This is a guest post written by Mr. Snacks
Last year, while we were living in Panama City, I started to realize that while our nomadic lifestyle was amazing and all, I was missing the kind of outdoor endurance adventures I have always loved and taken for granted after living in Colorado for much of my life.
The problem was both logistics and people. Travelling in only 2 suitcases per person doesn’t leave a lot of space for skis, bikes, stand-up paddleboards, rock climbing and hiking gear plus all the associated tools and clothes that used to reside in my garage. Yes, I can rent gear in many places, but that greatly increases the cost and complexity, and the availability and quality of gear varies wildly in different places around the world.
The second problem was people. I’ve had a close group of active, adventurous, fit, friends since college who are generally up for whatever lunacy someone comes up with (Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim, White Rim Trail, and Maroon Belles Loop, each in one day? Been there, done that.) – except now with us on the road I’d left all my potential partners behind.
With that, Mrs. Snacks and I started looking for options of outdoor adventures that also aligned with our future travel destinations and logistics. We quickly came across the Camino de Santiago.
For a quick primer, the Camino started as a religious pilgrimage to the cathedral where Saint James is buried in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Over time, at least 8 different routes to Santiago have been formalized and while there are still some religious pilgrims, the majority of people participate recreationally. The trail has become popular both for experienced and non-experienced hikers looking for a peaceful walk through the French, Portuguese, and Spanish countryside’s. Part of the goal is to gather stamps in a passport – sort of like a scavenger hunt, which allows you to track your travel on the trail. If you cover more than 100k/ 62 miles by foot, you’ll receive an official certificate in Santiago.
A good friend of mine had done the Camino a couple of times and raved about it, so when I saw that the Camino Portuguese ran straight through Porto, where we were scheduled to be in April and May, I was intrigued. Since it involved walking and spending the nights in small hotels, the gear requirements weren’t much more than the trail running shoes I already travel with. Now that I had an idea of the what, where and when, I needed to find the who (as in who would do it with me).
What you have to understand about my friends is that a normal bucket-list quality 10-day walk along the coast of Portugal will hold absolutely zero interest for them. In order to get their attention, I would need to find a ridiculous objective that involves a fair amount of discomfort and at least some bragging rights – for example, running the Camino.
I made the call to my old college roommate and frequent adventure instigator, whom I’ll refer to as Cameron. Despite my ridiculous idea, I fully expected that there would be an even more ridiculous suggestion made, and I wasn’t disappointed. Simply running a few days along the trail wasn’t enough, he wanted to go from Porto to Santiago in 5-7 days (280K / 174 miles, requiring an average of a marathon a day for a week). After a bit of negotiation and a reality check about how much time off he could take, and training I could do given our nomadic lifestyle. We settled on a reduced plan to run 120K / 75 miles of the Camino Coastal Portuguese (a coastal variation of the traditional Camino Portuguese) from the Spanish border to Santiago in 6 days (requiring an average of only a half-marathon a day), in April of 2022.
Amazingly, with everyone’s crazy schedules, a few days later another old friend, whom I’ll refer to as Mr. Pickles, joined in on the “fun”. The three of us spent the better part of the next two months planning the details of our adventure.
Did we survive? All the details of our run to come in the next post…
Love it☺️