In which TruePilgrim®️ goes road walking then trail walking and has to confront his values at the Slough of Despond and getting what you wish for is evaluated.
Track is here.
left Wynette at the FEVE station and started for Ballota, walking along the N-632a, that is, road walking. Road walking is anathema to TruePilgrim because we want the true pilgrim experience of walking along forest trails far from the highway. There you can think deep thoughts.
This continued for six miles into Ballota, a lovely little town with interesting buildings and a view of the ocean. I was thinking that I would be road walking all day and wishing for something different. Ominously, as I found out later, a ballota is a deep narrow valley.
Walking out on the N-632a I missed the Camino cutoff but noticed a few hundred feet later and doubled back. The trail went steeply down and was rocky and hard to walk on.
About a quarter mile and 380 feet down I got to this little beach.
The trail then switched around and went back up 380 feet ending maybe 300 feet from where I started down. Worth it? Maybe. I was pretty tired now, you feel the 20 pound pack more going uphill. The trail crossed over a bit and then went down to the water again. Now I’m pretty tired. Unfortunately it was sunny for once.
Besides the up and down there is the mud.
And the water crossing.
Okay, that wasn’t so bad but it is the principle of the thing that matters.
Over again and down the third ballota. Now I’m a lot tired but I have to press on to make it to meet Wynette for a late lunch. Also my phone battery is down to 28%. I am recordings the track and I don’t want to lose it so I can use to to complain to people about what a hard day I had.
After another mile I am back on the N-632a. I am now glad to be road walking but time is passing and my battery is going so I have to walk as quickly as I can. Finally getting into Cadavedo there is a long uphill into town. 15 miles for the day. I am hot and sweaty and it was great to see Wynette and the bungalow she had gotten us and have lunch (at 3:30).
They are continually changing the Camino Del Norte, getting rid of road walking and replacing it with “long cuts” where you walk an extra mile or two, go up and down a few hundred extra feet and go through some mud.
We turned in our TruePilgrim card.
Honey, I think we turned in our TruePilgrim card a long time ago.
Long, long, long walk, 15-1/2 miles. Pretty good time to make it by 3:30!! Not much sympathy for the trail — your photo going down to the beach doesn’t make it look any worse than La Luz. Then again, I haven’t carried a 20lb. pack up and down hills since I trekked in Nepal about four years ago. But lot of sympathy for the muddy bits. They’re awful. Given the length of the hike I can imagine you were dog tired by the end. You earned your lunch. Glad Wynette showed restraint and took the train.
The ups and downs are a lot like La Luz. We did a training hike on LL with full packs before we left, but only about 6 miles round trip. I try to figure out why it seems harder. I think the slightly longer distances plus doing it day after day. But I hope I’m toughening up.
We walked some of that path a couple years ago and I found it very difficult due to the steep ups and downs!! Be mindful! EnJoy!
I took a look at the details of Charlie’s hike again. If the numbers recorded by his phone are correct, 15.43 miles and 4 hours and 28 minutes of walking time, then that was a truly impressive hike. It comes out to 3.45 mph which comes out to less than 18 minutes a mile, which is impressive without a pack on the flat. He must’ve been jogging part of the time. 🙂
4:28 moving time and 6:22 total time. The non-moving time includes breakfast and one coffee and a lot of me stopping and breathing heavily on the uphills. The wikiloc app is aggressive in pausing the moving time when you stop for more than a few seconds.