Villafranco del Bierzo to La Laguna del Castillo

Hello, everyone.  This is a second post for the day as I want to get caught up.

We left Villafranco around 0700 as usual. There was some pretty path along the way, though what we mostly remember about the day is the continuous climbing. Very little of that climbing was given back. It just went up, up, up. We had a bite of breakfast around 9:30 or 10. The path kept on. We passed Hotel Valcarce, that is named after the river we must have crossed about 7 times. Those folks have a bar, a restaurant,  a hotel, bus and truck parking...it reminded us of Complejo Leo on the Via de la Plata. But we had eaten, visited facilities, and we're generally good, so we didn't go in.

We started climbing for real at about Las Herrerias, which at one time was an iron processing town. We had a small sip there and headed out. We passedca cutoff for La Faba, but we didn't go there as we had discovered that neither of the lodgings there have wifi. Actually in the event I considered how the whole place was probably tucked insight to the canyon walls and wondered to DH if the town even had cell service. Much less internet. (Memories of driving through the Missouri hollows and losing active calls with every dip in the road stay with me.) We headed on. Using the paved road that was also the bike route. After many turns and twists, and many stops for breath, we arrived at La Laguna. This is a tiny village with only one place to stay. We were lucky and they found room for two more heads to lie down on pillows. (Which after almost 29 km of climbing all day, I was extremely grateful for.) 

We're pretty much at the top now, expecting ridge walking tomorrow before beginning the great downhill walking.

Trabadelo was very involved in wood.

Here you see one of several log piles that were seasoning alongside the road.

Las Herrerias boundary sign

Artistic shale roof work

View from the road, just before La Laguna

An amazing sight

Hello,  everyone. Today I am sharing the most amazing view.

This is Mt. Denali and its two companion peaks, Mt. Foraker at the left and Mt. Hunter, plus the rest of the range, fully visible! 

They say that only 30 percent of visitors get to see the mountain without its veil of obscuring clouds.

It's amazing.

It's been busy (edited for formatting)

 Hello, everyone. I had intended to post earlier, but got distracted and forgot. We did make a small family trip, to a wedding on St. Thomas.

From the plane en route

The day before the wedding gatherings commenced, we visited the famous mountain top viewing spot. The water there is so amazingly blue! And everything was so, so green. It rained once or twice in each of the days we were there.

We had gone across to Mexico to find clothes for the wedding before leaving, as the bride had chosen a patio wedding in the afternoon. This little blue dress is cotton, very comfortable, and with a cascade of necklaces worked out great. (The long one is jades, some from my grandmother, and aventurine. The short one, a gift from a relative, is cultured pearls. The middle one, like the long one, is from my stringing, but it's just a pretty color combination I had seen in a magazine.) 

I learned that all of the beaches there are artificial, which explains why the sand is the exact same stuff as we see at South Padre Island. Ours comes from the Mississippi River outflow, I don't know where the landscapers at St. Thomas got theirs. The natural shore there looks a bit more like this:

Pretty! And just chock-full of lovely oxygen for the fish. Not really a place to wade, though. Looks really turbulent.

Also for the first time in my life, I saw sargasso weed. DSIL1 tells me that the sargassum patches are popular with bait fish, and if he sees them while boating on the open water, he will dive in and hunt for the predator fish that come to eat the bait fish hiding in the weeds.  

Recap of Primitivo, Days 3 and 4 (updated: Days 4 and 5)

 Hello, everyone.

Today, since much of what was to be said about the walk to Campiello has already been said, I thought I would combine that with the following day from Campiello over the Hospitales route to Berducedo.

First off, the walk to Campiello was deliberately a short day. We got there about noon and immediately had a coffee with a egg-and-chorizo bocadillo tapa. Then we got with the people about a bed to sleep in and the washing protocols (bought tokens) and got after the laundry. Then we had a snack of "seafood-rice salad" from their little grocery and finished off the laundry. At suppertime we ate a pizza in their cafe and also got jamon and cheese bocadillos for the next day's picnic lunch. These turned out to be huge.

A bit of scenery after leaving Tineo. (By the way, Tineo had installed street lights on the walking trail out of town. By the time we ran out of lights there was starting to be walking light from the sky.)

I think pictures from the Albergue Casa Ricardo in Campiello have already been included in the en-route post about this stage.

The next morning, we left before actual light, but there was no traffic on the road and we were able to follow it.

The sun came up while we were walking. (Actually that tends to happen with us. Even more so when we walked this time, into the shortening days.) 

We passed through Borres and didn't locate the little bar. Well, we passed it, but after considerable discussion didn't try the door to see if it was actually open or not. After Borres we came to the split in the routes. A number of the people who were walking at that time had mentioned that they were going to take the low route, as it has a lot more facilities en route. They were still going to end up in Berducedo, probably as there is precious little in the way of lodging along this stage this year. (I think there may have been an option to sleep in Pola de Allande on the low route, but as we took the other one it didn't matter to us.) The low route has more kilometers and, significantly for us, a lot more climbs and descents according to the information we had. We went the high way because once we got up there is would be mostly ridge walking. Which is fairly even. And it was.

Y'all will note that while there is a real slope here, the trail isn't sloping a whole lot.

That little grove of trees in the background, and the famous ruins, are about the only place one could take shelter from a big wind up there. And with the said wind, the pine branches might fall on one's head. Other than that, it's a whole lot of open area.

This is an interesting bug that we saw along the way that day. It looked a bit like it was laying eggs in the grass. We had never seen this critter before.

Later we passed along the very dooryard of a farm in the hills, large friendly dog there, and through the village of Lagos, lovely water fountain at the church, no bars at all, and arrived 5:30 in the evening at Berducedo, for a 30 kilometer day. We were so tired. We ate the remnants of our bocadillo picnic sandwiches (most of them, we had only nibbled at lunchtime) for dinner along with a bottle of Spanish wine from the little grocery there and went to bed.

Recap of Pilgrimage 2021: Salvador part 2

 Hello, everyone.

The last update brought us to La Robla. Today's update carries on through Poladura de la Tercia.

When we left La Robla it was easy for a while. Eventually, after going through some villages and stopping at a gas station (they do exist and sometimes they're on the route) we followed a side road into the mountains.

We walked along the side of a narrow road that was clearly marked "Mountain Road" so drivers wouldn't be surprised by snow. Or falling rocks. There were snow poles from time to time. We saw an insect sunning itself on the pavement.

We took his picture, and forgot entirely to take a picture of the small river/large creek alongside the road. 

We eventually arrived at Buiza, around midday, where there was no refreshment supplier. There is a lovely fountain near the entrance of the town, but our water bottles were still full. We followed the trail through the town, passing some windowsill art

and fairly quickly arrived at a pasture with some fencing. One follows the arrows and goes through wire gates and up the hill.

This day takes the pilgrim past the Forcadas de San Anton, a set of very interesting rock formations, which while we walked past them we aren't sure which rocks were the famous ones.

Where the trail split, we took the downhill side, which passes a cross, and goes alongside some water. Then the trail stays pretty level for a long time. The first village we came to was not Poladura. It was San Martin. We had to follow the arrows out the back side of the village, down a caliche road, and then turn at a small building and follow a mostly-unused trail into Poladura. The building does have a yellow arrow painted on the side. And when we walked this way someone had been walking there recently with their (cute) little dog and left trodden down grass that we could follow.

This was a day that is not listed as a huge distance, but all of those kilometers were hard ones.

Our dinner and room at El Embrujo were wonderful. And we met some really neat people at their patio, too. As I don't have their permission, I won't name names, but we learned a lot about the ensuing days on the Salvador from one of them. 😉 And were grateful for the advice!

The most comfortable shoes we have ever walked in

 Hello, everyone.

Today I want to talk about our shoes. We walked in Hoka One One Speedgoats. These were new, and we loved walking in them.

We had chosen them in the first place because (1) they have the Mega-grip soles and won't slip on wet stone, and (2) being trail runners, they weigh less than our previous shoes did. 

They also breathe--this was wonderful--at the end of the day my feet were not soaking in a puddle of perspiration the way waterproof shoes always worked out.

We had no blisters on the entire pilgrimage.

At the central milestone in Madrid, at the end.

At lunch time on the Hospitales portion of the Camino Primitivo. (Yes, that is a toppled marker stone being used as a bench. It was toppled when we got there!)

Seventh update on pilgrimage 2021

 Hello, everyone. 

We left Tineo about 8 in the morning.  It was dark but the town had put street lights on the trail out of town for at least a quarter mile. We walked to  Campiello, a short day but a restful one. (14 km about) We got there about noon. We did some proteining up for the next day: egg and chorizo bocadillo tapas with our coffee, Mediterranean salad with ea sticks--these are fake crab legs--and vegetables gor a cnack, and then split a pizza with jamon york, cheese, bacon, and tuna for dinner. 

The pre-prepared packaged salad.

We also obtained packed bocadillos for the following day as there are no facilities on the Hospitales route.

We left Campiello about 8 and began walking toward Borres and the split in the trail. 

One of the ruins of former pilgrim shelters in the mountains.

We ended our day at Berducedo, about a 30 km walk. This was long but not impossible. In the future when there are recap posts from other cameras, there will be more discussion of this. Suffice to say that we were too tired to go grocery shopping or do much else. But the beauty of the mountains was amazing.

Enough for now!

Third update on pilgrimage 2021

 Hello, everyone.

We reached Oviedo the day before yesterday and had a rest day. Today we will walk to Grado.

This has been such a crazy couple of years that, since our Spain phone is now reactivated at the convenient Orange shop here in Oviedo, we are making reservations a day or two ahead.

In Pola de Lena, where we stayed at a small hotel, they were having a fiesta. A few fellows brought out instruments and did a song fest with their friends in front of the bar. (This was the bar whose owners had the little hotel. La Payareta I think it's called.)  

This was the first fiesta in 2 years, a long time. Everyone was out enjoying the evening.

More in next post. 

Second update on pilgrimage 2021

 Hello, everyone. 

Yesterday we started in Poladura, where we had stayed in the lovely Hotel Rural El Embrujo. (No signs of any actual wizarding here! Just a very nice room, great shower, wonderful dinner.) 

We were "scheduled" for an 18.7 km day. Well. Those were some long kilometers! We started by  walking up to the Cruz del Salvador. This was a bit steeep.  Happily, a fellow pilgrim from Chlekia arrived as we did and snapped a picture for us. Then we passed the high point of the Camino...don't know which crest of the trail it was exactly...then down and when we reached Puerto de Pajares we found the first bar all day. Cafe leche a little strong on the coffee side for my taste. Left there and passed around the back side through the most beautiful autumn crocuses, went through a gate and on down to cross the highway. Then through a nature park and up to the hamlet of Santa Marina (4 inhabitants, they told us) where we asked after the albergue and the nice bartender took us outside and pointed to the next peak in the mountains. "Only 30 minutes, I did it all the time when I was a kid," the nice man said. His older neighbor muttered "more like 50" as we thanked them and left, greeting the old ladies sitting on their stoops enjoying the late afternoon. The trail around the mountainside was lovely, thank God it wasn't dark yet.

About 8 pm, as the albergue was commencing to serve the very good supper, our Chek fellow pilgrim arrived. The sun had set about 7:25, I know how he did that trail in falling darkness!

At the end, in Llanos de Someron (alternate spelling Chanos de Someron) we found alovely, new albergue. Great supper, too. 

A picture from April

 Hello, everyone.

The old homestead has been busy with various repairs and improvements lately and new photos haven't been taken...other than some more breakfast photos, that is. (I should really take some dinner pictures, too, but I never think of it in time.)

This picture was taken on the thirtieth of April of this year, on a day we drove around a lot in Colorado. This was the day we saw antelope, elk, beefalo, buffalo(?), a lama, and so on.

We had pulled over to let the pup stretch her legs a little, near a stream and across from this view of mountains and snow and some large grazing animals in the distance.

A little farther down the road we saw this sign. Possibly the animals above were some of the conserved wildlife?

A Day Visit to Rocky Mountains National Park

 Hello, everyone.

The weekend we spent in Denver--a family visit--included a really interesting side trip to Rocky Mountains National Park.

The park is about 2 hours' drive from the big city. Understandably, it is very popular with both the local folks and the tourists. We were there before summer travel season got going and there was still about an hour waiting in line at the entrance gate.

We got to view various wildlife while creeping forward in the entrance line: some deer, some rodent-sized creatures. (Memory fades just which small four legged things, but they were interesting. Not beaver, not chipmunk...)

It would be my recommendation that if one is visiting from out of the area, one should make some effort to do the visit to the park on a week day. And get on the road over there early. (Leave Denver before 0700 if you can!) The way is partly freeways and partly scenic.

We viewed snow--okay, okay, many people wouldn't cross the road to see the stuff, but we live in South Texas. Snow is a Thing here--which was at the end of its season but not completely, as we learned a few days later. The flowers weren't really into action yet, but some were poking their little green stems up from the soil. We were there at the end of April, so spring was still beginning in the area.

There are many pull-off spots with small parking lots and trail heads and generally interesting sights. We didn't go to the Glacier viewing trail as that parking lot was already completely full, but we did go to a couple of others.

The first one has a small loop walk around a pond. 

I was fascinated by a species of low growing shrub that was scattered around at the bases of trees. This is one of the larger ones. It was growing alongside the walking trail.

The ducks were on the lake already--note that there is still ice on the water as well!--and they were engaging in duck style social life. Which looks like chasing each other around. It can be hard to tell whether the ducks are trying to claim good areas and chase each other away from them or thinking romantic thoughts.

This pair of mallards was having duck nap time right next to the trail. I noticed that the female was sleeping with one eye open. Possibly the male (the green-headed one) as well. When the wild creatures are resting, one should not disturb them.

The trail crossed over some snow, but I was too busy trying not to fall down to take any pictures of the white stuff. 

We left that place and drove about looking at the views and stopped at another small parking lot. Following a trail that didn't seem to go anywhere led to an open meadow and, off in the distance, a herd of deer eating their mid-morning snack. The photo has been cropped, it might not be obvious that it was taken on the biggest zoom on the camera; we didn't want to disturb the wild creatures while we were looking at them. After we watched them for a while, some other people came along with a dog, hiking. From probably a quarter mile away the deer noticed and discreetly left for more solitary parts, before the dog even knew deer were around.

Rocky Mountain National Park has a lot of visitors, but it is still an interesting place to see. They do have at least one glacier. Because it is near Denver, it is more convenient to air travel than many of the scenic parks are.

The park has a web site. They recommend that people who want to take their dogs for a hike go to one of the nearby National Forest areas as the park is more focused on wild natural areas. While we saw a couple of dogs, there were not a lot. I would personally suggest that in a natural wild or remote place the dog should be on a leash so he doesn't get lost for good and all. 

The Road Trip Continues

 Hello, everyone.

In the last post, the road trip arrived in Pueblo, Colorado. We resume there, with our drive into Denver.

This was a relaxing trip, so we didn't just dash up I25 to the big city. We drove to Colorado Springs on the freeway, and then went along smaller roads. 

(We didn't visit Garden of the Gods park, as we had done that in a previous trip some years back. It's very pretty, but we wanted to see new things. Garden of the Gods is a collection of very interesting rock formations in Colorado Springs.)

We drove west on US24 to Manitou Springs. There are various things in this area, as well as the lovely mountain views while driving. We visited the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwelling attraction. This is privately owned and is much more dog and family friendly than we expected a park service cliff dwelling site would be. 

Apparently each family had one
small, low-ceilinged room.

This is the photo of the nine family townhouse. 

The houses had door-blocking stones to seal the openings at night, both for the doors and for the small windows.

This apartment was unusual because of the 
carefully created lintels on the openings.

The information signs included some interesting information about winters in the area; the cliff dwelling apartments--low ceilinged and one roomed mostly--had no fireplaces in them. The thought is that when the door stones and window stones were in place the family would all snuggle up together under their animal skin or woven blankets (I don't know if these folks had the impressive weaving culture that later Indians have) and would stay warm enough together.

The apartments were visit-able, and the one that retained a balcony was reinforced so (one at a time!) a person could climb the ladder and see what it was like to view the valley from the balcony. 

The little village had what appeared to be a community cooking arrangement and also a community granary.

Upper story apartments were accessed by notches formed in the wall--surely there must have been more than these bare dips! like a rope?--or by wooden ladder. I would have hated to have to run like crazy with children to get ahead of a Blue-Norther type blizzard coming over the mountain if I had to get into one of those upper story apartments!

The pup viewing the parking lot,
photo taken from the balcony of
one of the aparments.

There is also a shop with many interesting things to buy, like books about the Indians who built the cliff dwellings and the natural plants of the area and so on. Plus of course the usual jewelry and tee shirts, etc. The shop is also dog friendly, though we kept our pup outside as we were concerned that she might wag her tail in the wrong place. The shop also included a museum.

We continued west along US24 and took the turn on US285, which went through Fairplay, and then through Breckenridge--pretty place, with dog-friendly restaurants (picnic tables on patio allow your leashed pup) and a war memorial honoring the 10th Mountain Division.

The skiing soldier has a pack on his back, which doesn't show well at this angle. I do wonder if the sculptor forgot to ask for photos of the men rigged up to fight when making this, the pack doesn't look large enough to hold a rifle and I didn't notice one slung over the shoulder either. But it's a lovely memorial anyway, and conveniently in town so it can be viewed while strolling between restaurants and parking spaces. 

A sharp-eyed reader will note that the mountains in this area still had snow on their tops. (Behind the statue.)

After visiting Breckenridge, we took I70 into Denver. As interstate highways go, this is quite scenic. 

Something we found west of Socorro

 Hello, everyone! 

We took the highway west from Socorro toward the village of Magdalena.  This is a small town with some scattered houses in the area as well. We learned later, see picture below, that Magdalena was a fairly important place around the turn of the last century.

Magdalena was the trail end and railway connection for a whole bunch of sheep and cattle ranchers.

The ranchers and their hands would stage a "drive" (just like the famous cattle drives from Texas to Dodge City Kansas) with a herd or flock of licestock. The creatures were encouraged to graze and move in a relaxed way. That way they would be in good condition when they reached the corrals in Magdalena for counting and pricing. It would take weeks to move the herds, with the cowhands or shepherds in tow and bringing the chuck wagon and spare mounts and so on.

I had not known of this smaller, west-to-east driving way.

While we were stretching our legs at this historical marker, we found ourselves--in 55F degree air--being snowed upon. 

We drove farther west, seeking the connecting northward paved road towards our lodging place for that night, and came to Pie Town. 

Pie Town is a small hamlet, but people who have an interest in hiking have probably seen references to it on Continental Divide Trail discussions and videos. We of course stopped to talk with a hiker we saw. The CDT through hikers like to stop at Pie Town for a hot meal or some pie. (When you're walking all day with your house and water and rations on your back, you build up an appetite! ) Just so you all know, we saw a sign on the food store that they're closed on Tuesdays...possibly as warmer weather and vacation season arrive they might be able to provide food then, too. I personally recommend that someone wanting to walk through there find a way to ask ahead of time if it looks like they'll be in Pie Town on a Tuesday. 

This was a really neat spot, and when we went west to Quemado and drove north we saw a lot of interesting scenery. (Take this as an advisory that the road, while good, is not a fast drive. Just enjoy the lava flows, the rock formations, and so on.) 

Israel pilgrimage, fifth in series

Hello, everyone.

The second day of our visiting in the land of Israel will be divided into multiple posts, as like the first day of visiting it was full of many places.

The day began at the Church of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor.  This is a smallish mountain, but it sticks up from the surrounding valley with steep slopes. We had to change from our bus to smaller vans to go up. (Three or four vans actually) The road up is full of hairpin switchback turns. There exists a walking lane, but if one walked up there and back down it would probably be the entire day's activity.

 After passing the ruins and some garden spaces, the gate of the church is before you.

Inside the door is a holy water font. The holy water fonts were generally stocked with holy water in the Holy Land.

The apse has a mosaic of the Transfiguration, which is also the fourth Luminous Mystery of the rosary. (The Luminous ones are the new set added by St. Pope John Paul II.)

Our  pastor offered Mass in a side chapel. The crucifix was constructed of many pieces of wood.

View from the patio outside the church, giving an idea of how far up the mountain is from its surroundings.

Walk report: Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Hello, everyone.

This is the last of the walk reports from our drive to California. On our way home, instead of clinging to I-10, we cut off at El Paso to visit GMNP. This was our first visit to the park.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park is one of the wilder parks in the system. They have a small visitor's center with bathroom. They have some camping facilities. There are no concessions with food, drinks, gasoline, etc.

A number of the visiting trails are convenient to the front entrance. We picked up a map and headed out onto a short-to-medium length hike: The Devil's Hall Trail.This is an out-and-back trail, not a loop. The whole trip is somewhere around 4 miles. (About 6.4 km)

Approaching the park on the highway. The day was coming onto pretty warm, as the hard blue sky and isolated white cloud show.

We carried water bottles with us and were glad we remembered. We had not brought our hiking poles, but they would have come in handy a couple of times.

At the start of the trail, a marker naming the various trails that connect to this point. Where trails diverge, there is a marker indicating which goes where.

After following the trail for some winding about between hills, we found a metal sign advising us that the trail continues on in the dry wash (the creek bed) and I wondered if they close the tail when there's a big rain in the area.

We saw an interesting tree whose roots are going into the rock between the layers of stone.

The wash became extremely rocky. There was some clambering around. (We missed our hiking poles!)

At the end, there was a rock formation called a natural stairway.

 It was layers of hard rock, eroded to somewhat resemble a steep marble staircase. As one might expect from the location and kind of rock, the surface was somewhat slick. Past the first little "stairs" there was a pothole, a pool that appears to have no outlet, with some water in it. Proceeding past the pothole, there were a few more steps of "stairs," wider to walk on this time, and then we reached the "Devil's Hall."

The Devil's Hall is a very steep-sided canyon with walls that resemble dressed stone. The park administrators had closed the area beyond the entrance due to "sensitive wildlife," presumably nesting creatures of one kind or another. It is very important to conserve the beauty of the park by not going into prohibited areas.

 On the way back, we discovered that the little trail mark symbols we remembered from youth came in very handy to find the return route. Oddly enough, the way back didn't look quite like the way out! If you visit, don't disturb the little rock stacks. They are an important part of making the park enjoyable for anyone who can walk the trail.

Trail mark, meaning "go straight ahead here." The only really tricky part of finding our way back to the parking lot was picking up the trail where the way leaves the wash and goes onto the hillside again. These little rock markers are invaluable!

Due in part to the climbing over and around the various boulders and rocks, the trail took about 2 to 3 hours. At the car, we pulled out a snack (Dukes links) and drank some of our newly refilled water bottles and headed on down the road.

This park is somewhat off the beaten path, and one must fill the gas tank and get drinks/snacks before going as there are no facilities at the park entrance, but it is very enjoyable and well worth the trip.