ABOUT ME
My Approach
I walked the Camino Frances from St Jean Pied de Port (SJPDP) to Santiago de Compostella (taking 31 days), and then continued to Finisterre and then onto Muxia (an additional 5 days). I walked from September 6th to October 11th.
My primary goal while preparing for this journey was to minimize my Camino pack weight. It is easy to think about all the comforts you’d like to have along, but it is also easy to overlook the weight those comforts will put on your body every day.
Pack light, and enjoy the luxury of walking with a feather-light pack instead of the luxury afforded by the extra comforts you could have brought along.
More About Me & My Approach
I’m female, and was 28 at the time I walked the Camino Frances. I traveled solo. This is something I had actually never done before, and was a big mental hurdle for me. I’m pretty extroverted, and I like to ‘talk it out’ when solving a problem. I may have had some lengthy discussions with a few trees on the long, lonely days. Moving on…
My primary goal while packing for this journey was to minimize my Camino pack weight. I was coming off of a multi-month bike-packing trip, and was not in the best ‘walking shape’ (bike fitness does not equal walking fitness as far as joints are concerned!). The biggest advantage I thought I could give myself was a lightweight pack.
The majority of my previous nomadic experiences were bike packing or backpacking; and for all of those adventures I brought a complete wilderness setup. I had to really break out of my established norms when packing for the Camino, as it is fundamentally different than a wilderness camping experience.
I purchased this guidebook (ebook) and reviewed it in preparation. This is where it clicked for me that there were amenities/services regularly along the Way. I highly recommend this particular guidebook. The ‘at a glance’ ability to identify available amenities/services and the distances between them really helped me keep my pack light!
In the end, I had a 3.9kg (~8.6lb) pack. This is inclusive of everything I brought (including my phone, wallet, etc. as I kept those in my pack, not my pockets), but not inclusive of the clothes I wore while hiking (I called these ‘walking clothes’ in my pack list), and any food or water. This weight will fluctuate as you carry more or less food or water, or as you wear more or less layers. The point is to get your base weight as low as possible and add things as needed – not to carry ‘everything you might possibly need even for just one day’ right from the start. If I went again, I think I could reduce it even more, but I was happy with how I did, considering this was all new to me!
Why Pack Light? And How?
Due to the low weight of my gear, I was able to use a very minimalist (frameless) pack. I often walked with a skip in my step, mostly un-burdened by my backpack, and often forgetting I was carrying one! (ok, that is a stretch). My shoulders and hips were never sore or bruised (which I have experienced in the past with a heavy wilderness pack). I highly recommend packing as light as possible for the Camino!
So, how to pack light and be happy about it? Start from the extremes. On one end, that would mean you bring nothing, and walk naked and barefoot. On the other end, that would mean that you pack up everything in your house or apartment and put it on a trailer, which you then hitch to yourself and drag along every day. Obviously, neither of these is ideal. It is a good starting point though; and for this thought exercise, I started from the ‘going naked, bringing nothing’ version, and added things.
It starts out really easy; I don’t want walk naked. Ok, so, shoes, bottoms, top, sun protection. Is that enough? Do I need anything else?
After solving the ‘walking naked’ problem, I moved on to ‘things I will carry with me.’ Nothing was added to my pack list without careful consideration. Instead of framing the thought process as ‘this is a luxury I want to have at the Albergues every day,’ I framed it as ‘this is grams my feet will have to carry for five to nine hours a day.’
Thanks to the very helpful guidebook I had, I was able to remind myself regularly through the packing process just how frequent towns and services are on the Camino. This is key, because if you bring something along, you will likely be averse to throwing it out if you aren’t using it (that feels wasteful). But if you don’t bring something and you decide you really want it; you can very easily buy it along the way. Err on the side of not bringing things! Your body will thank you.
I want to reiterate; instead of framing the thought process as ‘luxuries I can live without at the Albergues’ – frame it as ‘grams that my feet won’t have to carry for 9 hours a day.’
‘’Enjoy the luxury of walking with a feather-light pack instead of the luxury afforded by all the extra comforts you could have brought along.’’