Camping gear question

[DivineLightDancer]

Hello fellow Pilgrims

My friend and I will be walking the CF in June of this year and are hoping to do some wild camping a few times on our journey, when the sky is clear and the urge to stay with nature takes hold. This experience is very much about connecting deeply with nature for me personally.

So I am contemplating bring my tent footprint for putting under my thermarest, a super lightweight thermarest, summer sleeping bag and bivy sac. Just wondering what your thoughts are on whether I will need the footprint and bivy sac? Thanks!!

Blessings
Marika

 

[SYates]

You might want to do a search first here for other 'tent threads' as wild camping isn't as easy and often forbidden in Spain. Buen Camino! SY

 

[DivineLightDancer]

Thanks SY. I have read several posts on camping and seen all of your comments. I have also read from several people that camping is legal so long as you are 1km outside of town or official campsites?

That being said I do know there are official campsites and that you can camp in the yards of some Albergues, so I want to make sure I am properly equipped but not carrying too much. I would appreciate anyone who has camped to share their camping advice. Cheers

 

[mtman100]

I am planning on taking my tent when my wife and I do our CF also starting in June. Mainly, for when we can't find a bed. Skywalker, in his book, camped several times during his 3 Camino's and was thankful for having that option. However, the overwhelming opinion is that a tent is not necessary and only extra weight, but as an avid A.T. hiker, I want the extra security. http://lbarrettscamino.weebly.com/blog/

 

[Tincatinker]

Thanks SY. I have read several posts on camping and seen all of your comments. I have also read from several people that camping is legal so long as you are 1km outside of town or official campsites?

Sadly your question mark answers the question, it just ain't so. Wild camping is not legal in Spain. Numerous threads have re-iterated this point and sought to de-bunk the common, wishful, myths. Yes, people do camp on and around the Camino and there presence is sometimes tolerated and often not. Please be aware that there will always be a difference between what we would wish to be so and that that is.

 

[SYates]

Seriously, with 230,000+ pilgrims hiking and biking towards Santiago in 2014 the tolerance of 'the locals' of finding pilgrims camping on their grounds is wearing exceedingly thin and thinner from year to year. Understandably so ... SY

 

[SYates]

... Skywalker, in his book, camped several times during his 3 Camino's and was thankful for having that option. ...

Skywalker walked in 2010, things have changed since then - considerably so. SY

 

[DivineLightDancer]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I have been researching this on the web and it seems the law is clear in parts and grey in others. This blog lays it out fairly nicely. https://thespanishbiker.wordpress.com/bed-n-board/camping/free-camping/

I totally get that though the Camino brings in lots of business and is a sacred pilgrimage, some of the residents probably do find it challenging. I have seen this in many parts of the world.

I weighed my pack with everything and it is only 12lbs, so I will definitely be keeping my footprint and bivysac for those full albergues and legit camping possibilities.

Hope to see you on the trail mtman.

 

[Kathy F.]

What is on your packing list that you include a thermarest sleeping pad, a sheet to under the thermarest, and a cover to keep dew off your sleeping bag and will be carrying only 12 lbs? Seriously, I want to know - I'd be happy to get mine down to 20.

 

[Archsas]

If you know the night is going to be clear, the bivy sack is unnecessary, and if you have something like a Thermarest, the footprint can be optional. The past few summers, I've worked at a summer camp, and once a week, we go on overnight camping trips with our campers. They're very bare bones. No tents, sometimes a tarp for shelter (if rain looks possible), and sometimes without sleeping pads. I've slept outside with nothing but a tarp on the ground and a sleeping bag a bunch of times, and it always went fine. It might seems a little crazy to go without shelter, but it's possible, if the conditions aren't going to be bad.

 

[DivineLightDancer]

It would be my pleasure FooteK!
I hadn't included my toiletries, a full platypus, my walking poles or my books, so this is everything i will have from the skin out. Final total is 18.5lbs

Gear
MEC Kelvin 3.8 thermarest 2.2lbs
lightweight summer sleeping bag 2lbs
mountain research e-bivy 1.2lbs
MEC tarn 2 tent footprint 1.2lbs
MEC raincover less than a lb
Granite gear latitude back pack 3lbs
1L platypus 2lbs
Leki hiking poles

Clothes
Arc'teryx light fleece
Outdoor research super lightweight goretex jacket
Sarong- towel, head/shoulder cover, skirt, screen
Sunhat
2 MEC organic cotton tank tops with built in bras
1 Icebreaker long sleeved merino wool shirt
1 Icebreaker 3/4 length merino pants
1 MEC lightweight travel pants
1 pair yoga shorts
1 bikini- i'm going on to Ibiza after the camino
3 pairs underwear
4 pairs lightweight merino ankle socks
Merrell Allout soar walking shoes
either vibram five fingers or some flipflops

Toiletries/first aid - I put all my toiletries into these amazing super light weight containers
knee brace
kt tape
lacrosse ball for rolling out sore muscles
advil
aromatherapy for digestion and headaches
sore muscle rub
dr. bronners all purpose soap
deoderant
toothpowder and toothbrush
divacup
sunscreen
broccofusion- amazing dna repair creme for aftersun
blister cushions, bandaids, compeed
needle and thread
ear plugs and eye pillow
mascara - again Ibiza
elastics and bobby pins

Extras
journal and pen
bamboo utensil set
swiss army knife
headlamp
hiking poles
reading book
phone and charger

 

[DivineLightDancer]

If you know the night is going to be clear, the bivy sack is unnecessary, and if you have something like a Thermarest, the footprint can be optional. The past few summers, I've worked at a summer camp, and once a week, we go on overnight camping trips with our campers. They're very bare bones. No tents, sometimes a tarp for shelter (if rain looks possible), and sometimes without sleeping pads. I've slept outside with nothing but a tarp on the ground and a sleeping bag a bunch of times, and it always went fine. It might seems a little crazy to go without shelter, but it's possible, if the conditions aren't going to be bad.

Thanks Archas! Very helpful!! I have decided to leave the footprint but as my pack is so light I will keep the bivy sac just in case it decides to rain while i'm fast asleep.

 

[Jo Jo]

Marika,

From your question and your gear list, I would guess you have some experience backpacking. That was also my experience going to the Camino. It led me into error. Most of them are detailed here: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...id-not-for-a-summer-camino.31137/#post-269857

To camp out on the Camino is not to be in nature (in most places). It is to commune with a wheat field. This area has been under cultivation since at least Roman times. Probably longer. There is not much nature left here (treasure the walk the first day out of Roncevalles--it is the most nature you will see). What is not plowed is pasture land.

The Camino is not backpacking, despite the pack on your back. It requires a very different mind-set, which I acquired almost too late. Save the weight-- dump the camping gear. Trust me, it will become a burden and you do not want an extra gram when you are walking that far.

 

[DivineLightDancer]

Awesome info, thanks Jo Jo!! One question though did you never have any issues with Albergues being full? I was thinking the thermarest would be nice in case I couldn't get a bed.

 

[Rambler]

DLD:
We went last year in June and never had an issue with not finding a bed to sleep in. You will be early for most of the crowds and there have been more private albergues opening each year, so there is much less of a risk. I would leave home the thermarest, bivy, footprint and maybe take a tyvek sheet you wash before you leave to use as a bedbug protector on the mattresses. Then if the opportunity arises to sleep outside, you could use it as a ground sheet.
But as has already been said, this is more suburban hiking than you may be thinking. You probably don't want folks sleeping in the front yard of your neighbor's house. That is like being homeless and most folks don't want that repetitively in their neighborhood.
JoJo is right. This is not a wilderness trail. You are walking in backyards and along residential streets. Don't worry about being without a bed. The Camino will provide.

Rambler

 

[Jo Jo]

Marika,

The only time we had trouble finding a bed was when we tried an old backpacking trick: we got off late, walked until noon, ate lunch, then sat by a river until 4:30pm when it cooled off, and then began walking again until about 7pm. In the mountains, that extra 2.5 hours will get you a lot of extra mileage in the day because your legs are fresh again.

So we tried that the first day out of Roncevalles, and almost did not get a bed in Larrasoana when we rolled in as the sun was setting (and paid a lot for one in a pension). And out clothes (especially socks) were still wet the next morning.

As we got in Pamplona and beyond, the heat began to be a real problem with walking into the afternoon. Eventually, we figured out to do what everyone else was doing--leaving just as it is beginning to get light (6am). We were not racing for a bed; we were racing the sun, walking until about 1pm, stopping for a bit of breakfast on the way.

If you do that, you will never have to worry about a bed. And your clothes will be dry because you will have washed after you got to the albuergue when there was still sun to dry them. And after 7 hours of walking (6am to 1pm), you are done for the day. You have probably walked about 25km, and that is more than enough.

Everyone carrying those pads does it for the same "will be get a bed" reason. I saw them actually used only that night in Larrasoano (by some college kids who could not afford a pension) and one night after SdC on the way to the Ocean (an extended family of Spaniards taxied into the albuergue and most all the mattresses in the municipal albuergue--and the hopitelara did not kick them out). My wife and I shared the last mattress that night. I would not have carried a sleeping pad on my back halfway across Spain to deal with those two situations a month apart. A big part of the Camino was learning to trust that we would be taken care of, somehow. And we were.

Buen Camino,
Jo Jo

 

[mtman100]

Skywalker walked in 2010, things have changed since then - considerably so. SY

I will yield to your advice and experience and will leave my tent at home. Thanks.