Revised Stages

Here are the revised stages, taking into account advice from DG, someone who's done
El Camino before. The godesalco.com website had me enter where I was starting and
where I was planning on spending each night. It then generated the following spreadsheet (along with elevation profiles and a .gpx file for a GPS unit) for all my stages. Note that the godesalco.com website doesn't let you start in St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port, so I added it. Also, I did convert kilometers to miles:

Date	Start	End	Distance (in miles)
9/27/2009	St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port	Orisson	5.0
9/28/2009	Orisson	Roncesvalles	9.3
9/29/2009	Roncesvalles	Larrasoaña	17.1
9/30/2009	Larrasoaña	Pamplona	9.1
10/1/2009	Pamplona	Puente la Reina	14.5
10/2/2009	Puente la Reina	Estella	13.7
10/3/2009	Estella	Torres del Río	17.7
10/4/2009	Torres del Río	Logroño	12.3
10/5/2009	Logroño	Nájera	18.0
10/6/2009	Nájera	Santo Domingo de la Calzada	13.0
10/7/2009	Santo Domingo de la Calzada	Belorado	14.5
10/8/2009	Belorado	San Juan de Ortega	14.8
10/9/2009	San Juan de Ortega	Burgos	15.9
10/11/2009	Burgos	Hornillos del Camino	12.6
10/12/2009	Hornillos del Camino	Castrojeriz	12.5
10/13/2009	Castrojeriz	Frómista	15.3
10/14/2009	Frómista	Carrión de los Condes	11.6
10/15/2009	Carrión de los Condes	Sahagún	24.2
10/16/2009	Sahagún	El Burgo Ranero	11.0
10/17/2009	El Burgo Ranero	Mansilla de las Mulas	11.8
10/18/2009	Mansilla de las Mulas	León	11.3
10/19/2009	León	Villadangos del Páramo	12.5
11/21/2009	Villadangos del Páramo	Astorga	17.5
11/22/2009	Astorga	Rabanal del Camino	12.7
11/23/2009	Rabanal del Camino	Ponferrada	20.3
11/24/2009	Ponferrada	Villafranca del Bierzo	13.9
11/25/2009	Villafranca del Bierzo	O Cebreiro	17.7
11/26/2009	O Cebreiro	Triacastela	12.9
11/27/2009	Triacastela	Sarria	15.3
11/28/2009	Sarria	Portomarín	13.9
11/29/2009	Portomarín	Palas de Rei	15.5
11/30/2009	Palas de Rei	Arzúa	17.9
11/31/2009	Arzúa	Santiago de Compostela	23.9

Just a little stroll

I walked 15 miles today. I would show you the track, but right after I turned around at the 7.5 mile mark, I accidentally hit the wrong button and deleted it. I started at Nall Park and walked west/south down the Indian Creek Trail. Yes, my feet hurt. This trip might prove to be quite painful. I'm not muscle sore, just joint sore.

Here's how the scheduling looks. Either I leave on the redeye on September 25th or 26th. I get to Paris early-ish in the morning. I kick around for the day, then take the overnight (non-TGV) train to Bayonne. From there the next morning, I take a train to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port. I spend the night there, then start kicking it. I'm a little worried about sleeping on two vehicles two nights in a row...wondering if I'll actually get any sleep. I sleep well on planes and plan on staying up late the night before to help me pass out.

Anyone done it before? Is that a bad idea, trying to get down there and started that quickly?

Mimosas are bad news bears.

I intended to walk 12 miles today. Between more than half a bottle of champagne's worth of mimosas (after a Bloody Mary) and temperatures in the 90s and a dew point over 75 degrees, I only did 7.25 miles. The heat was really, really oppressive. It's not supposed to let up in the next week. I'm not sure how I'm going to get my training done like this. Oh...and it's only June. It could be a long summer.

The (Training) March Goes On

I did 12 miles yesterday on the Indian Creek Trail again. This time, I followed it on the trail that has mileage marked, thinking this was the main trail. It's the last time I do that. I had to actually cross traffic (ramp traffic to/from I-435 at Antioch). Yes, there were sidewalks and crossing lights, but still annoying since the rest of the trail doesn't cross traffic and barely even goes next to traffic.

It's no matter. Now I downloaded the MotionX GPS application for my iPhone. I should've known: there's an app for that. It tracks my progress using the iPhone's built in GPS. It's not quite as accurate as a true GPS device, but it's close enough and a whole lot cheaper at $2.99. The other nifty thing it does is exports a track that can be shared. So here's where I walked yesterday. It was 6 miles one way, so 12 roundtrip.

Training continues

After walking 12 miles on Saturday on the Indian Creek (IC) Trail, I walked 4.3 on the Trolley Track Trail and along Wornall. I live a block off the Trolley Track Trail making it super convenient, though I really love the Indian Creek Trail.

For those who live in Kansas City and aren't familiar with the IC Trail, it's 17.5 miles one way and doesn't, for the parts I've been on, cross any streets. It's 8 feet wide and paved the entire way. It does continue into Missouri, but I can't speak for it on that side and can't seem to find much about it on the Jackson County Parks and Recreation website. Here's the portion of the trail with the part I walk: http://jcprd.com/parks_facilities/pdf/trlgd-ne.pdf. I usually park my car at Leawood City Park and start heading west from there, following the path with the miles marked on the map. Since it usually follows Indian Creek, wherever a road crosses over Indian Creek, the trail just goes underneath the road alongside the creek, making it a lot safer and not requiring you to stop and look for traffic.

All of my mostly-daily walks will be kept near me for convenience. But most, if not all, of my weekend long walks will be on the IC Trail. I'll probably start driving to different trail heads so that I can get some variety. If anyone local wants to tag along on any walks, just let me know!

Nature update: Last week, you saw the picture of the monster snapping turtle that I saw. What you didn't see was the picture I didn't get of a doe and her fawn. As hidden into the woods as they were, my camera phone would not have done a good job. That and the velcro I opened to get to it scared them off. Well, this week, I saw another deer in the same place. I don't know if it's the same one and didn't see the young one this time. I also saw a great blue heron standing in the middle of Indian Creek waiting for lunch to swim buy.