La Gran Aventura Day 148: Hospital de la Condesa to Sarria

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Today was our most ambitious day of hiking yet: over 34 km, almost 22 miles.

We decided to get out early by waking up at 5am instead of the usual 6am. The kids did a good job of packing, and we were out before first light.

The first section from Hospital includes one last steep uphill to get to the Alto de Poio. I was really struggling during that part. I just felt tired, and River felt very heavy.

But at the top of the Alto there is a perfectly placed bar where we were able to stop and get some hot chocolate and pastries, and it helped me to get on track.

The sunrise was absolutely breathtaking. These high mountain valleys fill up with clouds, and looking down on them I feel on top of the world.

After that, I felt much better, and the hiking went well.

Most of the rest of the day was a long descent, but we did have one more long ascent right after Triacastela.

It was all good, but it was also definitely a challenge. We were on our feet hiking for right around 12 hours. The kids did a great job, and we spent most of the day hiking by ourselves. It gave us lots of time to chat.  It was a long, hard day, but I’m really grateful. The kids did an awesome job.

I’m also happy to be in Sarria. It’s the town where you have to start if you are on this Camino and want to walk far enough to receive the official pilgrim certificate in Santiago. So there is a huge influx of pilgrims here. They all look clean and geared up and excited to start. We call them “Sarrigrinos,” and they are really fun to see.

I’m starting to feel the pressure of the end. We have just over 100 km (60 miles), left, so I need to make a plan, but I worry about jumping the gun and running the risk of not finishing well.

I guess we will just do the best we can.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 147: Vega de Valcarce to Hospital de la Condesa

Monday, May 6, 2024

This morning was one of the toughest if the Camino. Our albergue was so cold that our clothing didn’t all dry out last night, so some people had to put on cold and wet clothes this morning.

But the best news is, it looks like the rain is done -- perhaps for the rest of the Camino.

Today we hiked a big mountain called O Cebreiro. It’s one of the highest points on the Camino, and it’s a pretty rough trail. Because of all the rain yesterday, things were quite muddy, but the temperature was much better today, and while the hike was long and difficult, everyone did a really good job.

At the top of the mountain O Cebreiro is the village O Cebreiro. It looks like something from a Star Wars movie. Lots of little round stone huts that have been turned into shops and restaurants and hostels. They even had a pilgrim supply shop where we were finally able to get Kimball some new shoes. He’s grateful.

O Cebreiro is the first town in Galicia. It’s a beautiful and wild country, and the people here are kind. Their native language is Gallego, which is closely related to Portuguese, and they speak Spanish with a song-songy accent unlike anything else in Spain. I love it.

The Galician people are also culturally closely related to celts, so they play the bagpipes and wear kilts. It’s a really magical place, and I’m happy to be here.

After lunch in O Cebreiro we got on what looked like the main trail but turned out to be an alternate and called for a bunch of bushwhacking to get to the main trail. It was quite an adventure. At times we were in weeds much taller than the kids.

We pushed on another five kilometers or so to the tiny village of Hospital de la Condesa. Again, because it’s off schedule there is nobody here in the municipal albergue. Just one lady and another couple. It’s been recently renovated, and it’s clean and just really nice. The shower was one of the best I’ve had, and it restored my faith in humanity after a terrible shower last night.

Today was a tough day because of the climb. Tomorrow will be tough because we are going to shoot for Sarria. It will be our longest day ever in kilometers. I’m looking forward to it.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 146: Villafranca del Bierzo to Vega de Valcarce

Sunday, May 5, 2024

This morning we woke up to the sound of pouring rain. It’s miraculous and surprising, but this is the first morning of real rain that we’ve had on the Camino. Lately we have walked through some showers, but today promised (and delivered) constant heavy rain through the day.

To get the kids in the right frame of mind I showed them a YouTube video clip of Elder Uchtdorf’s talk about the Hobbit and the great adventure of life. It’s awesome!

It took us a while to get out of the albergue this morning. I think we were all a bit hesitant to step out into the rain. Because it’s Sunday we decided to do a shorter day. It’s our third sub-20 km day in a row, and that also had people restless. When we don’t hike as far it feels like we aren’t making progress.

Betty waked today like a woman on a mission. I had a hard time keeping up with her. I think she was cold and just wanted to get to our albergue. She didn’t seem to want to talk, just to get out of she rain.

Also, while we brought good cold-weather gear, it appears we didn’t bring the best rain gear. The dryest people on the Camino have bog ponchos that cover them completely -- pack and all. We only have rain jackets (shells) and rain covers for our packs.  They are good for shorter showers, but not for hours walking in the pouring rain.

Lesson learned.

We are staying in the albergue municipal in Vega de Valcarce. It’s interesting because this town is “off schedule” meaning it’s not a place where the guidebooks typically recommend people end a day’s stage. So while there are many pilgrims on the Camino, there were only three other pilgrims in our entire albergue of dozens of beds.

When we got to the albergue, I got all the wet clothes hung up and then I ran to the market for some supplies to make pasta.

Later, Betty and I did some planning and we went to see if we could get something for dinner and breakfast. But the market was closed. It looked like we might not have any dinner, but then we found a bar that was open, and the bartender said she could get us some cheese and sausages.

So we went back for the kids and took them there. Over our humble little dinner we ended up having a really good talk with the kids. I hope to write more about it tomorrow, but the long and short of it is that Betty and I came to understand their concerns about some things, and I think they came to understand our point of view as well. I was really impressed by their ability to communicate in a very grown-up way about complicated feelings they are having.

Having cleared that air, we all walked back to the albergue feeling a bit lighter. By then the rain had stopped as well, and the weather forecast for the tough climb up O Cebreiro looks good.

It’s going to be a big day tomorrow.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 145: Camponayara to Villafranca del Bierzo

Saturday, May 4, 2024

Today was a shorter day of hiking, and we are really tired. So we slept in an extra half hour. I think everyone had a tough time sleeping last night because we had a world class snorer in our albergue.

The walk from Camponaraya to to Villafranca del Bierzo was pretty easy -- although my shoulders feel more sore every day. Also, some of the kids -- especially Alicia -- feel totally dejected after finding out that Betty and I need a couple more lighter days to recover from the Cruz de Ferro day. Tomorrow we are doing less than 20k again. The kids are great, and they can see the value in all of this and they are grateful. They just have also been away from home and friends for a very long time, and they are feeling ready to get back to life. It’s all normal, but if you could say a little prayer for us all, that would be great.

The last big obstacle between us and Santiago is called O Cebreiro. It’s the last tall mountain, and I’m feeling confident we will make it, but also a bit apprehensive about getting over it.

This albergue is pretty unique. The real owner is a man in his mid-80s who used to be a priest or monk but then gave up that life because he wanted to help people on the Camino.

He made a yummy dinner for us, but the highlight of this albergue was Jaris. She started walking the Camino a while ago with her enormous dog Maktub (half mastiff and half German shepherd). When she got to this albergue she just decided to stop to help out, and she’s been here for a month.

In the afternoon she took River, Ian, and me out for a walk to feed some donkeys. We had an awesome time. She was so good with River especially. It was another magical moment that Ian loved. I tell you, Ian is as mercurial as they come. He’s got big emotions. When he is up, he’s way up, and when he is down he’s totally down. On many occasions on this trip I’ve thought that I wish that we all had more memory of the good when we are in the middle of the bad. My Grandpa Spencer W. Kimball once said that the most important word in the scriptures is “Remember,” and the older I get the more convinced I am he was right. We just need to remember the good that God has given us, and it will help us to hold onto hope when things are bad.

Dinner tonight was good. We had a communal pilgrim dinner prepared by our host. The prayer that he gave was great. We all stood and help hands and held them up in the air and we finished the prayer with Ultreia! Suseia! Santiago!

The kids are all calmed down now, but Betty seems a bit melancholy. We are getting so close, but things are changing. There are many more pilgrims. There are fewer empty beds in the hostels. That means we need to plan more to make sure we always have a place to stay. This shower is definitely not good. Maybe hits 3 of our criteria -- and hot water was not one of them. It was just kind of lukewarm, and it looked like something from a horror movie. Oh how I miss my shower at home.

Oh, and tonight I fixed Kimball’s shoes with some duct tape. There is just nowhere to buy new ones for him.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 144: Molinaseca to Camponayara

Friday, May 3, 2024

Before I get started on today, I have to say a few words about last night.

As I said, it was the hardest day of hiking we’ve had, and when we got to the albergue we were beat. So I was there processing passports and getting us all registered when suddenly I see out of the corner of my eye Ian flying from the couch onto this ottoman thing in the middle of the room. After an awkward and clearly hard fall he tried to play it cool, but he was in serious pain in his shoulder. He told me he thinks it popped out and back in, and I believe him on that. It’s the same shoulder he fell on when he fell out of bed. When we asked what happened he kept saying he couldn’t remember. Then today, almost 24 hrs later he finally fessed up. He thought the ottoman was padded but it was actually just hard wood covered with material. He was doing a Superman from the couch to that thing and landed full on on his shoulder.

Betty and I also needed some time to decompress last night, so we left the kids with pizzas and we went to get hamburgers. It was really needed.

This morning we knew we had just a short walk to Camponaraya, so we slept in a bit. Then we had a nice pleasant walk to Ponferrada, where we stopped at a pharmacy and got some medicine for River’s constipation. Then we stopped in front of the castle for a while, and then Kimball and I went to get some new shoes for him. His poor shoes just didn’t do well with all the rocks yesterday.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the right shoes for him, so we just moved on. After some supermarket lunch in a park we left Ponferrada behind. It was a nice little city and lots of people stopped to take pictures of us and ask us about our family.

In the evening Betty and I walked to the store with some nice Americans who say they have been aware of us since before Astorga. I think we are quite a sight.

Dinner was awesome. It was just pre-made salads and chips and guacamole and hummus, but we had such a fun time laughing about the crazy experiences we have had on this trip.

One topic of conversation was showers. We talked about all of the factors that go into making a great shower.

  1. Temperature

  1. Temperature stability

  1. Water Pressure

  1. Spray radius

  1. A private changing area

  1. Cleanliness

  1. A detachable head with good stability and positioning

  1. A rack to put toiletries

  1. Lights that will stay on for the whole shower

  1. Constant stream of water (no turning off every ten seconds).

This is the ten star system.

Our shower tonight was a 7/10. Pretty good.

Tomorrow we’ve got another short day planned, and it’s a good thing because I’m exhausted.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 143: Rabanal to Molinaseca

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Today lived up to its billing. It was -- simply put -- the toughest day on the Camino. At 28.35 km and over 11 hrs and 51 min it was the longest day in both distance and in time. We also had snow, sleet, and rain. So it was the toughest in weather, and the terrain was brutal with 9 km of ascent followed by over 18 km of steep descent over rocky trails.

We decided to wake up at 5am (an hour earlier than normal) so that we could get out at a good time. It worked. We left the albergue about an hour ahead of what we normally do. Right around 6:20am. Because of the early start we were able to watch the sunrise. It was breathtaking and put us all in a great mood. When the snow started falling, it seemed to just add to the magic of it all.

Today we made it to the famous Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross). For over 2,000 years (longer than The Camino has been The Camino) it has been a sacred place on the mountain where travelers have left rocks to mark the path and as a symbol of gratitude or penance or hope. In this way the Camino is like an extended and very intense fast -- and the rock at the Cruz de Ferro is like your purpose in the fast.

As is the case everywhere on this journey, the Cruz de Ferro was not quite what I expected. Everyone in our family had chosen a rock in Michigan, before we left, as a symbol of something they’d like to leave at the Cruz de Ferro. I’ve kept my rock in my pack ever since. So have most of the kids. Betty did as well. But somehow this morning she couldn’t find her rock. It must have been lost in the backpack shuffle.

When we got to the Cruz, the kids took up most of our attention. But I did have a moment in the sharing of the experience and the photos to say a prayer and toss my rock onto the pile. It was a simple and sweet experience.

Oh, and here is another tender mercy:

My rock on the Cruz de Ferro, my purpose, was to find more peace and harmony in our family. We have an amazing family, but at times our passions get the best of us, and we argue. I’ve really been trying over the past months to be a better parent and to help foster more peace in our home.

Well, ten minutes hadn’t passed since Cruz de Ferro when River told me she wanted to play a game. This happens a lot. Usually her game is “Name five Disney Princesses,” or “Name Five Colors,” or “Name Five Letters.” So I asked her what she wanted to play.

Right at that moment we passed a Camino sign with the yellow arrow pointing the way, and it had been vandalized (as is super common). But this graffiti said “Army of Peace.”

So right as River asks me what game I want to play one of the kids reads the sign and says “Army of Peace,” and River thought that was the name of the game, and she said: “Let’s play that.”

So we started making up a game. At first it was something like “First person to start an argument loses.”

That led to the entire descent being filled with moments where someone would start to say something -- a criticism or complaint -- and then the others would remind them: “Army of Peace!”

It actually worked really well :)

We also added to the game by taking turns saying nice things about each other.

It’s a good game. I’m sure we will still have to work on the contention, but during the toughest stretch of hiking on the Camino, it was a little nod from God to let me know that He had heard my prayers.

After the Cruz de Ferro, the trail makes a steep descent. Over the next nearly ten miles I believe we lost around 3,000 ft of elevation. The terrain was rocky. The weather turned rainy, and everything got a bit slippery. It was the toughest hiking we’ve done so far. With River on my shoulders I was just praying not to fall.

Betty’s feet started hurting again, and our pace really slowed. By the end, every step was tough. My feet were sore. My Achilles tendons were sore. My quads were shaking with each step.

But here is the amazing thing. The kids were great. Ian had about a 20 minute stretch where he was super grumpy and at one point after he turned his ankle for the second time he tossed his poles and sat and had a little moment. But after  few minutes he got back up and kept going.

In the end, the kids did an amazing job of hiking. They were in good spirits. They were smiling and talking with each other. They would all hike ahead of Betty and River and me, and then sit on the trail and wait. And every time I saw them I just felt so proud.

I know this is long, but I wanted to mention one more thing. It’s a thought that came to me when I read a recent Facebook comment from Carolyn Blosil in which she said how impressed she was that the kids hadn’t just given up and said “I’m done!”

The truth is, at some point on this trip each one of us has said the words “I’m done!” And it’s been pointed out to me by everyone that they did not sign up for this. It wasn’t their dream vacation. They kind of got roped into it.

But then the other day, on our walk into Astorga, we read Mosiah 3:19, one of my favorite verses in the Book of Mormon. It says:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 142: Astorga to Rabanal del Camino

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

I think we all slept pretty well last night. We were exhausted. This morning, however, we decided to take an extra 30 minutes of sleep, and we took our time getting out. But thankfully, we already had a reservation for today, so we didn’t have to hurry on the way.

We are now off of the meseta, and we are into the mountains. Today was a steady climb -- not steep, but definitely steady -- throughout the day.

It was also pretty cold. We were in the 40’s most of the day. It rained a little off and on, but we were prepared for it, and it didn’t do much to slow us down. If anything, it sped us up because we just wanted to get to the albergue.

On the way, Kimball and I had another really good talk, and I had a moment of clarity. For a long time now, I’ve been listening to the Optimal Work podcast with Dr. Kevin Majeres. He’s a psychiatrist who works at Harvard, and his specialty is helping people to get the most out of their work. It’s not about efficiency or productivity. It’s about using your work to help you become a good person.

Anyway, Majeres is always talking about how if we can view our challenges as opportunities to grow, our bodies will process our adrenaline in order to help us face the challenge. We get stronger. We have more endurance. Our minds are sharper. We have more dexterity in our fingers. So much of what he does is help people to reframe their challenges so that they can see them not as threats but rather as opportunities to grow.

The idea has always resonated with me, and today everything kind of clicked. I was talking to Kimball, and we were talking about the challenge of the Camino -- and particularly the challenging road across the mountains that awaits us over the next week or so. Then suddenly, I was thinking about how in church we are taught that before we came to Earth, we chose to come to Earth knowing that it would be difficult but that through the challenges of mortality we would grow to become like our Father in Heaven.

We came here accepting challenges -- rejecting the easy road -- and if we want to be truly happy here, we have to do the same. It’s the only way to grow. This is something I love about the Camino and about pilgrimage. It’s such an amazing opportunity to accept and embrace the challenge. It’s a reminder of why were are here.

This albergue is great. The girl that runs it is named Beatriz, and she’s super nice. She and Betty hit it off from the start. Betty and I decided to leave the kids with pasta, and she and I went out for a “date night” and got some food at the restaurant downstairs.

When we got back River was playing with Aitana -- Beatriz’s daughter.

I’m exhausted, so I showered quick and climbed into bed, but Betty is still out there just chatting it up with Beatriz and her husband. She’s already invited them to our house in Michigan, and they are making plans to visit Frankenmuth.

Tomorrow we’ve got a tough day. It’s nine steep kilometers up to the Cruz de Ferro, and then 15 steep kilometers down to Molinaseca. I’m going to try to get as much rest as I can so I’ll be ready for it.

Click here for full photos and video

La Gran Aventura Day 141: San Martín del Camino to Astorga

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

This morning was pretty good. Everyone did a decent job packing up, and right around 7am we were out the door. I’m so proud of the kids. They have been up at 6am basically every day since March 31. Everyone is tired, but they are doing such a good job. I couldn’t be prouder of them.

The weather for much of the over 27 km (17+ miles) was really good, but towards the end it really cooled off and the rain that we have successfully avoided for a month finally caught up to us. When we got into Astorga it was really coming down. Everyone ended up pretty wet, but we got to our albergue and dried off and had warm showers and now everyone is tucked in and sleeping.

Astorga is a really beautiful little town with a cathedral and a little palace designed by the great Antoni Gaudí. I went out this evening and got a few pictures. The light was tough because the palace was backlit by the sunset. But hopefully some of the pics I took will turn out.

River was fun today. Imagine having a smart and sometimes sassy four-year-old sitting right in your ear for 5-9 hours every day. That’s been my life for the past month.

For a while (weeks) all she wanted to talk about was Christmas. Finally today I put my foot down  and told her I wasn’t going to talk about Christmas anymore. So then she started imagining things. She was an ice princess and she was creating an ice path for us to slide along. Then she told me she had a watch like mine that would tell her how far we had walked. Then she was playing games on her “watch” and she was watching movies. At one point she told me she was going to put in “headphones” so she could watch a movie on her watch. Then I had quiet for a few minutes.

She also did some good walking (jogging) for about 35-40 minutes. It was a good rest for my back and shoulders.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.

Tomorrow we leave the meseta behind and we begin making our way into the mountains. We’ve got some tough days ahead. We are tired. We have come so far. And we are ready to take on the next stage.

Click here for full photos and video