cents, I do.

I strongly recommend to anyone planning to do a Camino read everything you can get your hands on. Though all of the "I did the Camino" books are written by people who have done the entire Camino Frances (okay, most of them cracked and hopped a bus to cut off 100 or so miles), their stories offer valuable information and insight no matter what Camino you opt to do. From their tales, you get a good idea of what life will be like on the road. There is so much to learn and from each person's story, you will gain something of value. Though we walked the last 120k of the Camino Portuguese, the insight we gained from others who did the Camino Frances was priceless. You get a feel for the equipment and clothing you will need. What personal care items to bring and what you really can leave at home. What it's like staying at a refugio. What it's like walking day after day when all you've every done is two long back to back hikes on the weekend.

The local libraries here had nothing on the Camino, other than Shirley MacLaine's account of her Camino into La-La Land! But there are a lot of Camino books available online. Karin ordered quite a few and shared them with me. We're both avid readers with a great love and respect for the written word.

If nothing else, get a good guidebook for your Camino. I ordered John Brierley's excellent Guide to the Camino Portuguese. You really get an idea as to how excellent it is once you start walking! His books are detailed and contain the kind of information you want and need to know.

There's also a wealth of information on the internet and that's where I'm doing a lot of the research to help me decide what Camino will work for me in 2009. Though I've done the Camino Portuguese and will take that experience on my next Camino, there is still much to learn to prepare for the route of a different Camino.

You Tube has a lot to offer. I spent many nights watching all kinds of Camino videos. Some better than others. I do have two favorites. One from a young man who walked the Camino Portuguese. It was so exciting when walking my own Camino to see the same things I saw on his video, the same landmarks, the same scenery. The main picture on this blog was a little shrine someone set up in front of their home. I remember when seeing it on You Tube, I just thought it was the coolest thing. Then to actually see it in person! The other video I really liked is by a young woman who walked the Camino Frances. Though I would not walk that route, her video seemed to capture the true spirit of the Camino. I will watch it again and again as I prepare for my next Camino.

As soon as I finish my book about Stalin (a much nastier guy than I thought and I really thought before he was pretty damn nasty) I plan to start the Brierley guide. I need to really look at what Camino Frances options are doable for me. I cannot take more than two weeks away from my job so if I do the French route, I will, by necessity, need to do it in increments.

I've put in the links to my two favorite You Tube vidoes. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqors2BXaB4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxwOWpWGhbs

Booking the Trip!

A room with a view!

Camino Ingles? Camino Frances in 100 to 200k increments? Camino Portugues - the full route? Last 100k of the Camino Frances?

These are the options I'm tossing about at the moment. I will do a Camino this coming May, I just am not sure which one. The Camino Ingles looks very attractive to me right now. The entire route is just over 100k, enough for the Compostella and completely doable with the vacation time I have available to me. I would like to fly into London, spend two days there then take a ferry over to the start point in Ferrol (sp?). This would be a very authentic way to do it. But, to do it alone would be a real challenge. The route still has not really caught on and from what I've read, maybe one pilgrim a day comes through. There doesn't seem to be a lot of pilgrim infrastructure so with few refugios, hotels would have to be found along the way. And I would be very alone which has as many positives as it does negatives.

I've just this week started studying the various routes. I have some time before I need to make a decision. Then on to the logistics. What city/country to fly into? Train connections. Hotels. Buses. It was so much easier last year when Karin did all the leg work! But then, you get from an effort what you put into that effort and that's another lesson I've learned from the Camino.

Despite my initial disappointment at our decision to do the Portuguese Camino rather than a part of the French route, I soon got completely psyched. The Portuguese route is the second most popular Camino and very pilgrim friendly.

By January, out plans were pretty firm. We would leave the Thursday before Memorial Day and fly back June 1, the day before my birthday! It was time to book the tickets!

I have an excellent travel agent, her name is Karen and she works at Liberty Travel in Cherry Hill. I urged my Camino companions to use her for our travel arrangements. I told them how she really went over and above for me in 2007 when my son and I were going to Munich over his spring break. He was supposed to fly home from South Carolina that Friday then Saturday, we would take our evening flight from Philadelphia to Munich. Except one small glitch, the St. Patrick's Day ice storm that shut down the entire east coast! My travel agent worked long and hard in that ice storm to get my son on a flight the following day which was no easy task. Getting him to Philadelphia turned out to be a real nail biter but that's another blog for another day!

My Camino companion Karin books travel as part of her job but agreed to use my travel agent. So on a cold Sunday afternoon in early February, we all met at Liberty Travel to book the trip. Getting our tickets meant we really were going on Camino. With tickets in hand, we couldn't change our minds!

When we arrived at the travel agency, it started to snow, rather heavy too. I took it as a good omen because the same thing happened when I first met with Karen to book my Munich trip.

It took no time at all to book the flights. Philly to Lisbon and for the return, Santiago to Madrid then Madrid to Philadelphia. We began to look at hotels as well but Karin wanted to hold off. I was kind of disappointed but I figured she wanted to search on line for a better deal. But, WE HAD OUR TICKETS! Our Camino was going to happen!

Afterwards, we all headed to Five Guys Burgers and Fries to celebrate. I remember we got burgers with jalepenos. They were fresh jalepenos, not jarred and were really very hot! I like Five Guys, they give you free peanuts and I'm a total nut junkie.

Camino Karin did find and book our rooms on line. We needed a hotel for one night in Porto and then two nights in Santiago. Joe was pushing to stay at least one night in one of the refugios in Santiago but good sense prevailed! Though I had some reservations about the hotels selected, at that point, I was just happy to have a room in which to sleep. It seemed the hotels weren't that much of a bargain though. I had a feeling we would have done better had we used the travel agent.

For my Munich trip, my travel agent put us up at the K&K Harras. It was in a very nice residential neighborhood, not in the heart of the Marienplatz tourist district. But, the U-Bahn was right across the street and put me in the city center in less than 15 minutes. Everything about the hotel was wonderful. There was a great free breakfast buffet and it had the best, most fluffy bed I every slept in. Best of all, it cost $2,000 less than a hotel in the city center. Travel agent expertise at it's finest. Had I tried to find a lower cost hotel on my own, who knows where I would have ended up.

I'll give an example using a city I know well, Philadelphia. And pretend I'm a tourist from anyplace in Europe who wants to book their own trip to see the city that was the cradle of American liberty. So in checking things out on line, I see the downtown hotels are pretty expensive. But for a whole lot less money, I can stay in a hotel by Temple University which has public transportation nearby. Great, I can take the bus and be at the Liberty Bell in ten minutes. It's right near a university so it must be a nice area. Who needs a travel agent? For anyone who booked that trip all I can say is, may God have mercy on their soul!!!

Both of our self-booked hotels were fine really, just way off the track from where I was hoping we would be. In retrospect, after Karin found the hotels online, I should have gone back to my travel agent to see what she could find. 20-20 hindsight!

Our self booked hotels weren't all that bad, the TC Santiago was actually a never nice hotel but I'll talk more about them when I get to actually talking about the Camino.

My New Hiking Stick!

This little Alpine fellow has such
a great look!!!

I have been looking for a new hiking stick almost as soon as I got back from Camino. I had a friend who often said things come to you when you are ready to receive. I guess until now, I just wasn’t ready to receive!

Every time I walked or hiked I was on a constant lookout for a new stick. Now and again, I would see something that looked like it had potential but on closer examination, it was too short, too heavy, too curved or otherwise just not right.

After nearly six months of searching, I found my stick last Wednesday, during my lunchtime walk at the Barclay Farmstead.

I opted to do the walk backward that day, just for a slight change of scenery. Funny how things look so different when you see them from the opposite direction. Anyway, as I was strolling along, very much enjoying the beautiful fall weather and a view of the river from a new angle, there it was! A new fallen branch, it wasn’t there the day before, lie right off the path. Just like my Camino stick, there it was saying "check me out!" Maybe the Barclay Farmstead really is some kind of enchanted forest, talking trees and all that!!!

Despite the length and the fact that there were all kinds of side branches, I thought, this definitely has potential. I broke off as many branches as I could and was able to snap off some of the length. Decided to test it out though it was still about seven feet high. I felt like I was carrying some kind of massive witch’s staff and did feel a bit weird when three teenagers walked by. I wonder what they were thinking!

The stick felt way too thick and too heavy but I decided to take it home and see how it was after I got it cut down to size. Like my old Camino stick, I decided to leave it at the Farmstead entrance and fetch it after work. It was so long I could barely fit it in the car! When my son came home and saw it propped up against the living room wall, he asked, "why do we have a large branch in the living room?" I told him it might be my new hiking stick. He said, "ah."

I started working on the stick that same night. Sawed it down to size, sawed off the branch nubs.. I did give the top the same kind of angle that came natural on my original Camino stick as I just really liked the look. I’ve learned a few things about stick making though. It’s a lot easier to peel off bark with one of those razor knives rather than plucking it off with my fingernails. Because this stick needed a lot of serious sanding to remove the saw gouges I made when sawing off some of the bigger side branches, I bought a small cheap electric sander. Wow! How did I ever get this far in life without one of those!

At this point, my stick is finally stripped bare! The wood is nice and light but warm and has a few interesting markings. I’m not quite sure what kind of wood it is but it’s really very beautiful. This stick feels good in every way. It even has, just like my old Camino stick, a nice built in area that makes a perfect handhold.

I did the final sanding last night. I’m contemplating drilling a hole for a wrist strap but I’m still not sure on that. Will post more when my stick is completed!

My Camino Stick

My multi-purpose Camino stick. Ready to cross the bridge
to enter into Spain, May 24, 2008.

I have found my new hiking stick! I came upon it last week and have been working on it ever since. Already it’s looking great and I think it’s going to be just perfect when completed. It will never replace my old Camino stick but that’s not what it’s intended to do. Hiking is what I do all the time. Camino, that’s a whole other journey. This is the tale of my Camino stick.

Though I bought all kinds of high tech hiking gear for Camino, I wanted very much to find a stick to become my Camino stick. Using a man-made hiking pole just didn’t seem right for my pilgrimage to Santiago. I wanted something more traditional, more European and more personal. Not to mention that I felt that a stick just looked way cooler, at least to me!

Back in January, I didn’t know that walking the Camino would transform the way I think and feel. I didn’t even know then that it would mark a real turning point in my life, that one week after returning, I would move from the town in which I had lived nearly my entire life to a new town I had come to love over the past five years. Lose touch with old friends, make new ones. Back in January, I only knew that I would soon be putting my house on the market and that life was about to change. I so needed change. So I wanted my stick to come from someplace new, someplace fresh, not from the Pine Barrens where I was born, raised and grew to middle age! I decided to begin my search at the Barclay Farmstead.

I found a pretty good stick almost immediately. It was the perfect height and though it was narrow, it seemed nice and solid. When I took it back to the office and started to "peel" it, the bark practically fell off, revealing a very pretty tortoise shell kind of pattern on the wood. Before doing anything else with it, I decided to try it out on a few more lunchtime walks, just to make sure it was right. It definitely seemed to be. Until a few days later when my Camino stick started calling to me!

Really, that damn stick was calling me and wouldn’t let up. I was walking my final loop at the Farmstead, in the last section of wooded area before the path leads up to the farmhouse grounds. That’s when I first heard the stick. Okay, I didn’t hear voices or anything dramatic (psychotic)! But somehow, that stick caught my attention even though it was lying on a big pile of other downed limbs and branches. I took a look, considered for a moment then moved on, too big and ugly. Next time I passed, same thing. I walked over picked it up and immediately threw it back down. Way too heavy and soggy. When I walked by that Friday, the stick again did its thing and I’m like, alright already! I lugged it up to the entrance to the Farmstead and left it there. If it was still there when I came by with the car after work, I would take it home. It was, I did.

That evening, I peeled the bark off the stick. It was slow and tedious work and I kept getting bits of bark stuck under my fingernails, like that bamboo torture thing. Once the wood was revealed, it wasn’t very attractive, dark and mottled looking. I propped it up by the fireplace to let the wood dry out.

After a little more than a week, I checked the stick out. The wood remained very dark but it wasn’t so bad looking. The top of the stick had broken off at an angle which looked pretty good, so I sawed off the rough spots and kept the angle. Now that it was the right size, I decided to try walking with it. That’s when I discovered that the stick had a little curve in it that make a perfect handhold. Overall, the stick had a really good feel. I sanded it and decided to take it on a couple of training hikes just to make sure it would work. It did, far better than a hiking pole. I had really found my Camino stick. Or I should say it found me!

I considered staining it to give it a nicer color but opted against that and just covered it with multiple coats of polyurethane. As a finishing touch, I hammered in a big upholstery nail to protect the bottom and covered that with a rubber chair leg cover. I was quite proud of my Camino stick. It really looked great!

I don’t know if my Camino stick ever made it back from Santiago. But that’s a story to be told at the end of the tale of my Camino. I loved that stick but it just felt right when it vanished at the end of my Camino.

Now as for my new hiking stick, that’s my next post!

Nesting

The Cathedtral Santiago, May 31, 2008. It's about 9 p.m. and
the sun hasn't even set. It did finally get dark around 10 p.m.

I’ve been walking at lunch but not getting out at all in the evening. It’s so hard for me to do much of anything productive when I get home from work now that it’s cold and dark when I get home. I seem to have started hibernating already! Which is not a bad thing at all.

I love Eastern Standard Time. I like coming home from work in the dark. It just feels so good to come home and nest. Eat, get a shower then early to bed where I snuggle up with a book under my big fluffy comforter. My room is finally chilly enough so I can really appreciate the warmth of that great big comforter.

It just feels right, when the weather is cold and the night long, to come home and hibernate. Maybe it’s part of an ancient human instinct, part of a natural rhythm honed when my northern European ancestors spent their winters huddled up in a cave or somewhere, waiting for the return of the warmth and the light, doing what they needed to do to survive their harsh climate.

I don’t need to hibernate to ensure my physical survival. If it’s cold, I just turn up the heat. When it gets dark, I flip on a lamp. But I feel now it’s so important to keep in step with those natural rhythms, just another lesson learned on Camino. Time doesn’t matter. Eat when you’re hungry. Sleep when you’re tired. Walk at your own pace.

I haven’t always felt this way. I’m a lifelong night owl. Running here, doing this or that and never really getting anything done. I didn’t walk in the evenings at all last fall or winter, despite the "training" mentality I had at the time. When I walked the Camino, I tried to alter my own natural rhythm to match that of my companions. It doesn’t work. Everyone needs to do their own Camino.

Maybe I’ll continue to get an evening walk in as fall turns to winter. If I don’t, it’s okay. If I opt not to walk in the dark when it’s cold I’ve opted to do something different and just as good. Give my body a chance to rest and regenerate so it can grow even stronger. While my body restores itself, perhaps I’ll read. Give the mind a bit of exercise. I still have two Camino books yet to be read!

Nothing Like A Shot on a Chilly Day

Rest stop on Camino. Europeans really know how to do it right! Beer, cafe con leche ... can't wait to get back!

Did a great hike with the Outdoor Club today. We explored the perimeter of the Franklin Parker Nature Preserve which has only recently been opened to the public. The New Jersey Conservancy is working at restoring the cranberry bogs back to cedar marsh and it really is a unique place. Most hiking in the Pine Barrens is limited to a trail through heavily wooded areas. The wide open spaces of the bogs surrounded by pitch pine forest is hauntingly beautiful.

We only hiked a part of the preserve today, a total of about seven miles. The hike leader will bring us back in the spring, when the wildflowers are in bloom, to hike another section of this really great new nature spot.

It was really windy, especially by the bogs. Today is one of those days I really apprciate having my tiny bottle of cognac!

There’s just something about a nice shot on cold day. There’s that feeling of warmth as it works its way through the system, not to mention that brief but all so good afterglow. Plus it does wonders for any aches or pains!

Hey, it’s not all that bad. Just think, when they sent those St. Bernard’s into the Alps to rescue the lost, it wasn’t a keg of hot tea those dogs were carrying around their neck! One of the great things about Camino was the ready availability of beer and wine on the road. More on that later!

I think it was Joe who first introduced booze to our hikes. He gave each of us a tiny bottle of Jagermeister, just the right size to fit in the side pocket of our pack. Just as our food selections grew, so did our options to imbibe on a cold winter day. Somehow, Baileys and Frangelica made its way into the hot chocolate. I tried a couple of different schnapps but pretty much stuck with the Jager, it's medicinal taste somehow made it seem like it was "good for you." It was Ray who hit on the cognac. It really does the best job of warming the body and the soul. It definitely came in handy on New Year’s Eve!

Right now I’m working on a bottle of vanilla cognac a good friend gave me as a housewarming gift. Though I had gotten a plastic flask, I’ve gone back to using that little Jagermeister bottle that Joe gave me. That bottle and I have put in a lot of miles together!

Here's a link for the Franklin Parker Preserve: http://www.njconservation.org/html/preserves/franklinparker.htm

Trail Cuisine

Lunchbreak at the top of The Timp, Harriman State Park,
New York. From left, Joe, Ray and Karin

Looks like there won't be a hike tonite. I'm kind of bummed, I was really looking forward to it and planned my weekend around it. It's raining with no end in sight and thunderstorms are forecast into the evening. Now I have not just a whole day but an entire evening completely free.

I was wondering what it would be like to hike eight or so miles with no food stop. Not that hunger would be an issue since the hike was scheduled to start at 7:30, allowing ample time for dinner before hitting the trail. It's just to me, eating is such an integral and fun part of the hiking experience.

Though our Camino training hikes got tougher after the first of the year there was a bonus. Trail side cuisine began to get really tricked out about the same time. No more trail mix and a hastily tossed together sandwich for this group!

Ray and Joe got camp stoves for or around Christmas. So now, we had hot food and drink on the menu! The guys started bringing packaged camp meals, just add hot water, wait a few minutes and instant feast! Though ravenous, the wait was worth it because the warm package made a great hot water bottle that was passed around to help take away the chill that hit once we stopped moving!

Ray, our group foodie, really kicked up the cuisine. Using the camp meal as a base, he would toss in things like shrimp to further enhance the eating experience. Though a sandwich remained the centerpiece of my lunch, I have to confess. I love Ramon Noodles. What a treat to have a nice hot bowl of noodles on a cold winter day.

Beside the main course, there were all kinds of munchies. Fruits and veggies. Cakes and cookies. All kinds of soup, even wursts!

Camino however, forever spoiled me. There, lunch was fresh bread, chorizo, some hard cheese, nuts, maybe some fresh fruit, all bought the night before at the Supermercado and eaten with much gusto on the way.

Most times when I hike, I bring a simple lunch, a thermos of soup, a nice sandwich and some sort of snack. But once in a while, I get in the mood for some "fine dining." A few weeks ago, I packed up some cooked shrimp, a few crisp bread, a wedge of cheese and some grapes. As I was setting out my lunch, one guy said, “Wow, you’re eating gourmet today!” This while his entire lunch consisted of one apple. I thought, you don't know what you're missing!

Serious Training Begins

Joe modeling his sleeping bag liner on a really cold training
hike in the Pine Barrens. We were training with our backpacks
loaded up with all kinds of things. Karin was even toting big
cans of yams in her pack!


While writing in my hiking journal last night, I decided to check my mileage to date this month. 24.6 miles, not bad considering I didn’t walk or hike at all last weekend and did next to nothing during election week. Then I laughed when I realized that kind of mileage represented a about two days walking on the Camino!



I hike every just about every weekend now because I love doing it, it feels good. I try to take a walk most days during the week, either at lunch or after work. Moving from the suburbs to an old-fashioned people and pedestrian-oriented town, walking is now a form of transportation as well as recreation. Living in a quasi-urban environment, even the dogs get walked several times a day. It's just so much easier to walk to places in town than it is to drive. Quite a switch from last year, when the bulk of my walking was done to and from the car!



I don’t think in terms of training when I walk or hike. I keep my focus on the moment, the experience. As a result, time flies! When a hike leader announces a lunch stop, I think wow, we’ve already gone what four or five miles? My lunchtime stroll seems to be over just when I feel like I’m getting started, it doesn’t seem to drag on forever like it did before, when I was "training" for my last Camino.



True to our word, my Camino companions and I began training for Camino right at the start of the new year. Karin and I each started taking walks at lunchtime. Our little crew hiked pretty much every weekend. Most times, it was just us hiking locally in the Pine Barrens or on the Pemberton Rails to Trails path. We did travel to New York state to climb the Timp with Rich and Bob took us on a great adventure hike out by Washington’s Crossing as well as a few new places for us in the Pine Barrens.



Though the hikes were still fun and there was lots of comradery, they felt somehow different from our earlier hikes. Longer and more tedious. The miles just dragged. Maybe it was the cold, the extra miles, the ever increasing weight we were throwing in our packs. Perhaps I was dehydrated, hung over or didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Or maybe it was just that I started to think of it as work and so, that’s how it felt. Pace became to trouble me, no matter how hard I pushed I could not keep up with Joe and Karin. Poor Ray, he usually got relegated to the rear with me. We joked about death marches as I tried to push my pace!



So take the added physical stress, toss in a bit of frustration and a self-inflicted sense of defeat and then wonder why the hikes seemed to be a lot more grueling than they used to!

Backpacks Make It Real

With the pack cover on, you would never know the color!
Another rainy early morning start, May 28, 2008

With a night hike on Saturday, I've got the whole day to do whatever I want to do. I do need to take a trip to Trader Joe's. Since I've moved, it's no longer right there on my way home and now requires a bit of a field trip for me. But, since I’ll be right in the neighborhood, I can stop by REI, the "official outfitter" of my Camino!

The answer to the big question of whether Ray was or was not going to do the Camino finally was answered shortly after the first of the year. Rich, our hiking guru, had agreed to meet us pilgrims at REI on a Sunday morning to help us pick out our backpacks. This shopping expedition felt like one of those defining moments on our journey toward the Camino. Everything up to that point was kind of generic hiking gear, not a strictly Camino oriented item.

When we got to the backpack section of the store, I headed straight toward a really pretty-looking backpack in a cool shade of blue. I was so excited until I slung it on my back. Despite making every possible adjustment it felt like a torture device! I tried out a few others but they too felt too big or too small. The nice man at REI suggested I try the "Venus," the store's most popular women's model. I had ignored it and many others because it was a burgundy color. I hate the color red, I really do, and to me, burgundy is just another shade of red.

But tried it on. I finally had that Goldilocks moment. This one was "just right!" Except the color. At least it wasn't fire engine red!

After trying out a few different models, Karin and Joe found packs, though Karin later returned hers after trying it out and wound up with a red Osprey brand pack from EMS. But the big event of the day was that Ray got a pack! Other than the fact that it was red, I can't really remember much else. Except that Karin was so excited. I remember how happy she seemed when she said something like, "he’s going, he wouldn’t have bought a pack if he wasn’t going!" Buying the packs did seem like some sort of right of passage for all of us but sometime pessimist that I am, I wouldn't feel 100 percent sure that the Camino was really doing to happen until everybody had their airline ticket in hand.

We made a few other purchases that day. Karin and I got metal Sigg water bottles and camper towels. Joe got a sleeping bag. This was the first of many trips to our local outdoor outfitters to get the things we needed for Camino. First the pack. Next, the stuff to fill it!

After the shopping expedition, we all picked up sandwiches and had lunch at Rich’s house. Though it was close to three in the afternoon, but we all headed out to the Pine Barrens for a quick hike before dark.

As we hiked through the woods that cold afternoon, it did feel like we might really be on our way to Santiago!

Gearing Up

Rich & Viv, center. Delaware Water Gap
Christmas is here already! At least the catalogues anyway. I was leafing through the LL Bean Outdoor catalogue last night, saw a pair of gaiters for about $19.99. I marked the page, I’ll tell my son that’s what I want for Christmas this year. I don’t have gaiters. I need them. Really!

Funny how in the space of about six months, I went from nothing as far as hiking gear to possessing loads of garments, trinkets and gadgets. Aside from gaiters and a GPS, I have pretty much everything I need and some things I hope I’ll never need, like one of those shiny, keep the body heat in, survival bags. Of course, there's still things I want, I just haven't thought of them yet!

Rich is the kind of guy who takes every caution and precaution when hiking and from him, I learned to be prepared for anything, even a creek crossing in 27 degree temperatures on New Year’s Eve! To this day, when I see someone on a hike wearing jeans, in my head I hear Rich's voice saying (over and over) "Cotton Kills!"

I already had good base layers from cycling so as far as clothing was concerned, I really only needed a pair of synthetic hiking pants, a thin fleece and an extra pair of wool socks. I already had a nice warm outer fleece that, with the right base layers, would keep me warm through the coldest hike. Then there were the wants that I was able to convert to needs to justify the purchase. Especially when I found just what I "needed" on the sale rack at REI or LL Bean! So my fleece gave way to a cool new hiking jacket. The baseball cap was retired in favor of a totally fun knitted cap that even had a spot for my ponytail!

Bob, another hiking friend, gave me one of his old hiking poles on one of our early hikes. He had switched over to using two poles. Something I’ve tried and just can’t get the hang of. I did like using a pole but was longing for a real wooden hiking stick.

I didn’t start off carrying much in my day pack, other than my lunch, some water, a pack of tissues, some bandages and a rain poncho. My first gadget purchase was an inflatable cushion, way better than sitting down for lunch on the ground or a cold rock It was after the first of the year that I really starting adding gadgets. I picked up a whistle, compass, signal mirror combination on one shopping trip. Waterproof matches on another. Though I already had a Swiss Army knife, I added a lightweight folding knife to my gear collection ( on Camino I needed something to slice my Chorizo and the Swiss Army knife was way too heavy)! I even found a tiny roll of "travelers" toilet paper. After the New Year’s Eve hike, I added a small wind up flashlight to my collection.

My Camino companions and I would share our latest purchases, via e-mail then show them off at our next hike. Karin gave Joe and I the coolest hiking bowl for Christmas. It packs flat, weighs nothing, and folds up into a perfectly leakproof bowl.

An aching corn after one long hike led me directly to the foot care section at the CVS Pharmacy. You know that thing you always hear about not going grocery shopping when you’re hungry. Well don’t go to the drugstore foot care section straight from a hike! I was like a kid in the candy store and came home with all kinds of goodies. Gel corn pads, moleskin, callous cream, and Compeed, the miracle product of the Camino. I added moleskin as well as some basic first aid items to my pack. Things like twine, safety pins and a bandana made their way into my pack. The "survival" bag and emergency tent (just a piece of plastic really) are just my latest additions.

What’s kind of funny is all of this is really just hiking stuff. Camino gear, that’s a whole other entry.

My day pack these days is fairly heavy but it doesn’t feel heavy on my back. With another Camino coming up, I need to keep my body accustomed to carrying the weight. On Camino I will carry a lot more. What’s best though is knowing that I really am ready for anything, even a late night winter creek crossing!

Ringing in the New Year

Where's the bridge when you really need one?

There’s a night hike this Saturday and I can’t wait! I’ve only done one night hike before and that was a hike I will never forget. It would take an awful lot for another hike to compete with the sheer fun and madness of the hike we did on New Year’s Eve.

As the year 2007 was drawing to a close, my Camino companions and I talked about the need to start training for the Camino. Up until then, our hikes were just for fun. A hike on New Year’s Eve turned out to be a perfect transition to mark the end of recreational hiking and the start of what I now think of as the training hikes.

It was Rich’s idea to organize a night hike on New Year’s Eve. Karin, Ray, Joe and I jumped on the idea. We would meet at Rich and Viv’s house in Medford, then head out to the Pine Barrens where we would hike on sand roads, see some ruins and head back after doing a total of about five or six miles. From there, we would all gather at Karin and Ray’s house in Roebling to ring in the New Year.

Since this wasn’t a "real" hike, I wore a nice pair of cigarette leg jeans and a sweater. I did wear wool socks and my hiking boots but brought a pair of nice boots to change into for the party. Because it was cold and we were going to be out in the woods, I wore "old ugly," my nickname for my favorite jacket. I love that jacket, I’ve had it now for something like 13 years. It’s long and warm and has never failed to keep me warm, safe and dry when I really needed to be warm, safe and dry! Little did I know it would contribute to my decency as well!

The night hike was awesome. It was cold and clear and just exhilarating to be out in the woods in the dark. There was frost on the ground that made everything glitter. It was unbelievably clear and quiet. At least until the quietude was broken by the sound of four-wheelers roaring down the sand road. We laughed a lot as we wondered what they were up to and wondering if they felt the same about us, what were a bunch of middle aged suburbanites doing out in the middle of the woods on New Year’s Eve?

At some point, Rich realized we weren’t where we were supposed to be. So we took a turn here and a turn there and realized it was beginning to get a bit late. Rich had a GPS which showed the car being "over there." So we headed in that direction. We did a little bushwhacking. We came upon a creek. The car was just on the other side of that creek!

After a bit of walking up and down the shoreline in search of a bridge or something, Rich said we may have to ford the creek. I thought - lovely. He rolled up his pants and went in to check the depth. Turns out, some off-roaders had thoughtfully placed pallets or something on the creek bed, basically creating an underwater bridge. The water was about knee high. After Rich made it safely over over to the other side, I decided I had to go next. To wait would just prolong my mental torture - I can deal with much but I cannot tolerate being cold, even the thought of being cold.

Now there I was, with skinny leg denim jeans that could not be rolled up, no way, no how. Walking in water with the weight of wet denim carried its own risks. I had no option, the pants had to come off! Thankfully, "old ugly" covered my butt. Once again, that jacket came to the rescue! So with my jeans wrapped around my neck and my socks stuffed in my pocket, I was next to ford the creek. God, it was cold! About halfway across, my foot hit the edge of the "bridge" and I almost fell off. Quite a trick trying to keep my balance without having my butt hang out!

Once I got across, I did not wait for the others, I had to keep going. I was freezing and really needed to get my drawers back on! After a bit, everyone made it across, we regrouped and headed to the car, laughing the whole way.

The laughter continued on the ride home. Turns out Ray was wearing Karin’s black pantyhose, a secret revealed only after he rolled up his pants. As I put on my warm dry socks in the car, Rich called Viv. She wasn’t feeling well that night and opted to stay home. She asked if we needed anything. Rich said yeah, lots of towels!

Because it was much later than planned, we decided to stay at Rich and Viv’s house rather than drive out to Karin and Ray’s where most of the food was waiting. Otherwise, we would be enroute at the stroke of midnight!

Though most of the food and beverage was waiting in Roebling for revelers who never arrived, between the food, beer and champagne that Joe and I had brought, we had plenty for a good and very well-earned meal. Midnight came. It was 2008, the year we would do the Camino!

I had the same thought that night that I have every alternate New Year’s Eve. I like odd numbers. For me, odd numbered years tend to be good years. Even numbered years tend to bring change, put me out of my comfort zone into a whole new place. Which I guess isn’t a bad thing at all. I wondered what awaited me in the coming year.

Back on Course!

Hiking at the Delaware Water Gap, November 2007

I was heading in one direction when I started this blog but last week, wound up going a little off course. Kind of like a day on the Camino when I missed the yellow arrow that guides the way. I had to walk a little longer but I eventually got to where I needed to be!

My original intention here was a sequential summary of my Camino, from the moment those words first came up to the actual walking of the Camino, then toss in a bit of the Camino’s life lessons and work my way up to my preparations for my next Camino.

So now, back on course, I continue!

I love walking, hiking in the fall. For as long as I can remember, it’s been my favorite season. Each day brings change. Trees lose their leaves to open up vistas long hidden by the foliage. There’s something so good about have the wind whip around my hair. Everything is full of color and sensation. Last fall brought me hiking and the Camino. I can’t think of a better time of year to begin new things that resulted in so many good changes in my life.

There were some really great hikes last fall. There was the Pinnacle and on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Mount Timp on the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap that’s part of the Appalachian Trail. There were hikes in the Pine Barrens. Just this once, I kind of wish I didn’t toss my old journals. I remember pretty much all the hikes we did last November, but I’m just not sure about December.

What I recall best about those hikes were that they were just a lot of fun. Other friends came out for some of the hikes, it wasn’t just my Camino companions and I. The atmosphere was fun and friendly, I didn’t feel like I had to go further or faster. Though we were planning our Camino, there wasn’t a sense that we were training, we were just having a great time. And perhaps trying to convince Ray how much fun it would be to go on Camino. At that point he still hadn’t committed. Ray makes wine, very good wine too! He was hoping to attend a wine event in California that was being held around the same time that we were planning to do the Camino.

So as I think back to last December, I remember it as the time when the big Camino question was, will Ray go or no!

An Exciting Time to be American

The "Canadian Girl" and the "Young
Portuguese Guy" taking a smoke break
on Camino

What an exciting time to be an American! It’s been a long time since I have been able to say I feel proud of my country.

I’m most elated by how the world view of our country flipped the minute the election results were known. It’s almost cool to be an American again! It’s like, after eight very dark years, the light on that "beacon of hope" has finally been switched back on. Before I get lost in the land of metaphors, I’ll move on. This isn't about politics.

I’m so eager to get back to Europe, to experience this exciting new change in attitude. At the same time, I’m hoping that more US citizens will do their part to make a few small changes that will only serve to enrich their own experience when traveling outside this country. Now is a great opportunity for us to forever lose that tag, "Ugly American."

It doesn’t take much to learn a few key words of the language of the countries in which we travel. The people there really appreciate that we took the effort. Read a little about the customs and culture of a country and make a few adjustments, whether it’s in your clothing or your behavior. It’s that old "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," kind of thing. Simple little courtesies go such a long way toward building international good will. Oh, and please - don’t wear sneakers, unless you’re jogging! It's just tacky, go with me on this one.

Because world opinion toward the US was so bad when we left for Camino, my companions and I decided if asked, we would tell folks we were from New Jersey, not the US. We felt it would put things on a smaller, more human scale and allow us to talk about things people can relate to, like New York City rather than George W and his ill-conceived policies. We figured if we could pass for Brits or Canadians, all the better! I guess all those Tories who decided to stay in New Jersey after the American Revolution left something of a legacy as far as our accent goes. A group of young Spaniards we chatted with early one morning thought we were British. We didn’t tell them otherwise!

It’s hard to mask your nationality on Camino, it’s just a big melting pot of people from all over the world. Pilgrims get identified by their nationality, there was the Canadian Girl, the Young Portuguese Guy, the French Woman, the Brazilian Guys, the Brits. We were tagged the Americans. We were lucky though, conversations never got political. I’ve read books by other pilgrims who got cornered in that direction at least once on their Camino. We experienced only good things, a kinship that transcended who you are or were you came from.

I hope we were good ambassadors for our country. It would please me much if pilgrims we met along the road went home and said good things about Americans they met along the way, the people they walked with, ate with, drank with, even slept in the same room with. If we did anything to chip away at the image of the Ugly American, we made our contribution to international good will. I wonder if any of our Camino friends thought about us on election night.

We didn’t encounter any other Americans on Camino, nor did any other pilgrims we talked to. Despite our population, the US comes in around 10th of countries in the number of whose citizens walk the Camino, but that’s another thought for another day.

A Journal Should Be About the Journey

Cycling in the days when I never left home
without my heart rate monitor and cycling
computer!

I updated my hiking journal last night. It's a brand new journal which I started when I began hiking again in October. It's a far different thing than the "training logs" I used to keep before I left for Camino.

Back then, I kept a journal for cycling, another for the gym and yet another for hiking. I made careful entries about mileage, time, speed, heart rate, calories burned, weather conditions, every possible fact and figure. I was so obsessed with numbers that it was a major upset whenever my cycling computer stopped working or if I accidentally hit the "stop" button on my heart rate monitor. I would come back from my activity frustrated because I didn't know how I did! I couldn't measure, I couldn’t compare. I had no idea how I fared on that given day.

But, the Camino changed all that. Walking the Camino was a true test of my physical endurance. And there, as I pushed my body to the limit day after day I learned a key but simple lesson. What’s the rush? To get there sooner? Then what, it’s over. As I walked, I understood that the facts and figures that before were so important really meant nothing. It was the experience that mattered, living in the here and now, not pushing to go farther or faster to reach some self-imposed goal. My senses, which after a lifetime of suburban living, had long receded to the background, shot to the foreground. It was a totally new and almost overwhelming experience. I felt the touch of the Camino, absorbed its sights and sounds, smelled it, tasted it. Each day of the Camino was so spend living that moment that I had even forgotten, really forgotten, that the week after I returned, I was moving! And still had much to do before the moving truck arrived.

When I got home, I decided to toss my old journals as I did my final packing. It didn't matter anymore what my maximum heart rate was on a ride that hot day in July or how many calories I burned on that hike on a cold day in January. I wonder now why it ever did. Guess it just reflected the person I was then, not the person I am now.

I no longer wear a heart rate monitor, nor do I even look at the time I start or stop an activity. My new journal is a place for me to recount the things that matter, a retelling of the experience - laughing about the sound of gunshots while hiking through the Pine Barrens and hoping they were shooting in the other direction (as well as wondering why they were shooting in the first place)! Or sharing some beef jerky with a bold little terrier who, along with his person, hiked a full ten miles. Those are just two of the memories from my hike last Sunday. Those are the kinds of memories I want to preserve.

I still keep track of my milage, but it's no longer a gauge by which I measure myself. These days, my quick stroll at lunchtime matters just as much as a major trek up a mountain.

Cherry Hill's Best Kept Secret

It’s Monday and these days, I kind of like Mondays. I didn’t always but now I look at the day as the start of a fresh new week.

Now that I’ve started hiking again, Monday has become the day to see what, if any, damage I’ve done to myself after a weekend of hiking. Today, I feel pretty good. Low back a little achy when I first got up but I am due to see my chiropractor for my monthly maintenance adjustment so that’s okay. No foot problems, using moleskin protected that annoying "hotspot" on my left foot so there's no burning today.

At lunchtime, I’m planning to take my little jaunt up to the walking trail at the Barclay Farmstead. From the office, the entire trip is 2.2 miles. I think the trail at the Farmstead is Cherry Hill’s best kept secret. While a lot of people know the old farmhouse is there, few I’ve talked to are aware that just behind it is an incredible wilderness trail that meanders through woods and along the Cooper River, which at this point, looks more like a creek. I love it back there, it’s so peaceful.

I found that trail right after Christmas. Our Camino plans were just about final and my Camino companions and I were hiking pretty much once every weekend. But as 2007 was drawing to a close, we talked about how we needed to get our bodies used to daily walking, even if that meant just trying to get a mile or so in most days of the week. We all work full time so anything we could do during the week really mattered.

So taking that thought to heart, I brought my walking shoes and a change of clothes to the office and decided to take a walk from my office back to the Farmstead, maybe walk around the grounds a little and get in a mile or so. Not much but something!

It was cold and windy that day but in a good, exhilerating kind of way. I walked up the long driveway to the Farmstead, passed the farm house and just behind the small playground, I noticed a groomed path. Decided to take it and see where it would lead. After just a short walk, the path gave way to a natural dirt trail and suddenly, I’m feeling like I’m in the middle of the woods when in reality, I was in the middle of a congested suburb. What a shock, I was elated. Now, I had this magnificent place to walk during the work week when the best I was hoping for was a stroll through the neighborhood.

The Farmstead is truly a treasure and for my sake, I hope it remains a hidden treasure. I look forward to my lunchtime walks and always feel so great when I get back to the office.

Here’s a link to the Barclay Farmstead website. Notice how they don’t mention the walking trail anywhere?

http://www.barclayfarmstead.org/index.htm

The Camino Goes Portuguese

Autumn in the Pine Barrens, 2007

Last night was the cycling team year-end celebration party. Part of our tradition is to give crazy awards to everyone, it's pretty fun because they're usually so on target. I received the "Team Ghost" award! I hadn't ridden with the club all year. What a change from last year, when I was just elected club president and in regular e-mail and social contact with many of the club's members. I am once again reminded how so much has changed in this past year. One highlight though, Bob, a great guy who joined the club last year, is another who likes to hike and said he's going to plan some hikes now that cycling is winding to a close. I went on a few of Bob's hikes last year, each was a fun adventure.

I've been hiking with the Outdoor Club since the beginning of October. This group has been around for a long time and offers all sorts of outdoor activities. They have at least one hike a weekend, usually more, and they get a big turnout, at least on the hikes I've been on so far. Nice people too. Today, I joined them for a 10 mile hike on a new trail that when finished, will run 22 miles and be the second longest trail in the Pine Barrens, after the 50 mile Batona Trail. We did an out and back on the first section. Later this month, we'll do the same on the next section. It was a beautiful day and I felt really strong. I did remember to put some moleskin on that perpetual "hot spot" on my left foot and it made for a much nicer hike. Though I had always carried foot care "first aid" on hikes before Camino, it was there I came to fully appreciate that thing about an ounce of prevention!

I’m not quite sure when or how we decided to do the Camino Portuguese in May. It made a lot of sense to go in May for several reasons. We could take advantage of the extra day off from work for Memorial Day. The weather would be cooler and fewer pilgrims would be on the road than during the peak months of July and August.

While none of us were in a position to take four to six weeks off from work to do the full 800 kilometer Camino Frances, the classic Camino that everyone thinks of when you talk about Camino, I had hoped to do it in increments. Starting at St. Jean Pied-de-Port, going as far as vacation time would allow, then come back and pick up, year after year until reaching Santiago. Or at least, do the last part of the French Route, the last 100 or so kilometers to the Cathedral Santiago.

It was Karin’s idea to do the Portuguese Route. Though it made a certain sense, I was still disappointed. I had my heart set on the French Route, at least some portion of it! She pointed out that the entire Portuguese Route was only 200 kilometers and had far fewer pilgrims than the French Route but had good accommodations as it was the second most popular Camino. All in all, it would be a good beginner’s Camino, particularly since Ray, Karin’s husband, was still a bit of a reluctant pilgrim at that point, a name that would later stick, and Joe had begun to focus on a whole laundry list of potential unpleasantries that were more likely to be encountered on the far more populous French Route.

At that point, I just wanted to do a Camino. Any Camino. So Camino Portuguese it would be!

Here’s a link to one of the sites that describes the Camino Portuguese: http://www.mundicamino.com/

How a Thought Became a Thing

Photo of Joe, Karin and Ray, October 2007

I had the most bizarre dream earlier in the week. In that dream, I was on Camino, having just arrived at the refugio. I began laying out things from my backpack on the bed when I realized I didn't really bring anything. Basically, I only had the kind of things that would be in a day pack. From there, the dream went totally into dreamworld. The people I was traveling with didn't bring much of anything either and though there was some sort of plot to this dream, I really don't remember much of it.

I'm certain the dream came about because I finally made up my mind last weekend that I would do another Camino. So to help get me in the mood, I had just started reading yet another book about someone's Camino experience. Reading in bed, to me, is one of life's true little luxuries!

Now as for what that dream meant, I'm still trying to figure it out!

So much has occurred in my life since that first hike last November. But that's another blog for another day. One certainty is that a year ago, I would never have considered heading out on Camino on my own, no matter how much that article I had read in Der Spiegel kept hanging on the edge of my mind. As it turns out, going alone never even had to be considered.

In response to that flurry of e-mails following that first hike on the Pinnacle, Karin writes that she had always wanted to go on Camino. I stared at the computer screen, reading those words over and over. Suddenly, the Camino stopped being one of those crazy things you throw out there, like leaving work at lunchtime to hit the Appalachian Trail with nothing but an apple and a few bags of dry oatmeal. Or something that's on the "bucket list" of things you want to do before you die. With Karin's words, the Camino morphed from ether to substance. A thought became a thing!

Karin and I sent a few e-mails back and forth, I guess more than anything to confirm that the other was serious. Then at some point, Joe hopped on board. Though Karin still wasn’t sure whether her husband would go, the three of us kind of firmed up plans, at least to the extent that we would do Camino. Where, when and how were questions still to be answered.

I’ve put the link to the Wikipedia article about the Camino Santiago here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James>