College Student seeks Camino Mentor

[Eyskens]

What does your base load consist of?  I did the Camino with 25 + ibs and
medium weight books but I don't think I'll do that again as I could have
easily thrown out some items. I have since (the Camino) read 'Beyond
Backpacking' by Ray Jardine.  How does his recommended load translate to
the Camino.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage [mailto:GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU] On
Behalf Of Frank Metcalf and Mary Doherty
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 9:16 AM
To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
Subject: Re: College Student seeks Camino Mentor


I guess we live in alternate universes that share the same camino!  I
reported primary experience--mine and my two companions'--rather than
that of "those guys . . . many of these guys" etc., which leaves a lot
of leeway for innocently fudging the examples. Funny thing, I was there
the same general time (O Cebreiro on June 7 2002) in a front-page storm,
and we had no trouble with any of these dire problems relating to
running shoes . . . worn by others. The only person we saw in sandals
then was a tough French woman named Francine, who finally did don socks
in the cold, and strode on to Santiago. We saw very few people in
runners besides ourselves at the start, but the numbers grew somewhat as
boots were abandoned after the meseta. The suffering "many" in running
shoes must have cleverly avoided us. We thought the ankle-deep mud was
funny, not miserable, and we enjoyed the hills too instead of huffing
and clumping laboriously up them.

There's a beneficial cascade brought on by light loads (our base was 6
kg, max 7): shoes can be much lighter than they "should" be, thus even
less energy is spent, the hills flatten out, nimbleness on steep or
difficult ground increases, mood elevates, and so on. If we were to
recast our discussion away from "footgear" and toward "the cascading
benefits of ultralight travelling," we'd probably all be on the same
page. Except that few of us seem to have experienced it directly.

Besides our loads, we felt that conditioning made a cascading type of
difference, as did, psychologically, a long history of life and
wilderness travel in Canada's Far North (where I was a tundra
archaeological surveyor by canoe). Life history can't be remade, but
loading and training are, in the end, personal choices. I speak with
converted zeal about this because I'm a hopeless packer, and the
camino--my fear of it--set me right. The benefits were outstanding, and,
having been helped by an ultralight pilgrim predecessor, I want to
encourage others in turn.

Frank Metcalf, Vancouver BC


Ed Madden said:

. . . I found many times (e.g. O Cebreiro) where I was walking on very
rocky ground.  In these conditions, boots/socks offer great protection
against damage as well as grip underfoot especially on slippery wet
rockface.

During May/June 2002, I experienced days of very heavy rain but my
Gortex-lined boots kept my feet well dry.  Those guys in
runners/trainers/sandals really suffered.  Their feet (and socks) got
thoroughly  wet and it was abject misery for some.  Then of course, once
wet, it can take days for the trainers to dry out. Stuffing newspaper
into them overnight just doesn't do the trick, so you end up walking in
wet/damp footwear for days.  No wonder many of these guys got blisters
and fungal diseases.  And even when the rain ceases, I found many places
where the ground had turned into ankle-deep mud.  You know, the thick,
heavy, cling-on type.  Walking in this with boots was hard-going.
Walking in ankle-deep mud with trainers was abject misery.  No wonder
some had to take the bus over these stages.