Day 14- Osprey Challenge

For some reason or reasons, today was a beast. Maybe it was the distance. Maybe it was the knee deep water I had to wade through in the dark with my shoes on. Maybe it was the climbing. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe I let myself get a bit dehydrated. Maybe it was my Osprey backpack. Maybe it was all of those things. Osprey Backpack- this thing is great, and houses all my worldly possessions. However, getting it to fit right is quite a challenge and keeping it the right way takes continual tweaking as straps will loosen. Straps- I counted 18 straps on the backpack, there may be more. My goal is to evenly distribute the weight right, left, up and down, back and waist. For the first 2 weeks the adjusting wasn’t too bad. I really screwed it up today. The waist was too tight causing my hips muscles and tendons to tighten up. Ouch. The pack itself shifted too much to the left and it was too high on my back creating back pain and back cramps for the first time. The optimal synchronization of all 18 straps requires an engineering degree which I do not have. I will continue to fine tune “strap land” as best I can while Tylenol eases my back. Tomorrow is a shorter day with not much climbing. The day after, well, it’s the longest day yet.

I’m in a nice hotel in the town of Caseres which was built in the first century by the Romans. The Moors and the Visigoths had their time controlling this city as well. Ancient parts of the town still exist and I spent the afternoon walking its streets. I visited the Cathedral of Santa Maria built in the 16th century. See the pictures below. There is another old church, Iglesia de Santiago which has a Mass tonight at 7:30. I plan on attending.