Outside Magazine notices the caminos

[Deleted member 3000]

http://www.outsideonline.com/advent...g-the-Camino-de-Santiago-A-Brief-History.html
http://www.outsideonline.com/advent...g-the-Camino-de-Santiago-A-Brief-History.html

There are five articles in the magazine. Each should be worth at least 100 new pilgrims!!

 

[peregrina2000]

Hmm, I kind of cringe when this magazine describes the Camino as "Medieval Europe's version of the thru-hike." In my mind, people who do thru-hikes and people who walk the Camino are two very different types of people. Of course there is some overlap, but in broad strokes I think they have very different ideas about what they want to do.

Thru-hikers hike the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail, they are hard-core outdoorspeople and they enjoy long remote stretches and very basic facilities. Camino-walkers are there for a variety of reasons but they tend to be less interested in camping, in lugging huge packs and in cooking over a bunsen burner. I'm not saying these are two rigid mutually exclusive categories of people but the focuses do seem different.

We saw this difference a year or so ago when that guy from the US posted his many reasons why the Camino was a terrible hike. All of what he noted about the Camino was perfectly accurate information, and it was the kind of stuff that thru-hikers wouldn't like -- roads, lots of people, not many remote stages, etc. But many of us Camino-lovers were up in arms about how he was slandering our Camino. I think that many people who read Ourside Magazine will have similar reactions to the Camino as that guy if they decide to walk it.

Buen camino, Laurie

 

[julie]

I've walked a few long distance routes as well as a few pilgrim ones and, like Laurie, have noticed a difference in the type of people who choose one over the other though, of course, there is some overlap. Page 5 of the article mentions that "Like any other long-distance walk, there's a physical and mental commitment to the task, a simple rhythm of daily needs to meet". This is certainly true but a pilgrimage also adds an emotional and spiritual component to the mix.

 

[SYates]

... Each should be worth at least 100 new pilgrims!!

Lol, do we really need more pilgrims? As for the difference between thru-hikers and pilgrims, I agree what the others said in this thread here! SY

 

[Kitsambler]

Apples and oranges. If the quote was about "Medieval Europe's version of the thru-hike" (emphasis added), then as a thumbnail sketch for the uninitiated that works for me. Don't you suppose that in Medieval times, things were very much rougher than today? It seems to me that all the comments so far have compared a pilgrimage to a modern thru-hike.

I'm glad Outside has taken up the topic; it's a go-to resource for a large number of people active in the outdoors. It's always frustrating to me, when I discuss equipment or training, to have backpacking be the only conversational context.

 

[anniethenurse]

We saw this difference a year or so ago when that guy from the US posted his many reasons why the Camino was a terrible hike.

http://francistapon.com/Travels/Spain-Trails/10-Reasons-Why-El-Camino-Santiago-Sucks