There are two main questions about preparing for the Camino:

What will I need while walking everyday for two months across Northern Spain?

First, let us unpack the concept of packing. The fact that it is even a concept is fascinating as there are a great many things that never even make it to the concept phase, such as edible shoes. But packing has graduated all the way from a concept to an industry! Ask Rick Steves, he’ll tell ya.

We Americans have a lot of baggage when it comes to what we put in our luggage. And for a very good reason. Very few of us Americans are supposed to be here in the first place. All of us have some form of luggage in our ancestral tree, and so as we careen about our Modern world we carry with us the cultural memory of us leaving…EVERYTHING! Who does that? Who the hell just throws everything your family has every owned into a burlap sack and then just trek off to someplace that may not even be there!?

Americans. The inventors of the frequent flyer mile.

First, the idea of traveling being easy and even fun is a very new reality. Up until a century or so ago, travel was unreliable, dangerous and completely devoid of neck pillows. When you packed you packed for survival, not for comfort. Today, as we load our hopefully-carry-on-bag, we run the complex packing logarithm of {distance of destination} with the [events at the destination] and then divide by the (people I will be with at the destination) and then multiply the whole thing with ‘{{Who am I as a person}}. Yeah, I said that! Who you are as a person, your identity, your entire personality is in that bag: everything that allows you to be seen as you want to be seen, from toothpaste to socks. The nice part is, when you travel you don’t have to bring every crappy shirt and old nasty pair of jeans that you can’t bear to throw away. You can leave the unpleasant reality of that messy closet behind. And that makes it easier to leave the unpleasant reality of yourself behind, as well. We often find while traveling we are drawn to do things we would never do at home. Often, people travel to deliberately do things they would never do at home.

But that ain’t happening in Spain. Because the Camino is not a vacation. It’s not a fun trip. It’s not a weekend in Vegas. It’s not BBQ and Honky Tonk Music in Nashville. It’s not even a four day rafting trip on the Colorado river. Officially, the Camino de Santiago is longer than fun. And when fun ends, the brain starts to throw any old thought it can find in there to keep you occupied. So eventually, all that crap you thought you left behind in your closet will come out of the suitcase in your mind…and you’d better have some Merino Sheep Wool when it does.

Packing for the Camino Santiago is a return to the good ole’ packing for survival method. You know, what do I need so I won’t die in the wilderness. Despite the fact both Stacy and I have both camped and hiked in the past, we had never done so for six weeks in a row, so we needed advice about what to pack, And everybody wants to give you their Dos Centavos about it. On Facebook alone there are 40+ rooms with 3.5K followers or more all sharing every iota of info about the Camino. After looking through a lot of it, there were several categories of consideration. 1. The care of your feet. 2. The weight of the backpack 3. The type of clothes. 4. Medicines you need.

My favorite fact was that your filled backpack should weigh only 10% of your total body weight. It’s such an intimate standard of measurement.

For the 4 categories above, I don’t think I need to add to the pile of info already there. They got it figured out. Also your legs, brain, skin, soul and stamina are different than mine, and you will need to make different choices that I would when it comes to packing and prepping. But I think I can add a couple of non-obvious universals to add to the plethora ( long live the Three Amigos) of packing tips for the Camino.

1. Be prepared to pack and unpack in the dark and near dark. As a pilgrim, you will be getting up early and be sleeping in places with bad, weird and non-existent lighting. Having your own small, gentle light source is good, but it’s better if you practice packing blindfolded at home a few times.

2. Plastic ziplock bags will fail you and they crinkle surprisingly loud at 430AM or 10PM in a communal hostel room. Go cloth if you can.

3. Spend the money on the shoes. There some wonderful products for adventure hiking and pilgriming, and they can cost a lot. A whole lot. A whole lot of a lot. Now as for pants, shirts, socks, hats, you are going to have to jump in there and make up your mind, there are lots of options. Shop like an American and have fun, dig for those bargains! Hunt for reliable product reviews! Now, as a progressive who is almost fanatically distrustful of anything expensive, I wanted to go on the cheap as far as gear, and I am very glad we didn’t. However, I think it is possible to go used and second hand for a lot of the stuff, except for the shoes. If you’re a cheapskate like me, just grit your teeth and go the most expensive camping store you can find, get fitted by an actual person and buy the 1st or 2nd most expensive shoe they recommend. You will not regret the money spent. Anything can be salvaged of a bad day as long as your feet are healthy.

And the second main question is…

What will I need to support my spiritual experience of a pilgrimage?

I had no idea whatsoever. I’m still not sure. I think that may be Stacy’s bailiwick. Whaddya say, Hon?

HOT LINKS:

—-For fun, check out “Joe versus The Volcano Luggage scene” on Youtube.

—-For more fun, Here is a link to George Carlin’s piece entitled a “A place for my stuff“, partly about deciding what to pack. CAUTION: There is Rated R language, but gentle content.