Walking the Camino de Santiago

[Pedrito]

Usually I have the View Ranger app installed, it's well done and useful for mountain trekking. I dunno if it covers the Camino route and if it can signal accommodations and other info.
A friend of mine swears OruxMaps is the best navigation map out there, I've yet to try it.
More specifically about the Camino, I've bought an Italian paper guide (from the same publisher I've named in Mal's thread), with a lot of info: maps, height charts, hostels, possible alternative routes, etc.
There's a good app, Buen Camino, that gives lots of info, and can help you plan the daily route. It gives info about all the different routes (Frances, del Norte, Aragones, etc.), and one needs to pay for the route he wants, but I did not pay anything and had the Camino Frances already active, so better for me 

L

I've gone full digital too, using the Komoot app which allows for offline voice navigation on OSM maps. Pretty happy with it, but I'm wondering if it would be too risky in sparsely inhabited areas. If I drop the phone I'm screwed.

That's why, especially in the mountains, I *always* have with me a physical map of the area, and often a compass, too. It happens rarely that I stray from the beaten paths, but I want to be prepared. For north-eastern Alps region, Tabacco or Kompass are the most reliable maps out there; I prefer Tabacco maps, but it's simply because I use them since I was young.
I'm sure that on the Camino map&compass are not needed, but I prefer having with me a paper guide nonetheless.

L.

[Pedrito]

My friend Thibaud did it 2 years ago started in Pau, his hometown. He plans on doing it again next year or 2.

He's a party animal so somedays had almost no progress because he was too hung over.

I bet for someone it's a great way to spend one month! Catholic girls, way of atonement, ya know what I mean, wink wink nudge nudge.

L.

[crazy canuck]

Pedrito, what do you use for navigation?

Usually I have the View Ranger app installed, it's well done and useful for mountain trekking. I dunno if it covers the Camino route and if it can signal accommodations and other info.
A friend of mine swears OruxMaps is the best navigation map out there, I've yet to try it.
More specifically about the Camino, I've bought an Italian paper guide (from the same publisher I've named in Mal's thread), with a lot of info: maps, height charts, hostels, possible alternative routes, etc.
There's a good app, Buen Camino, that gives lots of info, and can help you plan the daily route. It gives info about all the different routes (Frances, del Norte, Aragones, etc.), and one needs to pay for the route he wants, but I did not pay anything and had the Camino Frances already active, so better for me 

L

For the Camino you just follow the well marked route.  If in doubt ask someone around you.  This is not so much a wilderness trek as a group experience.

[Maladict]

That's why, especially in the mountains, I *always* have with me a physical map of the area, and often a compass, too. It happens rarely that I stray from the beaten paths, but I want to be prepared. For north-eastern Alps region, Tabacco or Kompass are the most reliable maps out there; I prefer Tabacco maps, but it's simply because I use them since I was young.
I'm sure that on the Camino map&compass are not needed, but I prefer having with me a paper guide nonetheless.

L.

Yeah, I'll probably get some paper maps. They're cool, if nothing else.

It's absolutely impossible to get lost in this country and not stumble into inhabited areas within an hour or so. I remember walking a few minutes into some forest in Alberta and being creeped out by the idea there might be no signs of human life ahead for a dozens of miles.

[Malthus]

That's why, especially in the mountains, I *always* have with me a physical map of the area, and often a compass, too. It happens rarely that I stray from the beaten paths, but I want to be prepared. For north-eastern Alps region, Tabacco or Kompass are the most reliable maps out there; I prefer Tabacco maps, but it's simply because I use them since I was young.
I'm sure that on the Camino map&compass are not needed, but I prefer having with me a paper guide nonetheless.

L.

Yeah, I'll probably get some paper maps. They're cool, if nothing else.

It's absolutely impossible to get lost in this country and not stumble into inhabited areas within an hour or so. I remember walking a few minutes into some forest in Alberta and being creeped out by the idea there might be no signs of human life ahead for a dozens of miles.

My relatives once invited a French exchange student up to our cabin in northern Quebec - and had to come back early, because she found the isolation too frightening.

[Maladict]

My relatives once invited a French exchange student up to our cabin in northern Quebec - and had to come back early, because she found the isolation too frightening.

For me it was idea of walking into the woods, losing your way and never being heard from again. I can see how that could lead to a crushing feeling of isolation. It's just something I had never considered previously.

Kind of ties in with this: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/world/europe/netherlands-dropping-children.html
The NYT freaked out over the Dutch tradition of children's parties (actually they only mention scouting groups), where kids are dropped in the woods at night without knowing where they are and left to make their way home by themselves. Predictable outrage ensues, of course, but the risks are pretty low in this part of the world. I've been on one where after a few hours we figured out we had been dropped in Germany, took six hours to walk back. That was a bit much for some of the parents, but it was a pretty awesome experience.

[Malthus]

My relatives once invited a French exchange student up to our cabin in northern Quebec - and had to come back early, because she found the isolation too frightening.

For me it was idea of walking into the woods, losing your way and never being heard from again. I can see how that could lead to a crushing feeling of isolation. It's just something I had never considered previously.

Kind of ties in with this: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/world/europe/netherlands-dropping-children.html
The NYT freaked out over the Dutch tradition of children's parties (actually they only mention scouting groups), where kids are dropped in the woods at night without knowing where they are and left to make their way home by themselves. Predictable outrage ensues, of course, but the risks are pretty low in this part of the world. I've been on one where after a few hours we figured out we had been dropped in Germany, took six hours to walk back. That was a bit much for some of the parents, but it was a pretty awesome experience.

My dad liked to do something like this, only "for real". And he was along for the ride. 

What he did, was plan "fly in, canoe out" canoe trips in Northern Quebec. He'd figure out our route on topographic maps, hire a bush pilot to fly us in, and then we had to make it out with map and compass.

We did this every year from when I was pretty young, to when I was in my mid teens. Some of those trips were pretty intense. Sometimes the route, chosen based purely on topo maps, took us down rivers that only existed part of the year, so we ended up travelling up to out waists in swamps (often covered with leeches and mosquitoes). On one memorable trip, we ran out of food, and if we hadn't been able to catch fish we may not have made it at all. Most of the routes were through areas only reachable by canoe and remote from the usual canoe routes, so we never saw anyone else - probably no-one ever passed through there except hunters and trappers.

The plus side was that the fishing was excellent.

Part of the reason northern Quebec is scary is something you have to go there to really understand, and it is this: the place is filled with irregular lakes and forest, and everywhere looks sort of the same; it is really, really easy to get lost.

[The Larch]

Pedrito, what do you use for navigation?

Usually I have the View Ranger app installed, it's well done and useful for mountain trekking. I dunno if it covers the Camino route and if it can signal accommodations and other info.
A friend of mine swears OruxMaps is the best navigation map out there, I've yet to try it.
More specifically about the Camino, I've bought an Italian paper guide (from the same publisher I've named in Mal's thread), with a lot of info: maps, height charts, hostels, possible alternative routes, etc.
There's a good app, Buen Camino, that gives lots of info, and can help you plan the daily route. It gives info about all the different routes (Frances, del Norte, Aragones, etc.), and one needs to pay for the route he wants, but I did not pay anything and had the Camino Frances already active, so better for me 

L

For the Camino you just follow the well marked route.  If in doubt ask someone around you.  This is not so much a wilderness trek as a group experience.

Yeah, there's not really much chance of getting lost while doing the Camino, a guide would be more useful to find the best restaurants along the way. 

[Maladict]

My dad liked to do something like this, only "for real". And he was along for the ride. 

What he did, was plan "fly in, canoe out" canoe trips in Northern Quebec. He'd figure out our route on topographic maps, hire a bush pilot to fly us in, and then we had to make it out with map and compass.

We did this every year from when I was pretty young, to when I was in my mid teens. Some of those trips were pretty intense. Sometimes the route, chosen based purely on topo maps, took us down rivers that only existed part of the year, so we ended up travelling up to out waists in swamps (often covered with leeches and mosquitoes). On one memorable trip, we ran out of food, and if we hadn't been able to catch fish we may not have made it at all. Most of the routes were through areas only reachable by canoe and remote from the usual canoe routes, so we never saw anyone else - probably no-one ever passed through there except hunters and trappers.

The plus side was that the fishing was excellent.

Part of the reason northern Quebec is scary is something you have to go there to really understand, and it is this: the place is filled with irregular lakes and forest, and everywhere looks sort of the same; it is really, really easy to get lost.

That's awesome 

Wish we had more of that here.