Deacon Harbey Santiago
Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- September 2014 Leon-Santiago de Compostella
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I think the other boot is lost when the pilgrim jumps out of his skin in the wrong direction and his boot gets caught and ground up in the big chain ring of a bell-less, stealth mountain bike going Mach 1.Never understood it. How do you suddenly decide 200km from the end that you want to leave your boots? Even weirder was the number of single boots. Have their been a lot of amputations due to severe blisters or something?
Even weirder was the number of single boots. Have their been a lot of amputations due to severe blisters or something?
There are many sports stores that carry inner soles or even gel soles at farmacias if you need them - we got some gel heels at a farmacia to help with tendon problemsThis question reminds me of the line about "the dog fight outside a cheese factory", it is what it is!
However when the innersole cushions finally give up the ghost and it starts to feel like you are walking in a pair of cardboard boots or the rubber soles come uncoupled from the boots it is time to toss them in a bin. Leaving them on the Camino is an act of graffiti as far as I'm concerned, the adage to take nothing but pictures applies here.
Love this idea. And it costs nought.What we need is a program wherein pilgrims earn points towards a special "Compost-ella" based on the trash and waste they bring in from each stretch of the Camino. They bring it to the albergue in exchange for a special trash stamp. Boots get a certain point value, used toilet paper in a baggie gets an even higher value, and so forth. Then, at the end of their Camino, they show their trash stamp collection to the Pilgrim's Office, and if they have enough, they get the Compost-ella.
Just a thought.
Sure. Crush my dreams for a better world . . .With a certificate of distance, you get bragging rights. With litter pickup, you get dirty hands. Guess which will be more popular...
Hi koilife - the first "Compost-ella" should go to you for coming up with this great suggestion! A fantastic idea!What we need is a program wherein pilgrims earn points towards a special "Compost-ella" based on the trash and waste they bring in from each stretch of the Camino. They bring it to the albergue in exchange for a special trash stamp. Boots get a certain point value, used toilet paper in a baggie gets an even higher value, and so forth. Then, at the end of their Camino, they show their trash stamp collection to the Pilgrim's Office, and if they have enough, they get the Compost-ella.
Just a thought.
Sadly, Falcon is right. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it still ain't sexy. Trash detail will never be a matter for bragging rights, just the act of a small number of caring people for whom the very act is reward enough.Hi koilife - the first "Compost-ella" should go to you for coming up with this great suggestion! A fantastic idea!
Cheers - Jenny
Agree with this Jenny.....such a good idea.Hi koilife - the first "Compost-ella" should go to you for coming up with this great suggestion! A fantastic idea!
Cheers - Jenny
I have heard similar stories about leaving boots behind for much the same reasons Robert......I do 'get that' and tend to think that I might do the same myself one day......Those boots or shoes have given miles and miles of faithful service and, if they are anything like mine, have become a very special part of my life and I would like to honour them as they deserve.....just saying here..Regarding the abandoned boots, I asked someone--who was in the process of abandoning his boots--why he was doing it. He told me that he was forced to buy a new pair in Leon (he hoped his old boots would get him through the Camino but they finally gave out). He told me that it seemed wrong to throw them away at the shoe store. He explained that he had trekked several Caminos with them. So he carried them for a few days until he found an appropriate place to leave them along the Camino. He then built a couple of rock cairns around the boots as sort of a shrine to honor them. I sort of get that.
Regarding trash detail, I walked last year with a couple from Alaska. He spent every day with picking up trash and emptying his trash bag at the next village. He was in his early seventies and never complained once about bending over 2 or 3 hundred times a day to pick up discarded water bottles, facial tissue, and other assorted pilgrim related garbage. I agree he deserved some sort of "Super-Compostela".
Explaining and understanding something does not justify it. Trash is trash. If you put your shrine in an albergue or museum, it would go out with the daily garbage collection. Pilgrims get away with it on the trail because others do not pick up after them. Don't leave it behind.I do 'get that' and tend to think that I might do the same myself one day......Those boots or shoes have given miles and miles of faithful service and, if they are anything like mine, have become a very special part of my life and I would like to honour them as they deserve.....just saying here..
Descending from Alto Perdon in 2012 I encountered a pair of boots, separated by about 200 metres, a pair of badly torn cargo pants on a fence a little further down and at the bottom a Burghaus rain jacket and a heap of other abandoned clothing. I spent the few k's into Uterga looking for a bin for most of it, and for a semi-naked barefoot pilgrim...
The first time I came across a large and heavy sleeping bag laying on the side of the trail was towards the end of the descent from Alto de Perdon. My first thought was, am I on candid camera? Next was, why would anyone just leave it here instead of at the albergue? My final question was, why didn't they leave it on the climb up instead of after coming back down?
Regarding the abandoned boots, I asked someone--who was in the process of abandoning his boots--why he was doing it. He told me that he was forced to buy a new pair in Leon (he hoped his old boots would get him through the Camino but they finally gave out). He told me that it seemed wrong to throw them away at the shoe store. He explained that he had trekked several Caminos with them. So he carried them for a few days until he found an appropriate place to leave them along the Camino. He then built a couple of rock cairns around the boots as sort of a shrine to honor them. I sort of get that.
".
Nice!That was not a sleeping bag. It was the crysalis for a newborn Camino soul, now flying free on to Puente de la Reina! (or some such overwrought rationale...)
But, as is often the case with children, we incent them initially to learn to do the things they should do without incentive once they have matured. For instance, giving kids a piece of candy when they go pee in the potty (I suppose giving them a piece of candy after brushing their teeth would be equally effective, thought counterproductive).Seriously, I think picking up trash should not earn any kind of prize, any more than brushing your teeth should earn a prize. It oughtta be a part of every day life, a day-to-day part of being a pilgrim. If everyone did his bit, it would not look like such a monumental and heroic undertaking.
Same reason as graffiti -- "I was here, and I count."
I hate graffiti but must admit there was one that kept me going.
I remember seeing for the first time written on a sign on the road out of Astorga, "STEFANO GOES TO SANTIAGO". I kept seeing the same piece of text on road signs all the way. I spent a lot of time wondering who Stefano is (or was), whether he was five minutes ahead or five years. When I hit low points seeing "STEFANO GOES TO SANTIAGO" cheered me up because my (imaginary) friend was still going even though he was travelling in another time. One of the many weird, existentialist mind-wanders that seems to happen on the Camino.
That was not a sleeping bag. It was the crysalis for a newborn Camino soul, now flying free on to Puente de la Reina! (or some such overwrought rationale...)
Seriously, I think picking up trash should not earn any kind of prize, any more than brushing your teeth should earn a prize. It oughtta be a part of every day life, a day-to-day part of being a pilgrim. If everyone did his bit, it would not look like such a monumental and heroic undertaking.
I have heard similar stories about leaving boots behind for much the same reasons Robert......I do 'get that' and tend to think that I might do the same myself one day......Those boots or shoes have given miles and miles of faithful service and, if they are anything like mine, have become a very special part of my life and I would like to honour them as they deserve.....just saying here..
... to pick up discarded water bottles, facial tissue, and other assorted pilgrim related garbage...
Perhaps they were walking back, in the other direction!The first time I came across a large and heavy sleeping bag laying on the side of the trail was towards the end of the descent from Alto de Perdon. My first thought was, am I on candid camera? Next was, why would anyone just leave it here instead of at the albergue? My final question was, why didn't they leave it on the climb up instead of after coming back down?
I cannot speak for others that left their boots, but I will tell you my story of walking the Camino Frances in 2012. I have hiked almost all the Appalachian Trail in Maine and used Salomon 4DGTX hiking boots and medium grade Marino wool socks with great results. Naturally, I applied this philosophy to my walk in Spain with disastrous results. I even added a liner sock inside the medium wool Marino sock which I was told would eliminate blisters. The opposite occurred and trapped moisture inside my boot. By Torres del Rio I was in trouble when a silver dollar sized blister appeared on the pad of my right foot that kept my off the Camino in Belorado for 3 days. The hiking boot was light but when blisters appeared was constrictive and painful. I can thank my walking partner for telling me to ditch the liner socks and medium wool socks. He gave me two pair of his own lightweight polyester acrylic blend socks for me to use. When my blisters healed and I arrived in Leon, I went straight to the mall and purchased a Salomon trail shoe. The Camino is not the Appalachian Trail I discovered. A great trail shoe will perform well for an 800 km walk and make sure you get a lightweight sock with a polyester, acrylic, nylon blend that will allow your feet to "breathe". They are superior to wool socks on the Camino because the wick well in warm weather. I left my very expensive hiking boots behind in my pension in Leon and walked out a believer in the trail shoe and polyester, acrylic, nylon sock. They were lighter on my feet and I walked into Santiago and then on to Finisterre and Muxia without another blister. I hope this helps others and spares them the unnecessary difficulty that I went through.I have seen many photographs of pairs of boots without their owners been left in the Camino as some time of memorial. Could someone explain their significance?
"Viva Cristo Rey!!"
Camino Bound, Sept 2014!
Deacon Harbey Santiago
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