Asphalt and other trail types on Camino Frances

[Paul-CH]

I see now the Camino Frances surface hasn't got to much Road/Asphalt.
● Forested/wild trail 347.2 km
● Path 166.8 km
● Road 107.4 km
● Asphalt 94.2 km
● Dirt road 47.5 km

 

[trecile]

I see now the Camino Frances surface hasn't got to much Road/Asphalt.
● Forested/wild trail 347.2 km
● Path 166.8 km
● Road 107.4 km
● Asphalt 94.2 km
● Dirt road 47.5 km

What site did you find this on?

 

[Paul-CH]

What site did you find this on?

Hi Trecile,
I have an account on outdooractive.com and did the drawing there. Let me know if you are able to look at it. regards Paul
Camino-Frances-Map

 

[peregrina2000]

I see now the Camino Frances surface hasn't got to much Road/Asphalt.
● Forested/wild trail 347.2 km
● Path 166.8 km
● Road 107.4 km
● Asphalt 94.2 km
● Dirt road 47.5 km

This is interesting, but it’s not clear to me what the differences are between and among some of the categories. Path vs. dirt road? wild trail vs. path? Road vs. asphalt?

Did you do this analysis, Paul, or are you copying it from somewhere?

What I can say is that the amount of “improved” trails has increased dramatically over the years. I think the go-to improvement is gravel/hormigón, which covers huge swaths of what used to be dirt trails. Which category is that in?

Don’t mean to be critical, but I would really love to see what the status is of the Francés. I’ve only joined it for short segments recently, either to get into Santiago, or to connect caminos (like Madrid to Salvador, for instance). My definite impression is that there is very little in the way of what I would call “wild trails,” but maybe I don’t understand the categories.

 

[AK2112]

I see now the Camino Frances surface hasn't got to much Road/Asphalt.
● Forested/wild trail 347.2 km
● Path 166.8 km
● Road 107.4 km
● Asphalt 94.2 km
● Dirt road 47.5 km

I have enough asphalt where I live, I don't need that when I go trekking ;-)

 

[Paul-CH]

Did you do this analysis, Paul, or are you copying it from somewhere?

No outdooractive has a description of the road quality in its database. So if you draw a route it will tell you what is in the database for your route.
Did you do this analysis, Paul, or are you copying it from somewhere?

Path vs. dirt road? wild trail vs. path? Road vs. asphalt?

as far as I understood, I will explain it.
road vs. asphalt a road is something for the cars vs. asphalt may have been a dirt road before but later been covered with asphalt. here in switzerland mostly farm roads

on a dirt road (gravel) you may have farmers or local people driving on it. while a path is designed for pedestrians (bike) only sometimes you have to walk in single file

a wild trail has its natural ground in a forest it is like nature made it and when Forest rangers driving on it you will see the result and have to walk on it.

If you have the ability to use the tool try it out in you best know neighbourhoods where you know the track quality so you see what the tool is doing. But not all countries have open their information sharing with the public with open source.
kind regards Paul

 

[Paul-CH]

I have enough asphalt where I live, I don't need that when I go trekking ;-)

Thats not the point where you live. When you go to other countries like Spain, Frances, Italy and hike there, it is good to know how much you are on roads or may have nice trails to use less shoesole on it.

 

[AK2112]

Thats not the point where you live. When you go to other countries like Spain, Frances, Italy and hike there, it is good to know how much you are on roads or may have nice trails to use less shoesole on it.

I was trying to be funny, hence the smiley. My bad.

 

[Kanga]

A very useful tool, at outdoor active, it it works properly. I think I purchased the app some time ago but don't use it anymore, I shall have a look.

It certainly would appeal to me, as the actual walking surface is something I find very important.

I, like @peregrina2000, mourn the loss of some of the wild parts of the CF, that have been surfaced or otherwise "improved" since I first walked in 2001. There was a particular very beautiful narrow winding path somewhere between Villares de Orbigo and Astorga that was like walking through a garden, with wild flowers galore all along the path. That section is now a boring wide gravel straight road.

 

[Former member 92300]

This is interesting, but it’s not clear to me what the differences are between and among some of the categories. Path vs. dirt road? wild trail vs. path? Road vs. asphalt?

I was wondering the same thing. Road and asphalt are pretty similar and in my mind and so are forested/wild trail, path, and even dirt road. For the latter three - how much are truly dirt vs rock, vs dirt/rock mix? Some "dirt" roads have lots of rock embedded in them and some are truly dirt. Some wild trails/paths are all dirt, some are very rocky, many are mixed rock and dirt. And how many or those natural paths are slates of stone. Then the quality of surface varies with all the above. Also - many of the road/asphalt areas have a worn dirt path right next to them. I walked on those worn paths many times when I "should have" been walking on a road.

 

[alexwalker]

In defense of the CF: If there is only 94 kms of asphalt on an 800 km walk, as stated earlier, I would call it insignificant. Some of it is between Hontanas and Castrojeriz (ca. 7-8% of the total distance), which doesn't bother me at all: A beautiful day's walk.

Most of the CF is, IMHO, peaceful walking on natural paths, off traffic and asphalt. Walking out of Leon can be an ordeal, but after an hour's walk, there is an alternative, peaceful and pleasant route, through Villar de Mazarife. Same with the entrance to Burgos: The river route is great, while the alternative route is suburban asphalt and a disaster. Choose wisely.

The CP (at least from Porto) is much worse, with all the painful cobblestone walking, IMHO (again).

If you really MISS traffic, asphalt and dangerous highway shoulder walking, drunk truck drivers (yes, they where resting in petrol stations drinking beer before continuing), without much pilgrim support, try starting in Lisbon: A trail for people with a serious , active, death wish... (Again: Just MHO). I endured it for 5 days before taking a train to Porto.: Never again from Lisbon: It is not ready for pilgrims.

Edit: I have walked many different Caminos over the last 15 years: VdlP (great), Mozarabe (not so great), CP, San Olav (Burgos-Covarubbias; 64 very nice kms), parts of the Levante (starting in Alicante, desolate, lonely).

The CF is my favorite, for many reasons: Easy walking, mostly, lots to see, meeting many nice people (if I want), some/many stretches very peaceful (like the Meseta), good/fantastic infrastructure, and so on. It remains my favorite Camino. I will do it again, if my deteriorating health allows me.

Well, we shall all die someday, if only we can stay alive and keep a good health...

 

[Kanga]

In defense of the CF: If there is only 94 kms of asphalt on an 800 km walk, as stated earlier, I would call it insignificant. Some of it is between Hontanas and Castrojeriz, which doesn't bother me at all: A beautiful day's walk.

Most of the CF is, IMHO, peaceful walking on natural paths, off traffic and asphalt. Walking out of Leon can be an ordeal, but there is an alternative, peaceful and pleasant route. Same with the entrance to Burgos: The river route is great, while the alternative route is suburban asphalt and a disaster.

The CP (at least from Porto) is much worse, with all the painful cobblestone walking, IMHO (again).

If you really MISS traffic, asphalt and dangerous highway shoulder walking, without much pilgrim support, try starting in Lisbon: A trail for people with a serious death wish... (Again: Just MHO). I endured it for 5 days: Never again.

Yes, I have to agree about the CP from Porto. I found the board walking on the Literal quite exhilarating but otherwise lots of road walking.

 

[dougfitz]

Hi Trecile,
I have an account on outdooractive.com and did the drawing there. Let me know if you are able to look at it. regards Paul
Camino-Frances-Map

@Paul-CH, first, thank you for sharing this. Out of curiosity, was this a route that you followed? I can see that you chose variants, like Route Valcarlos at the start, but others later, that might make some small difference to the overall result. I hope others don't lose the thrust of how much geospatial information is available to us today to help us with our planning in mealy-mouthing things like the whether you went into Burgos along the river route or around the airport, or neither.

And I know that it is possible to walk the camino with very little of this information, but the IT nerd comes out when I see people demonstrating, as you have done, just what is available to us.

 

[Paul-CH]

was this a route that you followed?

Hi Dougfitz, no I didn't do the Frances yet. (its too busy)
I was curious about how much road/asphalt he contains, as I don't like to hike on this ground.
I used outdooractive to create the pilgrim route with only the starting and the end point, so it the drawing didn't follow exactly the Frances, it was my fault, because I didn't check the result.
Just now I fixed it and and the statistic had a minor change on that.
I did the same for my route which I will start at march 20th at Cádiz.
With Google Maps I zoomed down and scrolled all the way from Cádiz to Santiago. Especially interested to see where I have to cross streams and small rivers on a ford. For me it is good thing to know what I will expect on the pilgrim route, but more when I go for trail running in the Swiss alps. Nowadays with 3D maps it is just great how much detail you can get.

 

[hikentravel1234]

I see now the Camino Frances surface hasn't got to much Road/Asphalt.
● Forested/wild trail 347.2 km
● Path 166.8 km
● Road 107.4 km
● Asphalt 94.2 km
● Dirt road 47.5 km

Yikes, I previously broke my back. Forested/grass is the best, then a dirt road, for me. Road/asphalt/cement kill my back (pain). So I prefer the grass/forested areas.

 

[HeidiL]

I read somewhere that Camino de Madrid is the one with least road walking. I think that may be right - I still remember day after day in deep forests...

 

[henrythedog]

I see now the Camino Frances surface hasn't got to much Road/Asphalt.
● Forested/wild trail 347.2 km
● Path 166.8 km
● Road 107.4 km
● Asphalt 94.2 km
● Dirt road 47.5 km

And from that you concluded?

 

[JabbaPapa]

Yes and no -- and "no" mainly because any Camino route is not just a narrowly defined "hiking" trail indicated by waymarkers and nothing else besides -- but the Historic Camino Francès is a collection of roughly parallel thoroughfares between one area of France and the Tomb of the Apostle, and the Cathedral surrounding it, at Santiago de Compostela.

Of course, this sort of analysis of the yellow arrow'd "official" Camino is interesting and valuable -- and thank you -- but there is no way that this can be accurate to the nearest 100 metres, for starters just because the detail route of the Francès is in constant flux.

But also because even established measurements of distance are being surpassed by more accurate ones. O Cebreiro is now waymarked at a distance a few K further from Santiago than it used to be noted as, and ALL of the distance waymarkers in Castilla y León have recently been corrected with more accurate distances.

Several K difference, not just 1K or less ...

 

[Paul-CH]

And from that you concluded?

What shoes I need to the finish line.

 

[Paul-CH]

Several K difference, not just 1K or less ..

This is sure true. But the main thing is approximately 500km not on hard surface only about 200km for asphalt fans. But the can easily find more when taking a road instead follow the path over a hill.

 

[naplesdon]

Brierley outlines this in his guide for each stage.

 

[Paul-CH]

Brierley outlines this in his guide for each stage.

I'm not much of a book person, but I'm more into computer science and do everything on the iPhone with apps and websites. So far, I have reached my planned destination on every one of my journeys. Everyone should do it as they please.

 

[naplesdon]

That was not my point. There is another resource for those who are interested regarding the various walking surfaces.