My Camino day August 25 2022
My Camino Day August 25 2022 was was simply outstanding. I hiked from Muros de Nalón to Soto de Luiña, a challenging but beautiful etapa.
Biting off more than expected
Leaving Casa Carmina, a very nice hostel, to hike from Muros de Nalón to Soto de Luiña, I was expecting a moderately long (15 kilometers or about 9 miles) hike of only moderate difficulty as etapa 25 was rated at two stars on gronze.com. That was at the beginning of the day’s hike. At the end of it, I wrote in my journal “The ‘2 star’ etapa damn near killed me.”
Note to self: do not take the gronze.com difficulty ratings as the word of God. Look at the profile data! Carefully! That is a lot of up and down and much of it is steep, indeed.
The difficulty aside, the day combined wonderful scenery with an excellent view of how human demand for lumber makes at least a temporary gash in the beautiful woods that none of my photos or videos from that day really capture as the mess the logging operation made of the road kept my hands on my trekking poles rather than my phone. From a lightly edited version of the automated transcription of my voice recording: “Well, I’ve been routed on to gravel one lane road and it took me through a logging operation, the logging taking place on both sides of the road. Tall, mature trees, just guessing some of them a couple feet or more in diameter, being cut down. I saw two fall.
“I can hear the chainsaws and the road was completely blocked by one of the pieces of equipment, a truck which might have been truck that changes the tires on the stuff that moves the logs.
“I’ve seen where logging operations had been over the many days now that I’ve had on the Camino. They cut a swath right through the mature trees and leave real destruction behind. “While I’m sure what they do is plant trees after the logging is complete, and trees being a social plant, the gash they leave behind fills back in fairly well, but it really looks awful. It doesn’t get cleaned up much and it’s not much fun to see.”
“The day’s challenging hike made clear to me just how my spirit, mind, and body were diverging on their view of my 2022 Camino adventure. My spirit soared, my body demanded rest, and my mind worked to mediate their differences. From my journal at the end of the day, “Tomorrow Pensión Gayo en Santa Marina. The 27th to Cadavedo. Then a bus to Oviedo.
“This Camino is coming to an end. I can feel it in ways that are outside my ability to understand. On on [sic] hand, home beacons. On the other …
“Sitting on an almost non-existant [sic] sidewalk in Soto de Luiña, I feel strangely at peace. It seems I could sit here until what ever end comes to pass. That is probably lunch and beer speaking after a challenging day, but it is a real feeling.”
