California Mission Trail

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.