Gear
I Walked the Camino with the Wrong Gear — Here's What Happened
Cotton t-shirts, old running shoes, a 65L pack stuffed with books. The mistakes I made on my first Camino, and what they cost me.
October 25, 2025 · 8 min read
My first Camino, I packed like I was going camping for a long weekend. 65L pack. Two pairs of jeans. Three cotton t-shirts. A hardback novel. A laptop 'in case I needed to work'. Hiking boots I'd worn twice.
Day three, my boots gave me blisters the size of grapes. By day five I'd mailed the laptop, the books, one pair of jeans, and a fleece home from a post office in Logroño.
By day eight I'd bought trail runners in Burgos and given the boots to a Brazilian pilgrim who said they fit perfectly. (They didn't. He mailed them home from León.)
By day twelve I was down to one t-shirt, one walking shirt, two pairs of socks, one pair of underwear (the others were stolen from a clothesline), and a pair of Crocs.
Lighter pack, no blisters. The last three weeks were the best of my life.
What I learned: you cannot pack for the Camino at home. You can only pack for what you imagine the Camino will be. The trail itself will edit your bag in the first week, whether you cooperate or not.
The cheapest, lightest gear, properly chosen, beats expensive gear chosen wrong. Every time.
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