The long haul to Leon

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Waking up at 06:00 in El Burgo Raneros, I got packed and got myself downstairs for breakfast. Thinking that I would be the only one there, I found the bar full of hunters who we’re going partridge hunting that morning. After a couple of much-needed espressos and one of the best tasting chocolate croissant’s i’ve had it in Spain, two other people who I walked with five days ago, also showed up at the bar.

Dean Workmen from Provo Utah and Amy Deibel from San Francisco stayed in the same town and we’re getting ready to leave at same time I was. It was nice to have company for that portion of the trip.

Everyone walks at a different pace, so we took a slow pace out of town for about 10 km. it was good for me because I knew that I would be having a long day trying to get to Leon on Saturday evening. A slower pace helped to cover the miles without taking too much energy.

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These interesting wine caves or bodegas are more common here in the central part of Spain. Because they do not have a lot of stone these bodegas are made from adobe.

About kilometer 20, Amy and Dean decided to stop at the next town. I headed downhill the road and quickly came upon a lady named Lee from Korea who are also making for Leon.

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The road was stretching on forever and the weather seemed to be turning to rain. As we had one last hill to climb before the out skirts of Leon,
the skies darkened and we stopped and covered our packs and put on rain gear.

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Fortunately, the rain never came down and we had a dry trip into town. But it was a long trip into town. Arriving at Leon we had another 8 km to walk to the center where the albergue is located. With incredibly sore feet, Lee took off her boots and walked the rest of the way in her flip-flops. It was one of the longest and hardest days of the trip. All in all I estimated it to be about 42 km

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I won’t go into details about the wisdom of pre-booking a hotel on one of the busiest Saturdays in Spain which is The Day of the Dead celebration or should I say the lack there of, but I eventually found a hotel and was able to go out and enjoy the fiesta.

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