As I hike, I often think about why. Why (oh why) am I doing this? By any measure, a large part of each day is very difficult. My pack is heavy. The trail climbs and descends, climbs and descends, tracing every canyon and gully. And primarily, it is hot. Too hot for this cold-blooded Canadian! […]
100 kilometres and counting
The Pacific Crest Trail runs 4240 kilometres from the Mexican to the Canadian border. Every year, about 700 people set out on this five-month wilderness thru hike, and about 30 per cent complete it. Me — I’m planning to hike for a month. I felt like a bit of a fraud on the first day. Every […]
Heading uphill in Big Bend
My Pacific Crest Trail trek began with a six-day pre-hike in Big Bend National Park — a chance to test my gear and my appetite for solo tenting before heading out on the PCT. I am in Texas because of a new Banff film screening in Midland. This is the heart of oil country. […]
A river of pilgrims
For the past two weeks I have been walking through two northern regions of Spain — Asturias and Galicia. Asturias is the wilder of the two. The Camino Primitivo passes through alpine moorlands and remote villages where farming and pilgrims seem to be the only economic drivers. Wayfinding in Asturias was at times haphazard. On […]
Why?
My friend Tim Latter says walking the Camino makes you a better person. He might be right. Certainly it teaches perseverance. (You could also call this stubbornness.) But, at the risk of sounding like Pollyanna or Brené Brown, it also encourages empathy and curiosity. Meals on the Camino are a veritable mini-United Nations. At last […]
The green hills of Asturias
For the past week on the Camino Primitivo, I have been immersed in green! Even Ireland would envy these hills. The Camino Primitivo is the original Santiago pilgrimage route, established by King Alfonso II of Asturias in 824. It was Alfonso who ordered that a church be erected in what eventually became Santiago de Compostela, […]
Carved in Stone
On Sunday, I arrived in Santiago de Compostela and like hundreds of thousands of pilgrims before me, I was awed by the granite facade of the Cathedral. This is where Saint James is buried, and since 814 it has been a destination for pilgrims. The existing church was completed the 13th century. This impressive and […]
The Sacred and the Profane
Hello from day seven of the Camino Portuguese. It has taken me a little while to settle into this walk, and to find the energy to write a blog post. First off, I needed to get used to 25+-kilometre days carrying a pack. Ouch! And secondly, I needed to adjust my expectations after last year’s […]
Fellow travellers
(Strictly for nature nerds.) As you can imagine you spend most of your time looking at the landscape during a month-long trek. But you also spend a significant amount of time staring at your feet. Southern Portugal is a sandy environment, and like much of Utah (and Banff ski trails after a snowfall), you can […]
The real end of the trail
The photo Diane took of me in Porto Covo marked the end of my backpacking trip. But the official end of the Fisherman’s Trail is 10 k north of Porto Covo. So Thursday, carrying just a daypack, I walked this final section. After 230 k of protected seascape in Southwest Alentejo and Vicentina Coast Natural […]