Lessons learned on Day 1 of the Camino — Postcards From the Threshold

The spreadsheet called for an easy start to our Camino. Seven fairly flat miles to Valcarlos, a good night’s sleep, and then another 7 miles to Roncesvalles, uphill, but not crazy.

By the time we went to bed Friday night, the plan had changed to 15 or so miles to Roncesvalles, complete with a 4,000 foot climb followed by a 1,000 foot descent on a rocky path at the end of the hike.

So from the start, this was not turning out the way I’d planned. Here’s what I learned:

Melodee plans, Rich laughs. Next time I plan something like this, I’m not planning it. We’re planning it. I think Rich was more moved by the Maison Donnamaria innkeeper’s disappointment in our willingness to take the easy path than I was. Or maybe it was how the innkeeper said, “Just send your packs ahead and take the small packs with water and it will be a piece of cake.” Or maybe it was the implication that we were healthy and in shape and had no reason to take the easy route. Then the innkeeper recruited a pair of hospitaleros who had just returned from Roncesvalles and assured us that OF COURSE we could get a pair of bunks at the end of the hike and we were too hale and hearty to take the easy route. (At least I think that’s what they said. Some of it may have been lost in translation from Dutch to French to English.) They said the albergue had never been full before 5 p.m. the whole two weeks that they’d been there.

Always get the cookies. After completing the 2,000 foot climb over 5 miles to reach Orisson, I said, “Just blue Powerade for me.” While I was using the other facilities, Rich snuck back in to the snack bar and bought the cookies anyway. Four miles later, the cookies were a lifesaver.

Always take a 360 degree scan if you’re going to take care of business in the great outdoors. Not me. Some guy upstream from us, as it were, who couldn’t be seen from the path, but could be seen from where we had stopped to eat our sandwiches.

Do not confuse the guy who operates a food truck a half mile from the peak with a cartographer. The food truck featured a whiteboard with a hand-drawn map that showed the accurate 1 kilometer uphill climb and the equally accurate 5 kilometer downhill climb, but described the 5K in the middle as flat. Flat, perhaps, if by flat he meant hilly. (He did sell us some tasty sheep cheese that he said he’d made himself. So there was that.)

Make a reservation or get an early start or maybe both. So back to the never-full-before-5 p.m. promise. When we walked through the monastery arch at 4:15 p.m., the hospitaleroes said “Sorry. There’s no room in the albergue. Try the hotel just up the hill — they might have room.” Fortunately, we were able to get a (much more expensive than we expected) room and, even better, a good night’s sleep that left us ready to face Day 2.

Quote of the Day: “If I had brought a protractor I could tell you the exact degree of that incline.” Rich, looking at the pilgrims walking up the steep incline just ahead.