HikeAcrossSpain

Day 16  Carrion to Sahagun Miles (Biking). 24.1 Elevation gain:  503’ Descent:  477’ Total bikes miles:  79.1 Total walking miles:  187.7 Total miles:  266.8 Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. Explore. Dream. Discover – Mark Twain This was a challenging day. Breakfast was not available until an hour later than usual. We began biking a bit after 9 am under cloudy skies and very cool temperatures. The first part of the day was on a seldom used paved country road. We were making good time, passing a lot of pilgrims, and reuniting with a few from past days. The scenery was non-spectacular, mostly flat with endless acres of young wheat.  Late morning we stopped at a very small town with a nice cafe and enjoyed our coffees. As we did, the dark clouds rolled in. We pushed on trying to out ride the storms. We stopped briefly at a town square bench for a ro...

Day 15   Castrojeriz to Carrion Miles (biking):  29.4 Elevation gain;  972’ Descent:  912’ Total Bike Miles:  55.0 Total Walk Miles:  187.7 Total Miles:  242.7 The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine.            John Howard First a very short synopsis of today’s biking. The weather was cool and cloudy with a good tailwind all day. Lots of gravel and bumpy paths. All of us suffered from sit bone pain today and the rough paths did nothing to relieve that! Less than a mile from Castrojeriz we met the first hill of the day...3/4’s of a mile long. All of our bikes began bucking about 300 yards into the hill and refused to be ridden any further. It was a long walk up the hill pushing our bikes with panniers.  At the crest, the terrain leveled off for about 1/4 mile and then began a very steep and long downhill that the guidebook said was an 18 degree pitch. Fortunately it w...

Day 14  Burgos to Castrojeriz Miles Today:  25.6 (Biking) Total biking miles:   25.6 Elevation gain:  1050’ Descent:   1216’ Miles walking so far: 187.7 Total miles:  213.3 Get a bicycle. You will not regret it...if you live.                  Mark Twain  We shifted gears today and started our first of 4 days of biking. Our adventure started on some rocky footing as the rental bikes were to be delivered to our hotel at 8 am. After a couple of phone calls, they finally arrived about 8:45. Once we got the bikes adjusted and our gear for the day organized we finally hit the Camino about 9:30.  We had concerns about biking in the city of Burgos (pop 180,000) starting in the heart of the downtown during rush hour. Our concerns were unwarranted as the traffic on the streets we travelled was very light and after 2-3 miles we were in the countryside. The lack of traffic here continue...

Day 13  San Juan de Ortega to Burgos Miles;  17.4 Total Miles:  187.7 Elevation gain:  488’ Descent:  938’ Moving speed;  3.0 mph “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles”          Tim Cahill Friends. A major part of the Camino experience is the people you meet. People from all over the world. Most pilgrims stay in albergues, which are basically hostels which are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. You sleep in large rooms with dozens of others and you are forced to meet a lot of people by necessity, Our experience is a bit different. We are staying in small hotels or BnB type accommodations. We have more privacy and comfort but we must get from point A to point B every day as we are pre-booked. We were concerned that we would not meet as many people this way and would not create as many friendships. However, I feel we have done quite well. We have met other pilgrims from 15 diffe...

Day 12  Belorado to San Juan de Ortega Miles:  16.2 Total miles:  170.3 Elevation gain:  1407’ Descent:  654’ Moving Speed:  2.8 mph “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page” Saint Augustine The weather was even better today! Warmer and cloudy at the start, but the sun came out quickly along with some light breeze. The afternoon was much warmer and I have now gone from 5 upper layers at the start of the trip 10 days ago in St Jean, to 3 layers yesterday, to only two layers today. It was in the uppers 60’s this afternoon and another day with no rain! A good bit of climbing today along with some downhills and it proved a little tedious at times. Fortunately almost the entire day was on unpaved paths which is easier on the feet than pavement. We passed thru several small towns along the way and had a long uphill grind from Villafranca to almost San Juan de Ortega. This section was mostly wooded thru extens...

Day 11  Santo Domingo to Belorado Miles:  14.0 Total miles:  154.1 Elevation gain:  854’ Descent:  402’ So much of who we are, is where we have been – William Langwiesche One of the biggest challenges we have experienced on the Camino thus far is evening food. We usually arrive each day at our accommodation somewhere between 1:30 and 4:00. We usually take an hour or two to unwind, take a shower, reorganize, and do sink laundry or shower laundry. Then by 5 or so the ravenous hunger sets in. To prevent being “Hangry” (a state of anger caused by extreme hunger) we go in search of drinks and food. The problem is that in Spain, almost no place to eat dinner is open until 7:30 or 8:00 at the earliest.  That is why the pilgrims all turn into dogs. No just any dog but they become like stay mongrels, feral like in nature. They begin prowling the streets and alleys of the local village or town in search of food. They travel either alone or in s...