jmcarp
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Camino Frances, 2013
Camino del Norte a Chimayó (USA), 2015
Camino Portugues, 2017
During the week of September 21-27, 2015, a group of eleven hardy pilgrims and a car-shuttling photographer/videographer joined the Winter Pilgrim, Ann Sieben ( www.winterpilgrim.blogspot.com/ ), for a 115-mile walking pilgrimage from San Luis, Colorado to the Santuario de Chimayó in Chimayó, New Mexico. These pilgrims ranged in age from 35 to 77 years old, and most were veterans of the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
Unlike the Camino de Santiago with its well-developed infrastructure of albergues, cafés, water fountains, and other support facilities spaced every few kilometers, the Camino del Norte a Chimayó wanders along roadsides and forest trails through the sparsely-populated and desert-like sagebrush flats, rolling hills, and mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. One walks for as long as 20 miles (32 km) without a place to refill water bottles, purchase lunch or a snack, or even find a shady spot to rest for a few moments. Many of the villages and hamlets through which the route passes have no commercial lodging or food markets, much less a café or restaurant. The only large town along the way is Taos, New Mexico. Pilgrims along this route must therefore either camp out, or if traveling in a group with pre-planned stops, stay overnight in church halls, sleeping on mats or air mattresses on hard floors. While large-group pilgrimages to Chimayó are common, especially during Holy Week, the concept of individual or small-group pilgrimages is relatively new. Fortunately, the small towns along the way are steeped in the Catholic tradition of supporting pilgrims, and Ann, having completed a half-dozen or more pilgrimages to Chimayó, has done a wonderful job of helping them to understand the needs of modern day pilgrims such as our group.
So what’s it like to walk this route? In actuality, unless one camps out along the way, the stages are set by the availability of food and lodging. This results in a seven-day itinerary that begins with three days averaging 20 miles (32 km) each, followed by days of 13, 17, 15, and 9+ miles (21, 27, 24, and 15 km) each. Much of the route involves walking along paved highways, with only approximately 40 percent of the way on gravel or dirt roads or trails. As noted above, the terrain varies from sagebrush flats to piñon and juniper-covered hills, to lodgepole pine and aspen forests. The elevation varies from 7900 feet (2410 m) at the start in San Luis to 6100 feet (1860 m) at the Santuario de Chimayó, with the crossing of a 9000-foot (2750 m) mountain pass between Ranchos de Taos and Peñasco on Day 5. It’s clearly a pilgrimage walk not to be taken lightly, even by Camino de Santiago veterans. Cellphone coverage is limited along most of the way, particularly on the arduous Day 5 climb over the pass, so getting help in case of an accident or injury can be problematic.
There are currently no guidebooks for this route; however, one of the pilgrims in our group, Patt Bekken, is in the process of writing one. She will also be organizing future group pilgrimages to Chimayó. Her website is www.peregrinity.org .
Unlike the Camino de Santiago with its well-developed infrastructure of albergues, cafés, water fountains, and other support facilities spaced every few kilometers, the Camino del Norte a Chimayó wanders along roadsides and forest trails through the sparsely-populated and desert-like sagebrush flats, rolling hills, and mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. One walks for as long as 20 miles (32 km) without a place to refill water bottles, purchase lunch or a snack, or even find a shady spot to rest for a few moments. Many of the villages and hamlets through which the route passes have no commercial lodging or food markets, much less a café or restaurant. The only large town along the way is Taos, New Mexico. Pilgrims along this route must therefore either camp out, or if traveling in a group with pre-planned stops, stay overnight in church halls, sleeping on mats or air mattresses on hard floors. While large-group pilgrimages to Chimayó are common, especially during Holy Week, the concept of individual or small-group pilgrimages is relatively new. Fortunately, the small towns along the way are steeped in the Catholic tradition of supporting pilgrims, and Ann, having completed a half-dozen or more pilgrimages to Chimayó, has done a wonderful job of helping them to understand the needs of modern day pilgrims such as our group.
So what’s it like to walk this route? In actuality, unless one camps out along the way, the stages are set by the availability of food and lodging. This results in a seven-day itinerary that begins with three days averaging 20 miles (32 km) each, followed by days of 13, 17, 15, and 9+ miles (21, 27, 24, and 15 km) each. Much of the route involves walking along paved highways, with only approximately 40 percent of the way on gravel or dirt roads or trails. As noted above, the terrain varies from sagebrush flats to piñon and juniper-covered hills, to lodgepole pine and aspen forests. The elevation varies from 7900 feet (2410 m) at the start in San Luis to 6100 feet (1860 m) at the Santuario de Chimayó, with the crossing of a 9000-foot (2750 m) mountain pass between Ranchos de Taos and Peñasco on Day 5. It’s clearly a pilgrimage walk not to be taken lightly, even by Camino de Santiago veterans. Cellphone coverage is limited along most of the way, particularly on the arduous Day 5 climb over the pass, so getting help in case of an accident or injury can be problematic.
There are currently no guidebooks for this route; however, one of the pilgrims in our group, Patt Bekken, is in the process of writing one. She will also be organizing future group pilgrimages to Chimayó. Her website is www.peregrinity.org .
