I usually write blog posts from the trail, but on this last trip, I couldn’t come up with anything to say. Perhaps I was overwhelmed by the beauty of it all: the beauty of the landscape, the beauty of my fellow pilgrims, the beauty of the hospitality. Better late than never?
In the last 5 years I’ve had 7 adventures I call once in a lifetime trips. I have the time, the health, and the money (albeit, not that much money is required), so I go. My prior adventures were usually backpacking in the mountains of the American west. This last August 15 through September (2021) I spent 6 weeks on the trail in France, out the door every morning and into a different door in the afternoon. For the first few weeks I walked with Kenton and David, friends from prior trails. They felt they needed a guide for a walk in France and mistakenly believe I speak better French than I do. We went in the usual fashion, no reservations for anything after we got off the train in Le Puy en Velay in far eastern France. There was a lot of ‘pent up demand’ and the trails were busy, and finding a bed for the night was a challenge. However, we always found a place to stay, most of which were typical of the French system of Gites d’Etape: amazing. Kenton left us after two weeks for pressing business at home, but David continued until his full month was up, leaving us to party with the Three Musketeers in Condom. In Moissac we were joined by friends from prior trails, Josette and Anne Marie, who had organized the last 3 weeks by reserving a bed for us each night months earlier.
The first section of this trail is hard, with steep ups and downs every day; several days we gained 2,500 feet in the first couple of hours. Some days we walked a mere 10 or 12 miles, some days 20. The weather was perfect for walking, and we only needed our rain gear on one day late in the trip. The condition of the trail in France is generally very good, and when we walked on paved roads, there was little or no vehicular traffic. Most often the vehicles were slow-moving tractors with courteous drivers. The first part is called the Aubrac, and the scenery includes high, windswept plateaus, where the trail goes between low rock walls and wildflowers. As with all of this trail, there were always far more cows than people.
This is the most popular section of the trail, with amazing scenery and fabulous villages.
I stop in every church along the way, appreciate their artwork and the role it has played in the lives of so many people, and usually light a candle for someone. If Anne Marie is there, she will sing.
The rest of the trail, which ends in Saint Jean Pied-de-Port close to the Spanish border, was seldom flat, almost always undulating hills of corn or sunflowers, interspersed with limestone hills covered with pastures and oak forests. For me the great joy of this trail is being immersed in rural French culture, and we had plenty of opportunity to experience it. I found the people who support pilgrims on the Chemin, just like the pilgrims themselves, to be up, happy, positive people.
Lodging on the trail includes hotels and chambres d’hotes and bed and breakfasts, but most nights I’ve been able to stay in hostels called gites d’etape. Guests are primarily walkers, and typically they have beds for 10-15 people. Sometimes all the beds are in one room, sometimes only two or three beds, and sometimes you can have a private room. There is often only one bathroom for all the guests. I always arrange for a bed the day before, three or four days before if it will be a weekend in a popular tourist town, by calling the host on the phone. You don’t give a credit card number; I just tell them I’m Robert from Texas. We usually arrive at 3, and the host has you sit down at a table outside and brings you water with flavorings (that is a European thing, I’ve never seen it elsewhere). I think they are getting you to chill out and cool down. I take off my boots as they are not allowed inside and put on my after trail sandals. Then the host, who is often making preparations for dinner, comes and sits down at the table with you.
The gite hosts are tres sympathique and often ask you about your day, then they explain their system. Boots here, packs here, put the things you need in this tub to take to your bed, the shower is here, the commode here, the clothes washing sink and clothesline are here (lately they have washing machines and sometimes dryers!), and here is your sleeping room. Dinner is at 7:00, there is beer and wine and soda in this fridge (there is a price list too, and a small tin for your coins). Seldom is payment made at this time; traditionally the guests line up at the end of the dinner to pay the tarif and get a stamp in their credentiale. The host will not likely be at breakfast and they will point out where to find the breakfast items. Often the first pilgrim to breakfast turns on the coffee pot. The tarif is usually around 40 Euro, about $50. If you are in a village, pilgrims seek out the local bar, and you will make lots of new friends and catch up with old ones (old friends on camino are people you met at least the day before!). These beers are only about $3 each.
Dinners often start with an apertif of cognac or homemade brandy, followed by an appetizer, main course, cheese plate, dessert, and then another shot of brandy. There is wine and food on the table. Sometimes the first bottle of wine is a local delight, but after that it is box wine. However, its France, so the box wine is good. Dinner takes 2 to 3 hours and often the host eats with the pellerin (pilgrims). The conversation is all in French, so if you don’t speak it, try to sit next to someone who speaks both French and English. French Canadians are the best for this! Often the talk is about the trail; what was today like, what to expect tomorrow, what is the weather forecast. Sometimes it is local history, and sometimes you can find out some things about the host. You will get to know most or all of the pilgrims each day. Gites are typically open May through October, 7 nights a week, with a new group of pilgrims every day. Sometimes they have housekeeping and cooking help, but often it is a one person show. Hosts tend to know the other hosts in the area and can recommend the best ones if you ask. The food is usually extraordinary. The beds usually have a bottom sheet and a blanket only, towels are not provided. There are not as many bunkbeds in France as in Spain and Portugal.
This is Gite Ferme de Trigodena in the country a day’s walk past Cahors. The host, Remy, standing in the background wearing a blue t-shirt, is a carpenter and horseshoer who has a truffle farm for the off season. After dinner he often plays the piano for guests. The music may bring tears to your eyes and is purely magical. He wrote a song about the Chemin which is quite fun, as you know the places and some of the people in the song.
This Chemin began in Le Puy en Velay six weeks earlier, and here is the finish, 450 miles later, at the Port de Saint Jacques in the French town of Saint Jean Pied-de-Port. This is the starting point for the most popular section of the pilgrimage, the Camino Frances. This trail begins in France, hence the name, but by noon you are in Spain. All the Camino trails end up in Santiago de Compostela (Saint James of the Field of Stars) in northwest Spain. There are many other trails in this system and it is my goal to walk them all. Pilgrims in France greet each other with bon chemin and in Spain with buen camino. I often greet fellow walkers with my own version, happy trails.
Postcript
If you want to try this experience, I will be glad to help you get it together. The only essential items are a passport, a Covid vaccination card or electronic equivalent, and a debit card to get cash from ATMs. Everything else you can buy there. However, you will probably come equipped with a backpack (I have a 38 liter Osprey) and trail clothes designed to be hand washed in a sink and dried on a clothesline. I limit this to one pair of shorts, one pair of long pants, two t-shirts, two long sleeved shirts, three pairs of socks, three pairs of underwear. I carry a rain jacket and rain pants and a very lightweight down jacket. My walking shoes are low-tops (heavy backpacking boots are not necessary). If I take a sleeping bag it is 1 or 2 pounds only, my pack is 16-18 pounds and I do carryon only on flights. You are always going to have a bed, dinner, and a bathroom. A cell phone is very helpful for calling ahead for a bed; this didn’t used to be required, but has of late. I find a guidebook to be essential and can recommend one depending on the trail you are planning. Trails are well marked and you can usually find lunch and water on the way, and if that is not the case the guidebook will warn you to get your lunch before you leave the village. Lunch can be at fabulous restaurants and it can be a sandwich from the last bakery, and they are both wonderful. Americans walk spring and fall and Europeans in summer. The American Pilgrims on the Camino website and Facebook page provide lots of information.
If you want to join me, come meet me on the trail. I’m hoping for 2-3 trips in 2022, and Italy for all of May.
Happy Trails!
In French it is called the Chemin de Saint Jacques, in Spanish the Camino de Santiago de Compostella, or, for many, simply Compostelle, a collection of trails ending at the great Cathedral in Santiago in far northwest Spain. Pilgrims, or peregrinos in Spanish and pellerin in French, greet each other with Buen Camino or Bon Chemin! Or, as I am wont to say, Happy Trails! If you are struggling up a long hill, the French may say, Courage!
I have a flight to Paris the 15th of August. I’ll meet several trail friends in Le Puy en Velay and plan to walk the entire GR65 to St Jean Pied de Port, arriving there at the end of September. I will take you along with me. With about 6 weeks to go, I am keeping my fingers crossed, getting medical needs attended to (grrrrr) and squirreling away cash. I’m going over my gear to see if I have everything needed. I’m trying to decide if I’m taking my sleeping bag (I think no) and my rain pants (undecided). I’m perusing airline ticket booking sites trying to find the right flights, not as simple as it used to be.
This is in Moissac, a little over half-way from Le Puy, and as far as I’ve been. The remaining 20 days will be less mountainous than the first 20 days were, and there aren’t so many famous villages; the “Plus Beaux Villages de France”. But there will be plenty of adventure and great companionship. I’m reading posts by two Americans currently on the trail, eager to see how the pilgrim support infrastructure – lodging (gites d’etape) and cafe-bars and boulangeries have recovered from the pandemic shutdowns.
Until then, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. But in the meantime, feel free to call me “Rober(t)” pronounced without the t. When I call ahead for a place to stay, I say, “Bonjour, je m’appelle Rober, je suis un pelerin du Texas. Avez-vous un lit pour ce soir?”
The Place
The trail runs from San Diego to San Francisco, about 800 miles. I experienced the southern section, from San Diego to Santa Barbara, which took 21 days. The southernmost part of the trail is most often along the busy coastal highway. It takes one along the tops of sea-side cliffs and sometimes across vast beaches of yellow sand. The towns along the way are busy with tourists and surfers, and were lively, beautiful, and expensive. We stayed in hotels, all four of us in one room, to make it affordable for all. The second week was in urban Los Angeles, where we spent 8 days on sidewalks, waiting for traffic lights, walking neighborhoods to get away from the traffic and noise. One city turns into the next, until, just in the nick of time, you walk up and over Old Susanna Pass into the Simi Valley. On day 19 we were back at the ocean just south of Ventura. The path north from there ran along a railroad line and sometimes there was relief from the traffic. Much of the way is on paved bike paths separated from the traffic by sturdy steel barriers; other sections are a bike path simply delineated by a white stripe on the pavement, and in less busy places we walked the shoulder along vast fields of lemon and avocado trees, greenhouses full of flowers, artichokes, and cilantro. Laura sought out and walked miles along beaches, while the rest of us spent more time on the cliff-top paths.
The People
Our group of four came together quickly – Laura invited Kenton, who she had met on the Portuguese Camino in 2018. He invited me; we had also met on the Portuguese Camino and again on the European Peace Walk in 2019. Camino walkers can be relied on to know what they are in for and have a positive attitude. Luis, also a Camino veteran, set out solo, only finding out about us at the last minute. California Mission Walkers have a great Facebook page and they have Brigid, who met us in San Diego. The FB page makes coordination easy, and when we reached the Los Angeles area we had the amazing experience of being hosted. We didn’t know what to expect, and Dawn and Steve set the bar pretty high. They picked us up at the end of our first LA day and took use to their home, filled us with food and beer and wine and made places for us to sleep. In the morning they took us back where we had finished the day before. We played pool and told stories and took naps and after four nights were picked up in the same fashion by Kenneth and Karen for more of the same, followed by Tim and Cristy, Kurt and Rose, and finally Debbie. These wonderful people treated us like honored guests.
The Journey
The historic missions are beautiful, none more so than San Juan Capistrano with its old buildings framed by bright flowers and blue sky. They seem more museums than spiritual places to me, but that may be just my experience. If there had been no missions on the way I don’t think it would have mattered. Hour after hour of trudging on pavement and waiting for traffic lights and looking for available bathrooms (few and far between) in the LA area make the walking day hard. We walked between 12 and 16 miles each day and didn’t set a destination until one appeared. We had conversations about our widely varied spiritual beliefs and understandings. Luis, a native of Los Angeles, is not typical of its residents; he is all Basque and no Latino; a man of letters. He interpreted the vast city for us. When I needed distraction from the pavement, I could walk up beside him and say the title of a book or movie, and a long and detailed discussion would begin. Laura guided us with the Gaia mapping app and had more energy and enthusiasm than Kenton and I put together. Her younger son Julien, who overflows with enthusiasm and creative spirit, walked with us for a few days, and her husband Todd met up with the group in Santa Barbara for a week. She explores the edges of human consciousness and spirituality, and I regret not picking her brain more about her view of free will (it seems you will have all the time in the world until it’s over). Kenton marveled at the beauty of the setting, from houses to landscaping and seascapes, the fantastic food, always appearing on the verge of saying, “I’m moving here next week.” We felt like we knew Butch Briery as we used his guide and pored over every word, although we didn’t meet. We did meet Sandy Brown, whose guide will come to define the journey in a few years There is something heroic about through-hiking this trail, which not many have done, and I expect by the final mission near San Francisco the journey would provide its own unique enlightenment. .
What clearly stands out on this trail are the people supporting pilgrims. This would be a difficult journey solo, as there is no pilgrim infrastructure and you will not meet other pilgrims. But the trail has Brigid and Pam and Linda and Dawn and Steve and Tim and Cristy and Kurt and Rose and Kenneth and Karon and Debbie, and they make the California Mission Trail the unique experience it is.
My personal gear included a 38 liter Osprey pack, small enough for carry-on but large enough to hold everything I need for a long trip. I wore a new pair of Oboz Arete low hiking shoes, lightweight and comfortable, designed for pavement, and I never had a blister. I needed a jacket for cool April evenings, shorts for daytime and long pants for evenings, a raincoat just in case, and a broad brimmed hat. I took camping gear but when it became clear we wouldn’t find camping opportunities, I mailed it home. I carried no food and 1 quart of water.
Will I finish this trail? I suspect the trip north of Santa Barbara is different than what I experienced, and would like to see it. However, France looks to be a possibility for September, and I plan to finish the Camino from Moissac to St Jean Pied de Port next (2 weeks). Next spring, Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, I’ll walk Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome. Kenton is on the waiting list for John Muir Trail in August. Luis is taking the remainder in sections, beginning next weekend. Laura is always moving forward, relentlessly pursuing her goal of completing the entire trail.
We have been inland since Newport Beach. We spent two days walking by an enormous concrete ditch. We just did a bit of this today. I was glad to see water and plant life . We have walked 20 miles of concrete.
None of us are golfers but we all appreciated $5 pints of good beer here. All beer prior to this was $8. After 14.5 miles today, we needed it.
For 4 nights Steve and Dawn have picked us up at the end of our walk, fed us great food, and taken us back to our next starting point. Tomorrow we get a new host for the next section.
The days of walking on concrete have but one redeeming value for me – the people I am walking with and the people who are supporting us. The first week of beaches was great, but the concrete canyons of the LA area- not inspiring. I might as well be walking through San Antonio.
Kenton is a business owner from Illinois. Laura an adventurer from Montana. Luis is a Gallego (a Spanish cultural people) from Los Angeles. We are as different as can be. That we are all walking this trail together is sublime serendipity.
Five days seem like a month on this trail. The downside is that we are walking almost entirely on pavement, and most of the time belong to the city streets and highways. The upside is that the scenery can be quite fantastic! If Texas is about pick up trucks, Southern California is about shiny cars, and lots of them.
The story of the missions is not always a comfortable one. As elsewhere in this country, the native peoples were dispossessed, abused, enslaved. The more recent story is kinder, and the churches left behind are beautiful and charming.
There have been some shining moments, but the best part are the people I am walking with. We are all quite different from each other but all have walked Camino trails.
This was our second mission, near Oceanside.
We spent two nights in Hotel Fin, taking a day to walk the 12 mile round trip to Mission San Luis Rey. Splitting the room rate 3-4 ways makes it affordable. Very nice boutique hotel!
We walked 12 miles of solitary road sandwiched between the huge traffic of I-5 and the railroad. Very hard day. Almost enough to make me go home. Redeemed by a great hotel with a hot tub. And a beer.
We walked 10 miles to San Juan Capistrano, much of it on or near the beach. Easiest day yet, with great pizza at the end. We took the bus to the mission, not being able to walk another 10 miles. I as exhausted, perhaps the cumulative effect of the past 7 days. Tomorrow, Laguna Beach.
Kenton called a few days ago to invite me to walk the California Missions Trail. Kenton got me onto the European Peace Walk in 2019 and had planned to walk with me in France on the Via Francigena. Walking in Europe is still out of reach for Americans; what do I do in the meantime? I met Kenton in Portugal and he was invited to this adventure by Laura, a pilgrim he also met in that lovely country. We are meeting at the Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala in San Diego on April Fool’s Day.
There are several notable differences between the Camino Real in California and any Camino trail in Europe – there is no pilgrim infrastructure: it’s not marked, it is primarily on roads, and there are no cheap places to stay. However, there are campgrounds, so we will be taking minimal camping gear. On the plus side, there will be Mexican food. So, I bought a plane ticket, the Kindle version of the only trail guide, and signed up on the Mission Walkers Facebook page. That’s when I found the other big difference: I got numerous responses from my post on that Facebook page offering rides and lodging and meals along the trail. Wow! This is different.
The total from San Diego to San Francisco is 800 miles and 21 missions. I have no expectations about how many days or far I will walk, I’ll walk until it is time to come home. I have headed out for distant trails both solo and with friends, and along the way have found that the fraternity of walkers is an open and welcoming group. I already have new friends on this walk.
As settlers poured into Texas in the 1850’s and pushed the frontier west, and conflicts with the native peoples became more violent. Far earlier the Spanish had created a chain of presidios (forts), like Presidio de San Antonio de Bexar, established in 1718. The fort was closed in 1836 when Texas gained its independence, and is today managed as a National Historical Site by the National Park Service. The US Army built many forts in Texas, but many are now just piles of rocks.
Some historic forts, however, are partly reconstructed and well interpreted, and are popular historical sites, and it is quite likely you have been to one or more. Fort Davis in far west Texas is such an example, a well restored and interpreted National Historic Site in a spectacular canyon at the edge of the town. Another is Fort Concho in San Angelo, built in 1867.. Others, however, are out of the way and seen by few. One example is Fort Lancaster, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. While the fort itself is little more than a pile of rocks, the Texas State Historical Park has a fabulous museum and visitor center. Let’s take a road trip to visit four historic Texas Hill Country forts which are worth your time.
Set on a lonely, windswept hill 22 miles west of Menard, 42 miles northwest of Junction, or 100 miles west of Fredericksburg, is one such fort. It is a lonely place, but, oh, it is a beautiful place. Far removed from the frenetic activity of Texas’s cities, Fort McKavett, now called a ghost town by some, is a fort of which much remains.
The US Army built the First Federal Defense Line to protect against depredations from Mexico and Comanche and other tribes. The first forts established were Duncan, Inge, Lincoln, Martin Scott, Croghan, Gates, Graham, and Worth. In June of 1851 new forts were added: Belknap, Phantom Hill, Chadbourne, Mason, Terrett, Clark, and McKavett. Fort McKavett was at first just a camp on a hill along the San Saba River occupied by five companies of the 8th Regiment of the U S Infantry. The area was deemed unsuitable after six weeks, and the location re-established two miles away near a large spring on a limestone hill. The fort was named after a West Point graduate who had been killed by a cannonball in 1946 during the Battle of Monterrey. Some of the early construction was supervised by Fredericksburg stone mason Edmund Wiegle. Oak and stone and lime for mortar was locally obtained, while cypress for roof shingles came from Kerrville. At various times the fort was home to 250 to 600 soldiers. According to the park’s interpretative guide, “Frontier duty was monotonous, tiresome, and lonely. Soldiers had two main ways of escaping the daily grind: alcohol and desertion.” The men were paid quarterly, and irregularly at that, in silver Mexican Pesos. Charges at the camp store and laundress were paid by the quartermaster first, and what the soldiers received was often spent quickly at a local bar. The fort was abandoned in March, 1859.
The Civil War saw the fort occupied by the 1st Texas Mounted Rifles in 1861. During the winter of 1861-62, some 40 Federal prisoners were incarcerated at the fort, including some who had, ironically, helped build it. In 1866 a large group of perhaps 250 Comanche or Kickapoo raiders stole over 30,000 head of cattle in the area between the San Saba and Llano River. The fort was reopened and rebuilt in 1868.
During this time the fort was at one time or another home to all 4 regiments of black soldiers, called Buffalo Soldiers by the native people as their dark and curly hair reminded them of a buffalo. One such soldier was Emanuel Stance, who was born in Louisiana in 1843 (I presume he was born an enslaved person but did not find that recorded). On May 20, 1870, Sgt Stance was sent to recover Herman Lehmann and his brother Willie, who had been kidnapped by Apaches near their home in Loyal Valley (between Mason and Fredericksburg). They found the Apaches at Kickapoo Springs, 14 miles north of Fort McKavett. Young Willie was able to escape in the skirmish, but Herman was not; that is a great story for another time (see Nine Years Among the Indians). For his bravery in this skirmish, Sgt Stance was awarded the Medal of Honor, the first black regular soldier to be so honored. His long career included many disciplinary actions, and was found shot dead by a service revolver in Nebraska on Christmas morning, 1887, presumably by one of his Privates.
Fort McKavett was closed for the last time on June 30, 1883. During its life as a fort, 91 soldiers died while in service there. The day after closing, Fort Davis was incorporated as a town. The land was divided up and sold, and the homes were occupied by area residents. The community grew as large as 250 persons on a ranching economy, with sheep, goats, and some cattle, but the Great Depression began a serious decline in population. The Drouth of 1950-1957 was the final blow, and the town was taken over by the State in 1968 and transferred to the Texas Historical Commission in 2008. It now features a visitor center with a museum. There is a modest admission fee and tours can be arranged in advance.
The first known native peoples of the area were called the Jumano, who lived in villages like pueblos, and were traders who bridged the gap between the southwest and east. In the early half of the 18th century the Lipan Apache became dominant in the area, and then they were challenged by the Comanche moving in from the north. The Comanche were a branch of the Shoshone from Wyoming, and are thought to have been the first Plains tribe to fully incorporate horses into their way of life. They are considered to have been the finest mounted warriors in our history, comparable to any in the world.
The Spanish had entered the area a hundred years earlier, in April of 1757, when Fathers Alonzo de Terreros and Don Diego Ortiz de Parilla arrived in what is now Menard. The army built a fort along the San Saba River while the priests, not wanting to be directly associated with the army, built a mission 3 miles upriver. A year later a group of some 2,000 Comanche and Wichita warriors destroyed the mission and killed the priests. The fort was not attacked, and eventually rebuilt of stone. It proved hard to support and was evacuated in 1768, then abandoned two years later. Until a few years ago the ruins were accessible by driving down the driving range of the municipal golf course. Now some of the fort’s walls have been reconstructed and there is excellent interpretation of the site, called Presidio San Saba. Signage to the fort is limited, but it can be found along the south side of US 190 two miles west of Menard. The town of Menard is quite small but also boasts a “Historic Ditch Walk” along an irrigation canal built in 1876 and fed by the San Saba River. The area has few services but I can recommend the lunch special ($10) at the Lazy Ladle Restaurant.
All that remains of Fort Mason is a reconstructed officer’s quarters built of stone and wood. The fort was established on July 6, 1851 on Post Oak Hill near Centennial and Comanche Creeks. Albert Sidney Johnston, who fought in the Texas War of Independence, in the Indian Wars with the U.S. Army, and then with the Confederate States of America, was assigned to the fort in the 1850’s. He was killed during the Battle of Shiloh; Jefferson Davis said that the loss of Johnston was the “turning point of their fate.” General Robert E Lee served in the fort during the mid 1850’s, where history recorded that he kept a pet rattlesnake. The fort was closed in 1871. The existent building was rebuilt by local citizens in 1975. The covered porch commands a nice view of Mason, and is a peaceful and quiet place. Mason has a beautiful town square, several notable restaurants, and excellent BBQ served from the pit in the old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, the town’s beautiful courthouse was destroyed by fire in February 2021.
Finally, our tour ends at Fort Martin Scott on the east end of Fredericksburg along US 290. Thousands of people pass by daily; many are visitors excited about the bed and breakfasts, restaurants, and wineries the town has to offer them. Few of them will visit, or even notice this partly-rebuilt fort. The fort is owned by the City and offers a walking trail with interpretative paintings by the Casbeer brothers, some reconstructed buildings, and a taste of what life was like during its short existence. The fort was established in December of 1848 along Barons Creek and adjacent to the new town of Fredericksburg, itself only established in 1846. Construction of the fort brought needed income to residents, who helped in its construction. Its soldiers patrolled the Fredericksburg-San Antonio road. As the frontier moved quickly to the west, the fort was closed in December of 1853. When I visit these places, once bustling with activity and drama, but now solitary places, I take time to sit quietly and listen for voices from the past. I close my eyes and feel the breezes flowing over me, notice the smells and the sounds around, and wonder what stories lie untold in the grass and stones. I listen for ghosts, too; I’ve yet to hear from one, but perhaps, one day.
I thought I was in Europe for a moment, except the bicyclists were so courteous. I was on the River Trail in Kerrville, Texas, which resembled urban trails in Europe I’ve walked. My pre-pandemic plan was to be on my third day of walking Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome, but here I was, walking from the Riverside Nature Center toward Louise Hays Park.
Guadalupe River trail crossing to Tranquility Island
The trail is 10 feet wide, enough for bicycles and people and strollers and social distancing. The total length is about 5 miles, and it has several entry points with good parking.
Tranquility Island interpretative signage
The Guadalupe River is lined with huge cypress trees, in some areas backed up by giant pecans. This is an altogether delightful walk; the perfect ending would be a beer and sandwich at the Pint & Plow Brewing Company, only 1/2 mile from our start but at this point drive through only. Austin has a great connected trail system, and San Antonio has the Missions Trail. Fredericksburg has some short trails, one day I hope we connect them. My AirBnb guests very often walk into downtown, and it is one of the reasons they choose to say with me.
Walking for fun is getting popular again.
Kerrville River Trail
UPDATE: I walked the Kerrville Riverside Trail again, this time dropping a car at Riverside Nature Center and parking the other car at Kerrville-Schreiner Park. The trail guide didn’t mention this, but there is a free parking lot at the Kerrville-Schreiner Park accessed off of Veterans Highway (Loop 534) via Legion Crossing Road East. If you park inside the park there is a fee, although it is only $2 for seniors. There is a locked gate between the park and the free parking lot, and you are given a code for the gate when you get your entrance permit. It is much simpler to park in the free parking lot. The distance was 3.8 miles total, the first two miles were the same 10 foot wide paved trail; although the scenery wasn’t as spectacular as the western section, it was fine and lightly travelled.
With the threat of Covid 19 the tourism business has come to a screeching halt. Until two weeks ago my B&B was full every night. I was cleaning and doing laundry and giving advice on wineries and restaurants and Enchanted Rock. So, what am I doing now?
I have a fascinating young guest in the Canoe Barn who is quarantined, but we get to hang out on the back deck, 8 feet apart. Tonight we had nachos and IPAs.
I’m wiping down surfaces in my house daily, I even cleaned my oven (a first). I’m maintaining appropriate distances. And when we did the kayaking shuttle today …
Life is , in fact, better outside.
The widespread effects of the corona virus have delayed my pilgrimage to Rome on Via Francigena until 2021. If travel to Europe is back to normal by September, I will go to France to finish Via Podensia, Le Puy en Velay to St Jean Pied-de-Port, about 2 weeks. This will be my third year of walking in Europe.
robertcdeming 