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| Getting into shape for Camino de Santiago |
I’d love to check out Spain by foot and/or bicycle this year, to celebrate my 70th birthday exploring several of the country’s Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes.
I also want to do another epic bike tour in North America, this time heading south from either Alaska or Jasper, Canada.
But during this Covid era, it’s impossible to know for sure what international travel will be allowed—or be reasonably prudent—this spring, summer or fall.
So I’ve also been studying several potential Plan B adventures that don’t require international travel.
My key backup scenarios at this point include bicycle rides from San Diego to Saint Augustine FL (mostly paved roads) in the early spring and from Steamboat Springs CO to the Mexico border (mostly unpaved) in the late summer.
Still another possibility on the bucket list is a bicycle tour from Missoula MT to Minneapolis or Chicago through Yellowstone National Park and South Dakota’s Badlands, with a stop along the way to climb to the top (following a professional local guide) of Wyoming’s Devil’s Tower.
To get into reasonably decent shape for the Camino adventure, I’ve been practicing my Spanish daily for several years now, and I recently started doing one extended hike of at least 10 miles with a loaded backpack each week. I ride my bike at least 20 miles and/or walk at least five miles without a backpack most other days throughout the year.
To get back into decent climbing shape, I’m planning to start climbing regularly at my local climbing gym again this month.
Fortunately, my training sessions are usually enjoyable and interesting mini-adventures for me.
The Plan B concept has served me well over the past couple of years.
After Covid-related travel and campground closures forced a last-minute cancellation of my long-planned, 1,800-mile bicycle tour along the Pacific coast between Canada and Mexico in the spring of 2020, I was still able to ride 900 miles of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route between Butte MT and Steamboat Springs CO later that summer and then ride another 182 miles of the TransVirginia route in the fall. (After Covid-related restrictions were relaxed, I was able to do the Pacific Coast bicycle tour last summer.)
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| Pacific Coast route, 2021 |
The Spain plan has been on hold since 2020, partly due to international travel restrictions. But I also admit to having Covid-related concerns about sleeping cheek-to-jowl in peregrino hostels/albergues with flocks of other pilgrims from around the world.
It would be efficient to be able to focus on a single Plan A adventure at any one time.
But for a retired person like me, preparing and training for Plan As, Plan Bs (and maybe Plan Cs, too) is part of the adventure and enhances the prospects that I’ll be ready to get out there somewhere interesting if and when the weather and other factors allow.
With any luck, I should be able to realize at least some of these adventures this year.
If all else fails and the world goes into Covid lockdown again, there’s always my no-public-transportation-required Plan D.
That’s just to ride a 670-mile lap from my house to Pittsburgh and back via the C&O Canal and Great Allegheny Passage trails.
I’ve already ridden these beautiful off-road trails several times. But it’s a scenic and convenient route that provides plenty of free camping and resupply opportunities along its way. It’s always worth another encore.
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| With Jim Ketcham-Colwill on the GDMBR, 2020 |
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| With Dave Green, on the TransVa, 2020 |
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| With Dave Green, Allegheny Mountain Loop, 2021 |
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| Allegheny Mountain Loop, 2021 |
