This Life Therefore: Camino Day 2--6/15/2020

Ok. In all of my thinking about that first day, I may have missed a key feature: it was a long walk. I'm pretty sure it was farther than I've ever walked before... or at least since I was in my 20s. So we finished the day with a fair amount of exhaustion but also (at least on my part) a little elation that we finished it! One of my little anxieties going into this whole Camino plan was that I wouldn't actually be able to do it. One of my real shortcomings is that I tend to avoid areas where I don't think I'll succeed, and doing the Camino takes a commitment of time and resources that I was afraid of having done poorly. We had trained for the walking, of course, but never more than 8 miles hiking or 12 miles walking. At the end of the day, I had to accept that the only way to know whether I'd be able to do it was to lace up and get going. Liberating and terrifying.

Also, Saturday was the 23rd anniversary of our meeting one another! Bonus holiday.

It takes a while walk 16 miles, and we crashed once we got home. After having Sunday off, we had another 16 miles ahead of us on Monday. This hike was intentionally planned with much less elevation and much more sea breeze, which was great...considering our legs had not quite yet recovered.

Day 2: 6/15/20

2x Coastline between More Mesa and Coal Oil Point (or, down and back again)

Representing Grado to Salas

We parked at Goleta Beach Park, more or less at the halfway point of the loop we were walking. We decided after Saturday's walk that we needed to have more water with us; and getting to pass our parked car halfway through the walk to reload our water bottles saves pounds out of our packs. Even with that real bonus, I switched from my hip pack to a backpack (my Christmas present for the Camino!) in order to accommodate the extra H2O.

We headed south (east?) towards More Mesa, which I had somehow never visited in the 13 years we have lived in Santa Barbara. It was breathtaking. I couldn't believe that something this spacious and peaceful was so close (dare I say walking distance? haha) to home.

The cliffs and sun and breeze were a gift. I also realized pretty quickly that I probably should have saved this half of the loop for the second half...but really, both halves were a "save the best for last" kind of option. What a gorgeous day!

I took these next two photos standing in the same spot but facing different directions:

The northern part of the walk crossed Goleta Beach and the coastline of the campus at UCSB. We then had about a mile--the longest road ever--through apartments being cleared out by college students and their parents. We were walking it the Monday morning after the end of the quarter. After that we had more hiking of coastline.

Not as scenic but just as real: Move-out day in Isla Vista

Because the coast cuts in and out, you can often only see what's within your own "bay"; out on the points you can see much farther down the coastline. We found a spot under a tree for our lunch. From that vantage point, we were able to look back the length of the coast. It was hard to believe that we had come so far. Usually, there's a limit to how much of the road you can see at a time; Monday we could see the whole expanse.

View from More Mesa: we walked miles past that farthest promontory

One of us commented that it seemed amazing that we could cover that much ground on our own two feet, just by taking one step at a time. It underscored to me the need for faithfulness and persistence, two things I find hard to hold onto in tasks that seem less rewarding or more tedious (or insurmountable). J reminded me of something Rebecca DeYoung once said about ethics: that in addition to asking whether a particular action was right or wrong, we might also ask in what ways taking that action over and over again for ten years might form us. Narrative ethics sounds like a nerdy thing to be talking about on a pilgrimage, but in the context of seeing how far our little steps had carried us it felt just right. The pursuit of holiness can seem tedious, and also (in my case, anyway) that progress just doesn't happen. J remembering the comment started a conversation was the gift of the walk that day; and I came home and bought a book that will (I hope) help me to think more clearly about other ways to keep moving forward.

Our Turnaround Point on Day Two

We also listened to some music together for the last couple of miles, when our legs were tired and J was getting blisters (although we didn't know that part yet). We are midway through building our Camino playlist (y'all probably know I have a playlist for almost everything). I would love any suggestions of songs to add--whether for reflection, celebration, or to keep our legs pumping up those hills!