About Me

Jump to The Los Monegros Desert (Aragon)

Jump to Kanab Canyon, Utah

Jump to My Fight Against POEMS Cancer

Jump to MLB Spring Training (Dunedin FL)

See the "My Other Blogs" Page for links to all my other caminos.

Caminos

2014	Via de La Plata	Sevilla to Fuente De Cantos	7 dys	80 miles
2015	Via de La Plata	Fuente de Cantos to Bejar	15 dys	180 miles
2016	Via de La Plata	Bejar to Astorga	18 dys	180 miles
2016	Camino Sanabres	Granja de Moruela to Puebla de Sanabria	6 dys	70 miles
2017	Camino Frances	Sahagun to Santiago de Compostela	18 dys	250 miles
2017	Finisterre - Muxia	Santiago to Finisterre to Muxia	5 dys	70 miles
2018	Camino Sanabres	Puebla de Sanabria to Santiago	 12 dys	150 miles
2018	Kerry Camino	Tralee, Ireland to Dingle	3 dys	40 miles
2018	Camino Portugues	Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela	11 dys	150 miles
2019	Dingle Way	Dingle, Ireland to Castlegregory	5 dys	52 miles
2019	Camino Ingles	Ferrol, Spain to Santiago de Compostela	7 dys	77 miles
2019	Via Francigena	St Croix, Switzerland to Col du Gran San Bernard	10 dys	131 miles
2022	Camino Madrid	Madrid to Leon Spain	16 dys	220 miles
2022	Camino Iveragh	Killarney - Iveragh Peninsula Loop - Killarney	14 dys	120 miles
2022	Camino Munich	Munich, GE - Kempten	10 dys	115 miles
2023	Camino Barcelona Catalan	Cataluna - Aragon - Galicia	28 dys	280 miles
2024	Via Imperii	Berlin - Leipzig	11 dys	103 miles
2024	Camino Norte	Bilbao - Ribadeo	26 dys	239 miles
2025	Camino del Ebro	Deltebre - Logrono	26 dys	245 miles

Memoir of the Los Monegros Desert (Camino Aragonés)

Camino Cataluna & Aragon Blog

Early June 2023

Deb and I arrived in Spain to through-hike from Barcelona to Zaragoza. It is a hike of some 200 miles, crossing Catalonia and Aragon to the west.

Barcelona is a cosmopolitan, world-renowned city with approximately 1,600,000 citizens. Lying on the Mediterranean Sea makes it an international port-of-call. Deb and I arrived here by high-speed train from Madrid three days ago, and we have barely scratched the surface.

The end destination of our hike is the city of Zaragoza, founded by the Roman Emperor Augustus as a retirement place for veterans of the Roman Army who had fought in Spain.

We are seven days into our hike and Barcelona is now 130 miles behind us. Zaragoza is still 70 miles ahead of us to the west. Between us is the Los Monegros desert - a semi-arid desert and the least populated area of Spain.

The previous day we had walked into Lleide. It is one of the oldest cities/towns in Catalonia, dating back to the Bronze age, perhaps 2000 BC, although I am not completely sure. As these things go, we walked here only because our planned lodging was unexpectedly closed. So instead of 13 miles for the day, we tacked on another five for a total of 18 miles hiked. On the plus side, Lleide is an interesting city. It is divided by a river, much like Rochester.

Yesterday’s problems don’t matter much at this point. Fraga is the next town and it is 22 miles on foot through the Los Monegros desert.

It’s Sunday morning and we rise and shine, so to speak. We aren’t going to get anywhere by sleeping in, standing around, taking our time. We prepare our backpacks, eat a powerbar for protein and some fruit for carbs. Then we head out the door.

Our first mile is along city sidewalks. This is always not pleasant. Buildings and trash bins and stop lights and traffic and a pervasive urban feel just take away the mood.

Once we get outside the city, we pick up the Río Segre trail. For several miles, it follows the Río Segre, which was pretty much hidden in the city. When the trail turns into crushed stone, we have left the city behind and are on our way. I notice there is lots of bird song along the trail

It is another hot day. The mornings aren’t bad and we have a good amount of shade because of the trees along the trail and the angle of the sun. But by noon, the sun is overhead and the amount of shade really disappears just as the day is getting hottest.

It takes about four hours to reach Alcarás. It was a hot, nine mile slog getting here, made somewhat enjoyable by the pretty scenery. We find a bar, sling off the backpacks and order lunch. It turns out to be great. Tortilla con patata for the both of us. Empanada with chicken for Deb. Espresso, carbonated water, orange juice to drink.

We decide to break after 13 miles. It does not make sense to go nine further miles to reach Fraga. We have one option which is a truckstop about four miles further. There is a hostal and restaurant. While the thought of vacationing at a truckstop while in Europe does not sound five-star, when one is on foot it has the advantage of shorter days. And we are in the Los Monegros desert, and it would be unwise and even stupid to press on.

We pick up the trail, until we are near the truckstop. It has the romantic sounding name of Poligono Industrial de Soses. Translated: Industrial Park Soses. But that is where the bed and breakfast are, while not being close to being a Bed & Breakfast.

We arrive and it is as it sounds. It is a truckstop. Our companions for the night will obviously be long-haul truckers. Putting a good face on it, after checking-in, showering and resting, eating and drinking, I offer to take Deb on a date-night over to the gas station mini-mart next door. We can buy our supplies for tomorrow’s hike. Sometimes necessity is more romantic than flowers.

We have completed our shopping. We have salami and cheese, bread, protein bars, peaches, bananas, fiber wafers, flan, chocolate and six bottles of hydration.

During the evening, we sit on the patio enjoying the sunset and breeze. There are a couple of feral cats who have evidently become very accustomed to scrounging for pickings in the trash cans. They jump from the ground to the lip of the can and then somehow scrounge through the contents for whatever. One of them has a gorgeous white-coat with the cutest face. But he won’t come close to us. It’s now dark outside and time for bed. We must get up early to beat the afternoon sun and heat.

The day starts fresh and cool. We are following the N-II highway. The trail runs parallel to the highway, along dirt farm roads, built for tractors, not for walkers.

On the plus side, we got an earlier start even though it was a shorter day. Although we had some nice walks through farm fields, both Deb and I think that the Camino Catalan has a lot of pavement, relatively speaking.

Once again the geographical features have changed. We are now in sandhill after sandhill country.

It’s 9 miles to Fraga.

Another milestone. Sometime today, the border was not marked, we crossed from the autonomous community of Catalunya and into the autonomous community of Aragon.

The temperature climbed to the mid '80s by the time that we reached Fraga. Deep in the rift between the sand dunes, etched into the hills is the old part of Fraga.

With another day done, we are sitting under a cabana on Calle Principal, next to the hotel, having a light supper during a thunderstorm.

Hot dog pizza, tuna pizza and pimientos padrones, carbonated water drinks with lemon and ice cream.

























===================================

Kanab Canyons : Puppy School and Zeke's Overnight (July 6, 2016)

Volunteering @ Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Kanab UT

Today was a nice day. Again, I went in with an expectation of working in one place, but ended up in two more interesting dog runs that have resulted in me having a guest tonight.

I thought that I would work again at Deja's Run. As I was checking in for the morning shift, the volunteer coordinators mentioned that Puppy School was going on today. When asked if I would like to go there for an hour, I could not wait to say yes.

When I first came to Best Friends, puppy school was one of my fondest memories. In all the intervening times, it did not happen. That today, when I was feeling a little less enthusiastic, would find myself able to help the puppies learn proper behavior, was just over the top.

So off I went. For an hour, we sat with 5 really cute puppies - are there any other kind - and showed them how to interact with humans. The program has one main goal - to make sure that puppies are not returned for unwanted behaviors.

Because I went to puppy school, they did not need any volunteers where I was yesterday. That was the next fortunate break. So I went over to The Fairview where I met Zeke.

Guess what Zeke's characteristics are.
- Ok with cats
- Ok with other dogs
- Walked the long trail

So we are doing a sleepover and then a hiking outing in the morning before it gets too hot.

Zeke

I need to be careful because I am starting to feel the feeling with this guy.

For the afternoon I spent time washing bowls (about 20 of them), then I prepared tomorrow's breakfasts for the dogs and for the last event of the afternoon, I spent time in shy-dog socialization class.

The way it works is that some dogs are extremely shy around people to the point of running away or pacing nervously back and forth, while panting and drooling excessively. This behavior makes them unlikely to be adopted. So during the class, volunteers successively hold one treat in their palm and wait for the dog to approach and take the treat from the hand. No kind of interaction is allowed because it would scare the dog away. The goal is to teach the dog that people are kind and friendly, not a threat.

And to wrap up the day, I just had a nice conversation with Mike, a guy who works here at the hostel. He and his wife have sold everything and just live place-to-place, enjoying the good life where ever they are. They are spending some time here before moving on to Central America. What a great concept. Someday I will pull the plug on the job and become an international migrant.

The altitude change and the heat have completely worn me out. Time for a strategy change. Tomorrow when I return from Best Friends, I'm going down for a 2 hour nap. When I awaken, it will be cooler and I will be able to wander about and enjoy Kanab's night life. ;<)

Day's Pictures

=====================================

POEMS Syndrome (Myeloma 101) : Random Postings from Diagnosis to Treatment to Cure

Blog on My Fight Against Cancer

Here it comes

This is not going to be a fun post.

The side effects are kicking in. It's not much right now, but it is getting worse. Right now it is dry mouth, a 5 lb weight gain in 5 days (and I'm not eating that much) and an increasing sense of nausea.

The dry mouth does not go away and I've already drunk about a quart of fluids from o.j. to water to ginger ale to milk. I can't find something to keep me from that feeling.

The nausea (as expected) had to come sooner or later. The staff has started to give me a pill to dampen it. They said that it had to happen. Okay, so that's the rule.

I called Mercedes and will do the haircut tonight. Right now, if I don't get the haircut out of the way, I'll be a spotted, half-balding kind of guy in a week with a really ugly look.

Checking In

Better get that "high-and-tight" now.

On the positive side, Mercedes told me that Lola (my cat) is doing well at her house. She is eating and investigating, spending most of the day outside, which is how she behaves with me. That's good. One worry out of the way.

And Cleo (my dog) is doing well with my brother and sister-in-law. I did not doubt that, but also another worry out of the way.

Well, the die is cast. I "crossed the Rubicon" last Thursday when I checked in to Strong Memorial Hospital to start this process. Not much to do now but to ride it out ...2222

======================================

Day 2: Upper Tampa Bay park and Blue Jays vs Orioles baseball

My 2916 Baseball Spring Training Blog (Tampa - St Pete)

For my first hike in Tampa, I selected a park near to where I was staying. I was quite pleased with my choice. As the temperature was already hot and the day quite humid, Upper Tampa Bay park offered three trails, all of short duration, each about one mile in length.

The first was the most interesting as I came upon an ibis rookery. There were six sitting in the brackish water and another half dozen in the surrounding trees.


No alligators or manatees yet.

Saw Bautista hit and Tuliwitsky field. Sell out crowd in 80f/80% humidity with nary a shaded seat.

I must admit that the Blue Jays spring training facility has as much personality as Rogers center. And I think that Rogers center looks like an industrial facility.

On the other hand, I was seated right along the first base line, about six rows in, and had a great view of the game.

You can see in the pictures how blue the sky is and cloudless. It was all out sunscreen. And I used the program to keep my legs covered.