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What is the significance of abandoned walking boots?

Time of past OR future Camino
September 2014 Leon-Santiago de Compostella
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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A: They were the wrong size.
B: They weren't as water resistant as the retailer promised.
C: The sole started coming away from the uppers.
D: The owners decided to do the rest of their Camino 'old school' bare footed as some do on the pilgrimage path on Croagh Patrick in Ireland.

No single reason from the boots I saw on my travels.
 
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?
 
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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?
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.

Or maybe that was just my boot . . .
 
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St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
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...
 
This question reminds me of the line about "the dog fight outside a cheese factory":eek: , 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.;)
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
At places like mount everest, hikers are leaving so much rubbish behind (oxygen bottles, etc) that for years now, volunteer crews walk /hike the area to collect the rubbish left behind by others....
It does not have to be like this.....
- Consciousness/ awareness goes a long way... No pun intended :)
Saluti, claudia
 
This question reminds me of the line about "the dog fight outside a cheese factory":eek: , 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.;)
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 problems


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Lots of good people pick up trash all along the camino, all year round. If they didn´t, it would be a great smelly heap by now.
People who abandon their boots tell themselves it is a poignant memorial to a lost struggle, yadda yadda. In reality, they do not want to bother carrying their trash to the next bin, and they expect someone else to clean it up after them.
Pilgrims need to police themselves. There are just too many of you for it to work otherwise.

Pilgrims don´t let fellow pilgrims litter the camino.
 
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.:cool:
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
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.:cool:
Love this idea. And it costs nought.
 
With a certificate of distance, you get bragging rights. With litter pickup, you get dirty hands. Guess which will be more popular...
Sure. Crush my dreams for a better world . . . :( Destroy my hope in the best side of humanity . . . :(

I guess I'll just have to make my own Compost-ella and dwell in my own self-satisfaction for having thrown myself against reality and suffered mightily for it.
 
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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.:cool:
Hi koilife - the first "Compost-ella" should go to you for coming up with this great suggestion! A fantastic idea!
Cheers - Jenny
 
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?
 
Hi koilife - the first "Compost-ella" should go to you for coming up with this great suggestion! A fantastic idea!
Cheers - Jenny
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.

On the other hand, perhaps trash detail along the Camino could become a form of community service and taking time off prison sentences. The Camino has a long history of pardon for criminals. Their release papers could be called the Compost-jailla.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
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".
 
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.
 
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".
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..
 
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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..
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.:)
 
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...

That made me chuckle :))
 
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?

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.
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
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.
".

I don't, rubbish is rubbish. I too had to buy new shoes in Arzua because mine fell apart... I just put them in the BIN! I wish I could have carried them back home (if only to get reimbursement!!) but it wasn't practical. Why should I expect anyone to carry them for me to the next bin?
 
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...)
Nice!
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.
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).
 
The camino looks like a dump yard sometimes. Very sad.

Pls, show more respect to the Spanish people, to your co-pilgs and to the Camino.
Lots of graffiti for somebody to wash off - abondoned boots, clothes, used toilet paper, plastic water bottles for us to pick up.

Buen camino anyway...
 

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New Original Camino Gear Designed Especially with The Modern Peregrino In Mind!
[QUOTE="On the other hand, perhaps trash detail along the Camino could become a form of community service and taking time off prison sentences. The Camino has a long history of pardon for criminals. Their release papers could be called the Compost-jailla.[/QUOTE]
It is. Rebekah and I were stopped from litter picking by the Guardia Civil once as it was in an area reserved for people doing community service!

I must admit I found it slightly amusing when I saw my first abandoned boot. Unless the pilgrim had started walking somewhere near Vladivostok he should probably have invested in a new pair before he started because this boot was well past its best. Unfortunately it becomes a bit of a cliché like a t-shirt or TV ad that was only funny first time round.

The Compost-ella is a good idea, but in practice pilgrims would just send bags of litter from albergue to albergue by baggage transfer service to get a stamp. ;)
 
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.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
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.
ImageUploadedByCamino de Santiago Forum1401579145.789023.jpg
Stuart
I am also annoyed with graffiti, but can understand your thoughts on a particular link to someone who is just somewhere in time before you. Some pilgrim, named Roland (maybe not his real name?) was at times defacing (IMO ) kilometre stones and other things along the way with quirky thoughts, but I must admit, 'you wondered ' about the walker. Then this graffiti, (see pic ), actually brought a smile I admit.
 
I was more puzzled when I saw just one boot instead of two. More than a week later a friend (a pilgrim) looked at my pictures and saw the single boot and a picture of a Korean woman I had met and smiled. He also saw the boot and decided to carry it forward deciding it was dropped by accident. He later stopped to rest under a tree and saw the owner (the Korean woman) walking the "wrong" way without a pack. He was able to reunite her and the boot that had dropped off the back of her pack. That's a long way to say that sometimes they're just lost boots. :)
 
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 agree to a point, except "If everyone did his bit,. . . " there would be no trash to pick up (which would be even better).:confused:
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
There's a successful anti-litter campaign running in Sydney at the moment. It simply involves Council officers talking to families in public parks, telling them the Council is trying to clean up the area and would they mind ensuring they take all their litter when they leave. Apparently the amount of litter has halved.
It seems that just discussing the issue helps.
 
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..

I don't "get it" - how can an inanimate object "deserve" to be honoured...... Is it not self centred, self indulgent and selfish to elevate a personal emotion so? Let us honour the community of pilgrims instead, by keeping the Camino litter free.
 
They weren't left there - this is all part of the Rapture- has started on the Camino and is expected to spread ..... possibly ....
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Been on the planet a long time and, getting back to the possible "significance" of a tossed pair of boots (or sneakers). Working in Law Enforcement in Norfolk, VA and often in the hood, sneakers over a telephone line could indicate the owner was in the cement hotel, or worse, dead. Outside the entrance to Philmont Scout Reservation in New Mexico, scouts have been tossing their hiking boots over a line there for that purpose as a testament to their having completed the most arduous hiking route. So, it's quite possible either, or an other reasons exist,i.e. they have completed the Camino, or that's as far as they got.
 
Zombie kill site. Found some that had not been worn very much--almost new--think blood had been licked off. And , ever wonder why soldiers wear one dog tag on neck and tie one to a bootlace? Good reason for doing so, even if you doubt that it is true.
 
Blisters. My son had on boots and had to swap them out for tennis shoes at least once due to blisters. Yes, he lugged the boots with him instead of dumping them, but as heavy as they were, I could see someone leaving them. We saw a pair of abandoned boots sitting atop a kilometer marker close to the end of the Camino. I want to say it was near Arzua.
 
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The reason for the dog tags...if both around the neck...they both get lost. If wounded and laid on a stretcher with others head to head...it immediately shows blood type and allergies to assist in treatment If the serviceman dies the tag on the boot replaces the need for an identification tag on the toe. With the prevalence of IEDs on todays battlefield because the armored vest protects the chest area the single tag around the throat is most often there should the boots depart the body.
 
Arn--Blood type is written in casualties blood on his forehead along with letter "T" if tourniquet used. Unit commander used to take one dog tag and leave one. If body is vaporized by high explosives, generally the feet are not and the dog tag in a boot lace is available for recognition. When leaving Viet Nam, most guys threw everything away except their boots and poncho liner.
 
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I saw these abandoned hiking shoes at Monte do Gozo a couple of weeks back -

boots at Monte de Gozo.jpg

Keeping the shoes company were the pebbles you see in the pic, several staffs, a pretty decent hiking pole, a tattered straw hat, a bandana, but sadly, no discarded buffs ...;)
 
This past spring while walking I passed a fence post with a book sitting on the post, The Complete works of Plato. Dang, its only 2000 pages or so, how much could it weigh??
;)
 
Still have not heard anyone explain the bra and panties on the Kilometer marker outside of Navarett---about 2 kilometers past the backpack torn apart with contents spread all over the trail.
 
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The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
Just a day back from Leon to Finisterre, definitely the commonest reason would be the uppers and soles seperating, as I have 1,900 kms on my current camino boots and plenty of wear still left, I'd hazard a guess that in most of these cases people chose price over quality.
 
... to pick up discarded water bottles, facial tissue, and other assorted pilgrim related garbage...

Facial tissue??? I doubt that very much of the reams of tissue that line the Camino and the nearby bushes was used on someone's face. That kinda discourages others from picking them up.

 
I was on the Chilkoot trail a few years ago. This trail was used by prospectors on their way to the Klondike. The trail is strewn with 100 year (plus) old detritus including old tin cans, bits of dead horse, and ... of course ... single shoes. The stuff now has historical significance; if you were to bring a garbage bag and start picking you'd be arrested for disturbing the artifacts.

I am so glad that people are picking up the trash before someone else decides it has cultural significance ... and if you think that's nuts think about what Cruz de Ferro has become.
 
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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?
Perhaps they were walking back, in the other direction!
 
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
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.
 

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