The French section – 2009 walk from Lyon, France to Burguete, Spain.
Longwalk 2009 ~ Overview
“Don’t Stop Me Now”
Okay, okay, it’s more than a passing fancy, more than a hobby… when the stars align just so, what else can you do? Something gets into you when you walk so far. By late 2008 I was yearning once more for the Camino… But I’d been studying French… so I decided to put it all together on the most famous trail in France, the original pilgrimage road from Le Puy-en-Velay to St-Jacques-Compostele. For a shakedown, I decided to start in Lyon. This is the route of the French section I walked in 2009. The last part, from Montreal-de-Gers to the Spanish border at St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, is the same trail I walked in 2005 on the Voie de Vezelay (more…)
Through the alley between two estates on the trail from Lyon to Le Puy-en-Velay, France 2009.
Making Light ~ Get Rid of It
It’s never too late to lighten up…
It’s almost inevitable, no matter how hard we try. Somehow, something extra ends up in our backpacks. A week down the trail and you start wondering, “Why did I bring this? Or maybe you just end up with something extra, which can easily happen for any number of reasons.
Depending on what it is, where you are, and who you’re with, you can easily take control of this most unwelcome situation.
Get Rid of It. You can: (more…)
Over a rural rail crossing on the trail from Lyon to Le-Puy, France 2009.
Making Light ~ Sharing the Load
It’s nice to have a friend…
I’ve started planning a long walk for 2011, probably through France. This time, I’ll be joined by my wife for part of the walk. Until now, I’ve always walked solo, so I’ve been looking at ways we can share our total load and still have everything we need.
Other than clothes, personal medications and some toiletries, it turns out that a lot of the gear can easily be shared. Of course, we’ll probably choose to each take a camera, but quite a bit can be left behind by one or the other of us. Here are some examples of things that might be shared by two people walking together on the grande randonnée trails of France, and the caminos of Spain: (more…)
Over the old Roman bridge on the trail from Lyon to Le-Puy, France 2009.
Making Light ~ the “2-Day” Rule
“What if I need it?”
One of the hardest hurdles for some novice ultralighters to overcome is mastering the art and discipline of “leaving it behind”. They worry over lists of gear and supplies that they might need, even though they think (and hope) they probably won’t. “But I might! And what if I do?”
For example, ”What if I catch a cold? Maybe I should take some cold medicine. Just in case…” “What if there are mosquitoes? Maybe I should carry repellent. Just in case…” “What if etc., etc,. etc…” (more…)
Through an ancient village gate on the trail from Lyon to Le-Puy, France 2009.
Making Light ~ Expendables
Determining consumption rate
“Expendables” are the things you carry that disappear over time as you use them. I think of “Consumables” as those supplies used in a single day, such as snacks or a picnic lunch. Buy them on your way out of town, and finish them before reaching today’s destination.
Expendables, on the other hand, are depleted at a more or less daily rate over time – things like medications, toothpaste, antiperspirant, sunscreen, and first aid supplies – for the most part, items that make up your personal, medical, toiletry, blister, and first aid kits. For many of these supplies, you can determine very accurately how much you’ll need for a given period of time, and thereby start off with no more than you’ll need. The perfect expendables list will be consumed during your trip, day by day, and exhausted on the last day. (more…)
Even St. Nick uses a light load whenever possible. On the trail from Lyon to Le-Puy, France 2009.
Making Light ~ Clothing
Take only as much as you need
It may seem obvious that if you want to minimize your pack weight, you shouldn’t carry any more of anything than you’re likely to need. (Congratulations – if you’ve read this far, maybe you’re hooked on the idea.) But how much is that?
Here are some tips to help you answer that question when it comes to clothing.
Study the climate, weather, terrain (especially elevation) of the route and season of your walk. Consider how you plan to deal with inclement weather. (more…)
On the trail from Lyon to Le-Puy, France 2009.
Making Light – Introduction
A Stroll Through Longwalking Tips & Techniques…
Making Light is a series of articles on observations and lessons learned about how to lighten the load of your backpack. The focus is preparation for a long-distance walk, mainly on trails and back roads, with occasional off-trail forays.
The context is 3-season hiking, from village to village, inn to hotel to guest house to gîte d’etape to chambre d’hote, etc. – or at least, to a dry place to throw down a sleeping bag. The pro forma trip duration is 30 days. (more…)
Longwalk route, France, 2007 – Paris to Bordeaux.
Paris to Bordeaux
I guess I was hooked… After arriving home from my three month ramble in 2005, I set about planning (along with dreaming, working, saving, studying, training) to stretch my legs again on the trails of Europe. Before long, I focused on returning to France in 2007.
As it turned out, Autumn worked best with my schedule, so I headed off to “the Hexagon” in late September. From my earliest thoughts of walking in France, I was curious about departing from the very heart of Paris. And so I did…
I walked from the zero-point in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame south across the Beauce to Orleans and the Loire River valley, west through chateau country to Tours, and then south into the Aquitaine to Bordeaux. My muse, Eliza, likes to remind me that it took 42 days to walk from Paris to Bordeaux; but my return trip on the TGV high speed train took only 3 hours! “Keep that in mind, next time”, she tells me…
Longwalk route, 2005 – Reims, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
so I marched April into May…
At last, I reached another crossroad in my life. I’d passed plenty of milestones, to be sure, but had also made my share of false starts and missteps along the way… so I gathered together what still remained in my control, and conspired to spend the Spring walking in France.
I’d made a few wilderness camping trips over the years, and tramped much of South America after college, but it was years since I’d hoisted more than a day pack to my shoulders. (more…)
MRI scan of osteoarthritic knee.
Arthritis and Long-distance hiking
It wasn’t too long after I returned home from my first walk across France and Spain that I developed acute knee pain, which completely hobbled me for a couple of weeks. After a series of doctors and scans I got the diagnosis of severe osteoarthritis of the knee. One of the orthopedists said there’s basically a whole the size of a nickel through the cartilage of my right knee. Ouch, I thought. (more…)
