As I’ve previously alluded to there are some significant and obvious differences between a real Camino and a virtual one. Take today. I was awake early at 5:30 and knowing that it was going to get up into the 27° range today I went outside and planted my tomatoes and leaks in the relative cool of the morning. On an actual Camino I would have risen quietly, dressed and slipped out of the albergue and into the early morning light munching on a banana or something reasonably edible. On my way to the next destination 5-7 hours down the road and in my happy place.
We’ve tried to stay pretty committed to our virtual Camino having logged 625 kms in the process. We are both pleased as instead of putting 5 lbs of 'pandemic fat' on to our bodies we are actually staying pretty even. I seem to be down about 4 lbs and that's with Annemarie baking lots of good things!
This morning after a pleasant walk we returned home and I spent the next 2-3 hours cutting the lawn and then using my leaf blower to clean out the garage, driveway and our two brick decks. On Camino I’d still have been walking!
After a late lunch I was thinking about doing other activities, but after rationalizing that I was getting adequate exercise, I decided to put that process off until tomorrow and instead I had a nice cool shower. I thought to myself that that’s something more akin to a real Camino! And now I’m sitting under the awning on our deck using my iPad to write up this stage of our virtual Camino. Something I do each day while walking, part of my walking practice.
Yesterday we went for a lovely walk, and I’ll focus on this today.
We have consciously being staying within an 8 kms radius from home, ie., staying in our own area, which surprisingly has provided us with lots to choose from walking wise. However, I’ve had my eye on Mount Douglas (from our back deck) for some time and yesterday we decided to head there. It was the first day that it was warm enough to allow us to walk in just t-shirts and shorts! Happy walkers!!
We have consciously being staying within an 8 kms radius from home, ie., staying in our own area, which surprisingly has provided us with lots to choose from walking wise. However, I’ve had my eye on Mount Douglas (from our back deck) for some time and yesterday we decided to head there. It was the first day that it was warm enough to allow us to walk in just t-shirts and shorts! Happy walkers!!
The round trip distance yesterday was about 21 kms, and we walked along my preferred scenic route on the way there (sea glimpses and mountain views) and on Annemarie’s favourite, but much less scenic route (boring residential) all the way home. You know I'm going to hear about this.
Once we arrived it was directly into the magnificent trees.
Once we arrived it was directly into the magnificent trees.
We avoided the park road and climbed to the top along some really nice scrambling trails that get steeper as you climb.
On the way up there are a couple of view points looking out across the straights towards America and Mount Baker from the east side.
Then it's back to the scramble! We usually try to measure our fitness by our ability to climb to the top without stopping, except to snatch a quick photos or two along the way. When we were training for our first Camino in 2013 we tended to stop a few times, but since those days we’ve been able to climb with full gear all the way and it's one of the measure we use to tell us when we are fit to go. No doubt I would have recently been doing several of these 'tests' had I been able to walk the Via Francigena this month. Oh well.
Nice to see the broom out! A real weed, but a beautiful one.
The views south back towards the city and the Olympic Mountains are quite brilliant!
Baker.
We were really pleased to climb up because we’d put it off due to the numbers apparently on the mountain. However, on the climb up we saw only two others, so early on it was really quiet. Yup, I was indeed #miling!
Then time to head down to the trails that run around the base of the mountain.
We took the road just a little way to get to the trail we wanted.
Once back on the trail system again I started to watch the tree canopy directly above us and I must say, the lighting was amazing!
Frankly, almost everywhere I looked the light was very good. This shot with the young rock ferns really typified the type of light available.
The trail that circumnavigates the mountain is pretty narrow on the north end, and on the occasions when we met someone coming the other way I was really impressed with the efforts most people went to keep a good distance apart under difficult circumstances.
We met two Camino friends Julie and Neville who had seen us coming and jumped out from behind a tree to surprise us. Neville has been very active with the CCoPilgrims on the national executive and both have walked multiple caminos and written a couple of books to boot. We had a nice catch-up and we explained about our virtual Camino. As we chatted we began to notice a substantial increase in foot traffic coming from the direction we were going. So realizing that it was time to get off the mountain, we said our goodbyes with a promise to Zoom. As we walked away I kicked myself for not talking a photo of them to add to our virtual Camino blog.
As we rounded onto the west side things became even more beautiful. The noon day sun was really catching the tree crowns!
The walk became something quite different.
Eventually we came out onto the fire access trail. At some point while I was shooting the trees Annemarie told me to catch up with her when I was done. Fair enough!
So I did!
Today on our walk all we saw was one lousy sea otter: ) A bit blurry with my phone.
Tomorrow I'll get back on track in Spain, but figured today was a good day to take a break from the Camino.
Buen Camino!
No comments:
Post a Comment