Happy trails to me!

Yesterday I went hiking for the first time since I hiked the Camino de Santiago two years ago. It was Fun Times.

The hike was about eight miles long and took around five hours to hike, so it was shorter than the shortest hike I did on the Camino. But it felt just right.

Hiking brought back many memories from my adventures on the Camino de Santiago two years ago. And as I was enjoying the hike and the scenery, I began to ask myself if I would ever consider hiking the Camino de Santiago again. Well, the influence of the exhilirating fresh air, the chorus of birds, and the surrounding beauty, combined forces to gently persuade me that, just maybe, I would.

But while I mentally formulated plans for my next hike through the North of Spain, I began to grow tired. As I struggled uphill, my legs began to burn and my lungs cried out for more oxygen. I started feeling that telltale rub that indicates a burgeoning blister.

And I changed my mind.

I remembered why it took me two years to get around to hiking again.

The fact that I started out on the hike yesterday feeling healthy and whole did a lot for my enjoyment of the hike. This happy circumstance was only true for the first two days of my eleven-day hike along the Camino de Santiago. On the subsequent days, I mostly just felt tired and in pain.

I'm not saying that I regret going - quite the contrary! I enjoyed the time that I spent with my fellow peregrinos, and it was a one-of-a-kind experience. We saw some amazing scenery and a side of Spain that I had not seen before. Not to mention the fact that it was rewarding to see what I was capable of.

That said, I think in the future I will most likely stick to one-day hikes. I greatly appreciated the fact that I was not completely exhausted by the end of the day and I was able to come home, shower, and sleep in my own bed. I definitely plan to hike more this summer - but not necessarily for eleven days at a time.

I'm falling apart

When I decided to go on a 12-day hike in June, I had no idea how long it would take for me to fully recover. After the second day of said hike, I lost patches of skin of about 1-1/2" in diameter from both heels of my feet. Also during the hike, three of my toes were smashed. Two toenails on my right foot were smashed by my too-tight hiking boots (incidentally, also the inspiration for my patented invention, Peel-Away-Skin). One toenail on my left foot was smashed during a fight over whether a certain food item is referred to as a "cookie" or a "biscuit." I won't mention any names, but if you're at all familiar with my hiking companions - it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who I was fighting with. And no, a "ciscuit" is not a good compromise. My heels healed over (hmm...) within a week of finishing the hike, but the skin there is still pink and shiny. My toes, however, are a different story. Within the last week or so, I have lost portions of three different toenails. So, of course, I have pictures to share!

It's kind of weird. I've always been really healthy and never had to go to the hospital for broken bones or other injuries growing up. But during the course of the past year, I've been a wreck. In November, I broke the little toe on my left foot (you can tell by comparison in the above picture that it didn't heal back the same!); in February, I gave myself a mild concussion and bled all over the place; then in June, I destroyed my feet on this hike. So the question of the day is: What is the most memorable injury you've had in the last year? Alternative question of the day: What is the stupidest thing you've ever done to cause injury to yourself? My answer to both questions is the same: The concussion I gave myself in February happened when I stood up quickly, hitting my head on the cupboard door that I had just left open. I unknowingly cut my head on the glass pane and discovered it moments later when blood started dripping on my clothes. This just happened to be right at the beginning of finals, and it unfortunately affected my memory. I got headaches whenever I listened to, read, or spoke Spanish - not a good thing since my classes were taught in Spanish and my finals were given in Spanish. One night I even had to have Kelly explain my own notes to me because I didn't understand them (I had written them all in Spanish). Needless to say, not one of my proudest moments.

I´m tired

Well, we did it. We arrived in Santiago de Compostela just before noon today, and I am completely exhausted. We´re taking an overnight train tonight at about 10:30 pm. That will be a bit strange for two reasons: 1) The only mode of transportation we´ve used for almost two weeks is our own feet. 2) We´re always in bed before 10:00. It should be good fun, though.

After eating lunch and showering, we took our packs to the train station to store them in luggage lockers. I briefly contemplated staying at the train station for 5 hours to avoid the 10 minute walk back into town. That´s how tired I am. A bit ironic when you consider the hours upon hours I´ve spent walking during the last two weeks, huh? But in the end I managed to drag myself into town. Hopefully I´ll be able to get some good rest on the train tonight and maybe take a nap tomorrow, because tomorrow night I´ll be on an overnight bus. Not relaxing. But despite my exhausted state, I can´t wait for Morocco.

I am a member of the Hardcore Crew

Yes, it´s true. I am hardcore. I´m not bragging- just stating facts. For the last week or so, the other five members of my hiking group and myself have been affirming to each other several times a day that we are, in fact, hardcore. Our hardcoreness, if you will, is demonstrated constantly in a variety of ways. Examples? 1) The blisters, burns, and other injuries that we bear on our bodies- which do not stop us from hiking. Every morning before we venture out, blisters are drained, feet are bandaged, ibuprofen is administered, etc. But we keep on. 2) The route we have chosen is the primitive route. This means that the route is...well... primitive. It is much less popular and the trail is harder to navigate than some of the others. We all came to the conclusion today that the Camino de Santiago would make a good video game. There are many near-deadly perils along the way, such as stinging nettles which jump out suddenly from the bushes, thorns that spring out from inconspicuous shrubbery, dirt that instantly turns into mud and sucks you in when you step on it, R.O.U.S.´s (rodents of unusual size), etc. I may be exaggerating slightly there, but a few of us were chased by a horse a couple days ago, we were nearly stampeded by a herd of cows once, and there have been more than a few dogs that have done their best to get at us. Not to mention a bull that we cautiously passed on the path the other day. Our taking the primitive route also means that we have fewer options regarding places to stop. The French route has an albergue (pilgrim´s lodging place) every 5 k or so. If a pilgrim on that route gets tired, he has many different options for places to stay. Not us. We have a set hike each day and there generally aren´t other options for us. We hike until we get there. 3) We often complete our hikes significantly under the time alotment. This is because we hike quickly, we don´t take breaks often, and the breaks are short. 4) We just are. Take my word for it. We´re hardcore. That´s my story and I´m sticking to it.

We only have 53 k left of our hike. It´s amazing to me to think that I have hiked over 200 k in the last 9 days. Today´s hike was about 32 k. We´re pretty tired, but it wasn´t hot for most of the hike and that helped a great deal. We actually had a bit of a thunderstorm, which was pretty cool. We were sort of hoping to get poured on, but that didn´t happen. Also, we´re hiking in Galicia now, which is not nearly as mountainous as Asturias was. But probably the main reason the hike wasn´t as difficult as we expected it to be is that we grow more hardcore by the day. Tomorrow we have another 33 k, then 20 k on Sunday and we´re in Santiago!

Although this hike has left me completely thrashed, I have enjoyed it. Thinking that it will be over in just a couple of days is almost sad. Almost. I´m definitely looking forward to sleeping in (we´ve been getting up around 5 most days) and letting my body heal. I´m also really looking forward to going to Morocco and the other travel that I have planned for the next month. But for now I think I´ll just go put some aloe vera on my sunburns.

Pain

I´m writing this on day 5 of 11 on the Camino de Santiago. It has been a lot more than I bargained for, to say the least. When it´s all said and done, we will have hiked 270 km. Not bad. When I decided to come along for the hike, I thought, "A little over 167 miles, that would be an average of about 15 miles per day. No big deal, I can walk 4 miles/hour easily..." However, hiking over hills with a backpack on is completely different from walking on a treadmill at the gym.

At this point you may be thinking, "Duh." Understand, though, I didn´t really know what to expect. In my mind, I sort of pictured a trail that meandered through quaint little towns in northern Spain- not a sometimes muddy, sometimes rocky, sometimes barely visible trail that darts back and forth over rugged hills. Almost every time we stop for a water break, my water bottle hisses when I open it because of the change in elevation. Today we hiked 27.6 km in just over 7 hours (the book said it would take 8, but we were seriously hauling). According to my earlier calculations, that should have taken just over 4 hours. Ha.

I think I´m enjoying it, though. I´m too tired and in too much pain to really be sure, but the scenery has been amazing and it has been great to get away from the smog and cigarette smoke of Madrid. It has also been a great opportunity to hang out with friends and get to know them better. We talk a lot while we hike in order to focus on something other than the pain and how far we have left to go. Also, there is nothing like wearing yourself out to make you appreciate relaxing.

At the end of the day, it´s an extremely satisfying feeling to know you´ve pushed yourself to the limit and accomplished your goal. We all have battle scars to prove it, too. My personal claim to fame is the wounds I got on the second day of our hike. Apparently, I did not sufficiently break in my hiking boots before the trip. I noticed that morning before commencing the hike that I was starting to get blisters on the back of my heels. So, I thought I would prevent them by putting on some Compede bandages. I also tied my shoes a little tighter than I had the day before because I thought that was why I was getting the blisters. BAD IDEA. I was actually getting the blisters because the shoes were too small, so I really only compounded the problem. The longer we hiked, the more my feet hurt. But I consoled myself with the knowledge that I had properly bandaged my feet and that the bandages just needed time to work in before the pain would subside. Finally, we stopped for a break and the extreme pain that I was experiencing with every step motivated me to take off my shoes and look at my feet. The bandages were still in place, but as I took off my sock I noticed that there was blood in it. Apparently, my toes were crowded together too much and one of my toenails was cutting into one of my toes. That should have been my clue that the shoes were too tight, huh? But no. After hiking 28 km, we finally arrived at our destination for the day. After enjoying a wonderful meal in a very nice hotel, we were told that we could shower there before going to the albergue. Peregrinos get special treatment!

As I took of my boots, I saw that the bandage had come mostly off of my right foot. Not only that, it had taken the skin with it- a patch approximately 2" square. Not fun. Later that night, the bandage came off of my other foot with a slightly smaller patch of skin. So, that has added all kinds of excitement to hiking. I´m hiking in my running shoes now, which are much more comfortable. However, they´ve been my running shoes for a while and they are getting pretty worn out. So, I think I have about 4-5 blisters on my feet now. I noticed 3 last night, but I was too tired to even bandage them or anything. I think my toenails have been cutting in to my toes, as well. I´ll check all that out tonight. Oh well.

It has most certainly been an adventure thus far. Pictures will be forthcoming, but I currently do not have any way to post them and I´m not sure how long it will be before I do. With all of this said, I´m going to close now. I´ve got a couple more kilometers to hike out to the albergue where we´re staying tonight before I can shower and doctor up my blisters and sunburn. So long!