About six months ago, we went to see the movie "Wild", Cheryl Strang's story of her Pacific Northcrest Trail experience. On the way home, Diana mentioned that we should do something like that. Bill agreed saying that whenever we travel, we walk ten or so miles a day exploring so why not. We both knew that the Pacific Northcrest Trail probably wasn't for us but Bill knew another Bonneville Power Administration retiree whose wife had walked across northern Spain on the Camino. Having lived in Spain while she was in college, Diana was excited at that prospect. By the time we arrived home that night, we had decided we would do the Camino de Santiago. The next day, Bill ordered several guide books and contacted his friend whose wife had walked the Camino. And so our adventure began!
Over the next several months, we studied about the history of the Camino as well as what to expect and how best to prepare for walking almost 500 miles in 33 days. Bill began bicycling ten miles several days a week in addition to his regular workouts at the gym. Diana continued to workout at Curves but increased the length of her workouts and joined Bill on Sundays for his ten mile bike rides.
Next, we began to focus on equipment. Since we learned that we should carry no more than ten percent of our ideal body weight on our backs including the weight of the pack itself, it was important to have properly fitted, lightweight backpacks, so they were our first purchase. Then we needed good hiking boots that would allow our feet to withstand day after day of walking long distances. We found the clerks at REI to be very helpful in choosing equipment since they have experience outfitting many people to walk The Camino. Once we had the backpacks and hiking boots, we were ready to start a serious training regimen.
in July, we started to walk seven mile stints several times a week with fully loaded backpacks in our hiking boots. We chose to walk up Mill Creek, cross the wooden bridge, walk around Bennington Lake, cross back over the wooden bridge, circle Rooks Park, and then walk back down Mill Creek to our car. We believe this was a good training route since it is a combination of pavement, gravel, and dirt paths, and goes up and down hills and has flat stretches just like the Camino does. We continued to do this until mid-August when we started walking seven miles five days a week and fourteen miles one day a week and added walking poles to our equipment. We ended our training regimen with three seven mile days and two fourteen mile days.
Two aspects were particularly challenging during our training. One was setting a pace that would allow us to walk a long distance day after day since The Camino is a walk of endurance rather than one of speed. We soon established a moderate pace that is comfortable for both of us. The other challenge was the heat. Although Walla Walla's temperatures are in the upper 80's and 90's this time of year, it won't be that hot when we are walking The Camino. We were able to walk in spite of the heat maintaining our pace and a reasonable recovery time.
Now we are excited to begin our adventure. On Saturday, September 19th, we fly out of Seattle to land in Biarritz, France, on Sunday. There we will spend the night and on Monday travel to St. Jean Pied-De-Port, France, where we will begin to walk on Tuesday, September 22nd. Please join us on our spiritual journey!