Impressions of the 2011 Camino Frances from a Serial Caminoist

[Covey]

I know Sandy is very keen on his CamelBak but they do have a downside, and that is the need to keep them clean. The heat in summer in Spain means that you really need to strip them apart and clean the tubes and bladder to stop bacterial growth inside.

I am firmly in the camp of "two supermarket bottles strapped on the outside of my pack". I use the normal 1.5L plastic bottles the supermarket sells the water in and usually carry 1L on either side of the pack. The UV light from the sun ensures that there is no bacterial growth in the bottles and if in a large town I refill from the albergue tap, but if out in the sticks, I buy water from the supermarket. The plastic bottles are remarkably tough and I have never had a split bottle and I tend to change the bottles every 3-4 days.

The last time I used a CamelBak was in Gulf1 and then a little bacterial growth was the least of my worries!!

[ginta]

oh my,

i'm planning to go on my first Camino this August... the talk about crowds even in May does not encourage me. As someone said though - if you've decided something, don't let life's little details stop you.

thanks for the posts! lots of useful info.

[Covey]

Talk about "crowds" on the Camino tends to be relative, as is mention of mountains!

When you leave the albergue in the morning, most Pilgrims plan on starting out at first light when they can see the track and the little yellow arrows, so you might have 10-20 people milling around pulling on packs etc, but you quickly spread out as everybody walks at a different pace and then you all bunch up again when you dive in to the first bar serving coffee and hot chocolate!

When you leave St Jean to walk to Roncesvalles you are walking up and over the Pyrenees which sounds like mountains, but the reality is that your whole way up to the top is a walk up the road which goes to Roncesvalles. Out of the 27kms from St Jean to Roncesvalles, 23kms is a metaled road! and the rest is a nice track through the woods.

[unadara]

Out of the 27kms from St Jean to Roncesvalles, 23kms is a metaled road! and the rest is a nice track through the woods.

Oh Covey are you serious I did not get this from all the info I have read so far ? Is it possible to enjoy it still? % wise is there a lot of metalled road ? Is that why some people can get along fine in sandals/running shoes?
We go out tomorrow for a long walk first on forest track steepish and then road walk back home. Test the boots/backpacks etc.

[Covey]

Give or take a couple of hundred meters the road figure for St Jean to Roncesvalles on the Route Napoleon is correct.

There are parts of the Camino Frances where you walk on a metaled road, parts where you are on a gravel pathway which sometimes has been graded and other times where you are on rough goat tracks over or around hillsides, and sometimes you are on soft springy paths through forests.

If you are walking the Camino Frances in June to October, then unless you are worrying about ankle support, a good pair of walking shoes will be fine. The rest of the time you will probably be better off with boots as they cope better with mud.

Many of the boot/shoe manufacturers will produce the same sole design in a shoe, short boot and full boot version.

[grayland]

Another consideration on using a camel back....weight. I have noticed that people tend to carry a lot more water than they will need in the immediate time.

If you put 2 liters in the camel back it will weight 2 kg (1 kg per liter)
Consider that you hope to keep your pack weight under 10 kg and this is pushing the envelope.
It never makes sense to carry more water than you will need until the next village/town.

[Covey]

One of the reasons why I like the "two plastic bottles on the pack" system is that if I want a drink, then I have to stop and take off my pack to get the bottle out of the external pocket. This "inconvenience" is in fact a useful control on how fast I am using my water because a) I have to stop and b) I can see exactly how much water I have left.

If you have a CamelBak stowed in your pack with the drinking tube over your shoulder, then it is very easy to take frequent drinks and you have no idea how much you have left.

In the Army we had a good rule for drinking water on a march. You only ever drink half the water you are carrying until you arrive at where you are going to refill your water bottle. If the water quality is OK, then you drink the remaining half of your water and then refill your bottle and march on repeating the "half the water" routine. If the water quality is no good, or if there is no water where you thought there should be some, then you still have half your water to cover you to the next stop.

There are sections of the Camino Frances, especially on the Meseta, where in summer you need to be careful about how much water you carry because the villages are much further apart and you might have to walk up to 15kms without being able to refill.

[Lipka149]

A third alternative is to just carry a water bottle in your hand. Both Aaron & I had a bottle with a clip on the top which fit nicely around a finger or thumb. It worked very well for me, as I used it to swing my arms and keep my fingers from getting cramped.

When I finally got a walking stick, I would wrap a towel around it about a foot from the end and hook the bottle to that end. Carried across the shoulder and counterbalanced by raising my arm over the other end, it worked well to bring other muscles into action and avoid cramping. I would switch sides, balance the weight both front and back, and generally keep myself amused that way when there was no one to talk to.

In any case, it just seemed logical to distribute the weight I was carrying rather than concentrate it in the backpack. Sure worked for me !

As a side note, Aaron carried a green bottle that you could see through, and when the sun hit it, it literally GLOWED. He was easily identifiable from a great distance because of this, and many people remarked on it.

[HuskyNerd]

Another consideration on using a camel back....weight. I have noticed that people tend to carry a lot more water than they will need in the immediate time. If you put 2 liters in the camel back it will weight 2 kg (1 kg per liter) Consider that you hope to keep your pack weight under 10 kg and this is pushing the envelope. It never makes sense to carry more water than you will need until the next village/town.

Thanks for everyone's concern about Camelbaks. Here are a few items to add to the conversation: 1) Water weighs the same whether it's in a Camelbak or in plastic bottles and having 2 liters of water/day on the camino is still less than the 3 liters/day a person is supposed to drink during a typical day's exercise, 2) I weighed my pack at the airport in Santiago before leaving for Barcelona and, including boots, it came to a little over 7 kgs. Loaded with my 2 kgs of water I'm still sporting around 9 kgs, including boots. So I don't think my Camelbak is going to mess me up weight-wise, 3) Many pilgrims suffer from tendonitis on the Camino, most often due to lack of adequate hydration. The first advice local physicians give to pilgrims who suffer tendonitis is "Drink more water." A Camelbak allows users to constantly sip water without the need to twist their arms backwards into their backpacks' bottle pouches. 4) Covey's right that the biggest downside is not knowing exactly how much water you have on you. But this is easily resolved by reaching into one's pack and checking by hand if you're walking late in the day. Otherwise with 2 liters on me I've never run out of water in a normal 25 km day. 5) I've never had a cleanliness problem in my Camelbak, probably because I never touch the inside and I use only bottled water in it. When I say "Camelbak" I mean the "Camelbak" brand, which is a lot higher quality than some other bladders out there, partly because it's treated with an anti-bacterial coating, 6) Consider that most Camino bikers are also equipped with Camelbaks. All those bikers can't be wrong!

[Lipka149]

Consider that most Camino bikers are also equipped with Camelbaks. All those bikers can't be wrong!

Who brought all this up about CamelBaks, anyways ? Oh ... it was me !

Sandy, I apologize if I indicated that using CamelBak equipment was wrong, incorrect, or unaccepatable in any way. Certainly you make a good case for carrying water, whether it is in the bladder or in bottles. You also have a great deal of experience with making your equipment work for YOU. So does Covey. And the fact of the matter is ... you have both made it work for thousands of kilometers.

Unfortunately, many people do not use their equipment correctly. Even more unfortunately, many people do not use the correct technique with their equipment. From backpacks to footwear to clothing, basic principles need to be followed. Loaded backpacks that weigh under 10 kilos; footwear that does not cause blisters; clothing that protects against the elements; these are the Golden Rules. It doesn't really matter what brand name it is, or what new technology it incorporates, or what it looks like. The only important consideration is ... that it works for YOU.

I think we can all agree on that.

But going back to my original observation, the folks I walked with who used CamelBaks, carried too much other stuff and paid for it. It probably wasn't necessary to carry two pairs of pajamas, was it ? Or rain gear consisting of cape, blouse and pants ? <sigh> I erred in pointing out that the backpack equipment may have been at fault, when in reality, it was a basic principle that they violated. Sorry about that !

But is sure did generate some good discussion !

[Covey]

Don't worry Alan, I will drop in the subject of walking poles just to get Sandy back into the routine of the Forum, now he has finished his Camino!! We all have our favorite kit or ways of doing things, but really the only rule is "If it works for you, go for it"

On my first full Camino Frances, I met an English guy on the road to Roncesvalles who was wearing an ordinary everyday pair of socks and a well worn pair of what we in the UK call gym shoes or pumps or the early tennis shoes (pre trainers and with a thin rubber sole)

I contemplated my Salomon boots and Smartwool socks and smiled to myself thinking of the carnage his feet would look like after a couple of days!! I would meet his group every couple of days and would always check to see if he was limping, but he never was and when we walked together in to Santiago, he confirmed that he had never had a blister or any foot problems. He had not used Vaseline on his feet, had never bought any Compeed and had not bought any special clothing for the Camino. He had borrowed a rucksack from a friend and just packed everyday clothing he had at home.

Needless to say, he finished his Camino in much better shape than most of the rest of us Salomon booted, Gortex clad warriors!