Walking and hiking aren’t for everyone, but for Britt Coleman, an AP teacher at PHS, it can create new experiences and adventures that can’t be forgotten.
This past summer Coleman took a trip to Spain, his first time in the country but didn’t stop there; he spent over a week hiking and biking around the country accumulating a total of 550 miles walking and 112 on a bike.
“So, we’ve been thinking of doing [the trip] for quite a while,” Coleman said.
His adventure, Coleman says, is actually a real thing that others have done as well, just maybe not for a while.
“It’s called the Camino de Santiago, which is an ancient pilgrimage route that ends in Santiago de Compostela, a city in Spain.”
Even though much of his time was spent in Spain, Coleman began his journey with his wife in France, where they spent two days there before walking their way to Spain.
While Coleman says he is a normal hiker, he said he wasn’t ready for the different kind of challenge that this trail presented.
“[My wife and I] go hiking a lot, but it was really walking village to village, so I wasn’t necessarily hiking in the wilderness,” Coleman said.
When trekking this trail, Coleman says he found multiple interesting memories, from the people he met to locations he hiked through.
“There were some pretty hairy descents.” Coleman said. “It’s still a trail but there were still some pretty rocky parts.”
This adventure also brought new food, new people, and new experiences. One of the experiences he walked through was the Running of the Bulls.
“There were lots of interesting encounters that happened on the trip,” Coleman said. “There were lots of cool people and [I] ate a lot of good food.”
“We had some days where we walked 28 miles a day, and then we walked another 80 kilometers [about 50 miles] to get to the coast,” Coleman said.
If you thought that nobody could make the whole trip without injury, you’d be right.
“It was very taxing; I hurt my leg,” Coleman said.
The long trip wasn’t just through Spain but Coleman said the flight there was also an adventure.
“It was just hours of being uncomfortable sitting down,” Coleman said. “We flew from here (Seattle) to Iceland, and then Iceland to Barcelona. On the way back we flew from Barcelona to Chicago, and then back to here (Seattle).”