CAMINO COUNTDOWN - 27 days to departure/départ en 27 jours

I have found a new love. It is hiking! Je suis mordue de ...la randonnée pédestre.  I absolutely love it!

Since I last blogged, I have added another 50 kilometres and hiked every step of the way from Durham Centre to Charlo, and back. Not all at once though!  I have hiked all the backroads around and taken two days to run, instead of hike. I now carry my full sized backpack, with 19 pounds of STUFF  in it. All of which I tell myself I will need on The Camino, but some of which will surely stay behind when I do my last packing purge.

I have seen beauty and decay all around me. Panoramic views of la belle Baie, the scenic mountains of the Gaspé, the mother duck with her newborn goslings who waddled right across my path, the chickens who scooted up the road to get away from my curious Vimy, the cutie in the convertible who stopped to ask me where I was headed... and then there is the ubiquitous Tim Horton's coffee cup in the ditch, the constant litter of beer and pop cans, numerous  abandoned and caved in houses- where families once lived, but everyone has "gone" away, never to come back. Amidst these contrasts, I have found pure and simple joy in putting one foot in front of the other, with Vimy leading the way.

Being out in the great outdoors, at all times and in all kinds of weather, I have made a few observations. People who litter in the backroads, will throw out more trash on the right hand side of the road, which leads me to believe they are getting rid of it before they hit the main drag, where, heaven forbid, they should be seen littering (or drinking in a vehicle!). The further north I trek though, the more pop cans and energy drink cans I see.  "Bible Belt" country methinks? Bud is still number one though! 

J'ai appris que l'appli "RunKeeper" est tout simplement merveilleux comme outil.  Je n'ai plus besoin de me servir de mon cerveau pour mes calculs de distance, etc. L'appli fait tout ça et me le dit. La technologie ne cesse de m'émerveiller.

J'ai réussi à ramasser cinq gros sacs de bouteilles recyclables pendant mes randonnées. Étant éco-consciente, je ne peux pas m'empêcher d'en ramasser, et je les mets dans le bac réservé au Radiothon des Roses,  au centre de recyclage. Un bon oeuvre mène à un autre bon oeuvre, non?

Camino Tidbit: Over 270,000 pilgrims (pelegrinos) hiked The Camino last year; less than 3% were Canadian. I guess I will stick out like a sore thumb with my Canadian and Acadian flags, the latter of which will be on my facecloth hanging off my backpack to dry. :)