Housekeeping, Blisters, and the War of 1812

Housekeeping Items:  Just so that you know, I am going to try to post once a week, on Sunday nights - wrapping up what has happened the previous week.  Once I get closer to September when I plan on walking the Camino, I may post more often.  But for now, you do not need to check during the week because unless something really significant has happened, I will not post.  The other thing that I wanted to let you know is that if you click on the pictures, they will enlarge.

This week was a so-so week for training.  On Monday, I was on the road all day for work so I could not walk at lunch.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had meetings all day and did not have enough time to walk at lunch.  Wednesday night I did a hour on the recumbent bike to get at least some work in.  On Thursday, I had to travel 6 hours north to a city that happens to be called North Bay.  So once again work was getting in my way of walking, but at least on Thursday night, and again on Friday morning, I was able to do an hour on the recumbent bike at the hotel.  When I got home Friday late afternoon, there was still some light left, so I walked 4.5 miles on the local roads where I live.

Blisters:  On Saturday, we walked 3 hours and 20 minutes from downtown Welland to Dain City beginning at 9 am.  It was not supposed to snow until the afternoon but by 9:10, we were walking face first into a heavy wet snow for one hour and 45 minutes before we turned.  The snow melted as soon as it hit us and we all became soaked..  Although my feet did not feel wet, I think the water got down into my shoes and I felt blisters beginning to form at about the 2 hour mark.  But being almost 90 minutes away from where we left our cars, you have no choice but to keep walking back.  At least now the snow was on our backs.  When I got home, I checked and I had on the outside of each foot a huge blister about two inches long, plus a smaller blister on the bottom of my left foot.  I drained them the best I could do - I hate blisters and I guess I have been spoiled as with all the long hikes I have been on, I have not had one!

 Today's (Sundays) walk was in a historic area called Queenston Heights.  Some homes in this area date back to the 1700's and this is also where some of the biggest battles of the War of 1812 took place.  There is a 185 foot tall monument where British Major General Isaac Brock was killed.  His remains are in the base of the monument.  The amazing thing is that that this monument was built in 1853 and to this day, you can climb up inside of it to the very top and view the entire area from there.  Enough of a history lesson.  I put bandages on the blisters from yesterday but I could feel them with every step.  I was concerned that I might be making them worst.  The hike lasted 90 minutes and the area was nice - it was an easy walk today.  When I got home, I was generally pleased to have found out that I did not make the blisters worst - but they were no better either.  So I think that I may have to take a few days off of walking to let them heal a bit.

One Day its Winter - Next Day it is Spring - then Winter Again!

I think the only way to sum up last week was the big fluctuations that we have been having in our temperatures.  I walked 6 out of the 7 days - missing Thursday to go to a retirement affair of a close friend who has decided to retire after 39 years.  I will really miss him.

But back to the weather - Monday it was 5C, Tuesday 12C, Wednesday -10C, Friday -12, Saturday -7C, today it was 2C, and tomorrow they are calling for 11C.  The nice thing about the cold is that the trails have frozen up and we are no longer walking in mud - although that will all return next week when it warms up again.

Saturday's walk lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes and was up and down many steep hills in a park called Shorthills Provincial Park.  Today's walk was much easier, as Sundays tend to be.  It was around city streets in a town called Fonthill and was only one hour and 20 minutes.  I wore my backpack today to start getting used to it.  All of the pictures are from the Shorthills walk except one.  The last picture was taken from today's walk and is of Charo - she is a member of the hiking club and she together with her son and niece will be walking the Camino beginning in St Jean Pied de Port beginning mid March.  She is the one in the picture with the backpack as she is getting used to carry it.  Good luck Charo!

Blue Ghost Tunnel - January 14 2012

This Saturday's hike was to a place called the Blue Ghost Tunnel - a train tunnel that was built in the late 1800's. There was a head on train collision shortly after the tunnel was built, plus a near-by graveyard had over 600 graves flooded out by a pond needed for the Welland Canal.  The combination of these activities, plus lots of deaths in the construction of the tunnel has resulted in many spirits gathering in this tunnel.  Check it out for yourself at http://hamiltonparanormal.com/tunnel.html.  The tunnel was only used for a short time by the railroad and then abandoned.

Getting there was fun as we had go travel down several steep hills and climb up many even steeper uphills - even needing a rope for one of the climbs up.  On top of that, it was -16C with windchill.  There were 21 hikers that came out for this hike.  The last picture is from the Sunday hike which was in the Port Dalhousie area - basically a flat walk with the mild temperatures compared to yesterday of -7C

Hikes with the Niagara Bruce Trail Club

In the past, all of my training has been on flat roads in the area where I live.  We have no hills in this immediate area at all.  So in September, I joined the Niagara Bruce Trail Club. There is a hike schedule posted and there is no commitment to attend hikes - just go whenever you want.  The hikes are through-out the Niagara area and are just off the most travelled roadways - hidden treasures.  There are hikes every Saturday and Sunday as well as on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  I can never make the hikes during the week because of work, but the hikes on the weekends are awesome, the hikers are all very friendly, and joining this group is one of the best things I have ever done.  I have posted some pictures from the hikes I attended in the fall of 2011.

In the beginning......

Well it is really not the beginning - sort of like the beginning of a continuation.  Let me explain.  In March of 2010, I attempted walking the Camino alone.  The traditional path is from St Jean Pied De Port in Southern France, over the Pyrenees Mountains, a climb of about 2 and a half times the height of the CN Tower in Toronto, or 25 times the height of Niagara Falls.  The distance from St Jean to Santiago, where the remains of St James are kept, is 800 kms.  I only made it about 10 kms and then turned around, climbed down from the mountain, and went home.

So here I am again.  A 're-do'.

What have I done since then.  I walked a lot in 2010 and planned on re-attempting this journey in September 2011 - that way I would of had the entire Spring and Summer to do long practice walks.  But as I got into the winter of 2010 and into 2011, my right heel got sorer and sorer.  I thought it was a bruised heel and I kept buying different shoes with thick heel padding, different insoles, and even started stuffing big pieces of car sponge in my shoe to try to cushion the heel.  Andrea from New Zealand, a veteran Camino walker, even sent me a big pack of sheep's wool to shove into my shoe.  Nothing worked.  The heel got worst and worst so in April of 2011 I just stopped walking, or limping.  Turns out that I had 'plantar fasciiti' which is a tear in the tendon that goes around your heel  (See http://www.drpribut.com/sports/heelhtm.htm for more than you ever wanted to know on this topic).  So as I said, I just shut down all walking in April and was not going to attempt to work out again until September.

But I was on vacation in mid-July and thought I would try it.  So I gingerly tried walking 3 miles and there was no pain.  Tried the next day, and the next, and the next - pain was gone.  So I have been walking ever since.  Not working out though for almost 4 months meant that my weight shot up to 305 lbs.  On the Camino Forum, I am known as Tim-the-fat-Canadian (see http://www.caminodesantiago.me/board) and I sure was living up to that.  In September I joined the Niagara Bruce Trail hiking club and since then, I have been walking at lunch on work days and on weekends with the club.  Most walks with the club have been 1.5 hours to 3 hours in lenght, with the longest one being 4 and a half hours in the Hamilton area climbing up and down the Niagara Escarpment.  I had lost 31 lbs prior to Christmas and since then have put 5 of those pounds back on but I have already served notice to them that they are not welcome.

My current plan is to walk the entire 800 km Camino de Santiago in September 2012.  My boss has approved my time off of work, my training is going well, and most importantly, my wife said I could go :) 
Between now and then I plan on checking in once in a while and updating how things are going, and look forward to any comments which you might have.