kbarca,
From memory i can assist, in addition and or repetition of information found elsewere on this site and links to it.
You can start in Barcelona. There are 2 routes from barcelona, where i can only comment on the southern trail. There are yellow arrows and signs. albeit the battle of the signs is evident probably because the barcelona-montserat leg is shared between perhaps 3 routes. a very general rule would be to follow the white and red horisontal stripes where exist and yellow arrows are absent.
Signs before montserat
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There dwells two trail angels on the barcelona-montserat leg, ill pm their info to you if you like.
Montserat has guidebooks for approx 5 euro, written in spanish. Indicates the route as 1100km to Santiago and follows the southern ebro (they split at Tarrega! while you may want to go to Lleida and the arrows trail to balageur).
Signs after Montserrat
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I found that spanish is well understood by many in the area, if you have limited vocabulary the guidebook is handed over to strangers with amazing results. Catalan is spoken in that area and makes locals smile.
After Montserat the arrows are well placed except on 3 occasions, where deviations exist.
Distance to Logrono approx 300-400 km
Your questions:
I'm not averse to walking alone for part of the day, but meeting and walking with other pilgrims is important to me.
Barcelona - Logrono ( 20 days)
Total mountainbikes = 7
Total pilgrims = 3
So my questions are...does anyone do this route?
Yes
Is its connection to the Frances reasonably easy to find?
Yes, it joins the
Camino Frances at Logrono (if you follow the Montserrat guidbook)
And how long is it from Montserrat to Compostela?
According to the guidebook about 1100km
Or should I bag this idea, do the Frances, and get myself to SJPP or Roncasvalles to start my journey? I'm a woman in my fifties, if that's relevant.
This choice is yours, but i would like to know how big your 'bag' is