I went down through the beechwood forest with two companions I had met earlier in the day. I was in the lead. When I did not hear their voices, I turned around to face uphill. In an instant, I fell backwards about 5 meters straight down the mountain, landing at the base of a tree hitting my head. Before that, as I was falling, my right arm was shredded by the rocks in the trail. One of my companions was from Brazil. I had some gauze in my backpack and duct tape wrapped around my trekking poles. She stopped the bleeding. At Roncesvalles, I showered and tried to remove some gravel around the wound. I didn't do a very good job. The next day, at the Albergue Suseia in Zubiri, two Austrian nurses who were traveling together saw my arm. After I showered and removed yesterday's gauze and tape (there was not enough gauze to cover the wound), the nurses picked out the remaining pieces of gravel, and removed from their medical kits, that would be the envy of any EMT ambulance, what appeared to be a sophisticated battle dressing. They said to keep it on for a week. I removed it in Logroño, and was stunned that it had healed so well. I could never thank Gabriella and Zlatica enough. I still have a scar on my right arm reminding me of that experience. Now then, to the question: road or forest? Of course, I will take the forest again. Carefully.