Tag walking

John Muir Trail: ‘We Can’t Do That?’

Reg Spittle 11 Comments



“We can’t do that!”

Those were my words when Sue said we should walk across Spain on a famed pilgrimage.

The Camino de Santiago and distance trails in seven countries have taught me to question my first reaction to a backpacking challenge.

Two years ago, Sue and I tackled the John Muir Trail in California’s Sierra Nevada. Mules helped carry our stuff, but our legs carried us 246 miles from Horseshoe Meadow southeast of Mount Whitney to Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley. One of the most memorable days was the trek to the Mount Whitney summit; the bottom photo shows me on the switchbacks above Guitar Lake during my climb to the highest point in the continental USA. The other photos show us at Muir Hut and near Cathedral Peak.

We slept in a small Nemo tent, filtered our water, and went without showers or toilets for 30 days. It was all part of the adventure that kept us above 10,000 feet much of the way on a trail through astounding scenery.

Sue and I are preparing for our seventh distance trek, which begins September 1. If we are able to complete the 42 days on the trail, it will be our longest trek yet. This time, we plan to carry everything we need, but our packs won’t contain a tent or sleeping bags.

Stay tuned.

Walking With Sam: A Moving Father-Son Story

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Shattered by 100-degree weather, a tired body, and the frustration of trying to break through to a 19-year-old, Andrew McCarthy yells at this son to stop walking in the middle of the road, then wishes he could be more patient.

In Walking With Sam, the actor and best-selling author writes that he is annoyed with himself for falling into the role of parent too often. But, what’s a father to do when your kid is ignoring common sense on a road in Spain?

Earlier, at home in New York City in 2021, McCarthy, hungry for time with Sam, asks his son if he will go for a walk with him–in Spain, on the 500-mile Camino de Santiago. In a moment of weakness, or perhaps strength, Sam agrees, and his dad books tickets before the kid/adult changes his mind. Two days later, they are in St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, the starting point for many who walk the pilgrimage path over the Pyrenees Mountains and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compestella.

McCarthy, who doesn’t want to be known primarily as one of the Brat Pack actors of the 1980s, writes with raw emotion, honesty, and simple eloquence. Walking With Sam is a personal story, but it is also a Camino book, sprinkled with history and descriptions of life on the Camino. They carry their stuff in backpacks and stay in private rooms rather than albergue dormitories.

I wanted even more depth from the father-son dialogue, but I expect that they may have felt the same way during the trek. There are melt downs as well as laughs. They form relationships with fellow pilgrims and, most of the time Andrew McCarthy can be a regular guy, not recognized in Spain for his acting fame. (Sam has also acted professionally, most notably in the TV series, Dead to Me.)

Andrew McCarthy is fortunate that his son was willing to spend so much time with him. Conversely, Sam benefits from a father who values his son so much that he will drop everything for weeks to go on a trip with him. Although it will probably take time for the experience to settle with both men, Sam blurts out his evaluation at the end of the Camino.

It was Andrew’s second time on the Camino, the first coming 25 years earlier. He wrote about that walk and several other adventures in The Longest Way Home, published in 2013. It is an engrossing story.