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Apr 16, 2024 : John Rutkowski III The Trek

2024-04-16 Day 3 Vigo to Pontevedra

Escape From Vigo

The Vigo escape was hard on the feet, the prior days beating was alivied by a taxi ride to Redondela – Rotonda Farola. This was a booked escape made by Follow The Camino, the industrial area of Vigo goes on and on with trucks, forklifts and the smell of bunker fuel.

The 4 Penguinos noted that the existing cab ride was 20 EU, while Redondela is a pretty old town, the climb out of that valley was all highway walking, so we decided to send another 5 EU each to get us closer to a rural trail head. Money well spent and our feet like it it.

And we had a real trail again! Along a nice, very clear stream. The peregrinos herd was getting thicker with a poliglot of trail talk.

The clear streams in Spain are unlike anything I’ve seen in the US, even in the backcountry. The Spanish streams have a sparkling transparency, not issue seeing 4-6’ deep, seeing the fish.

The trail ended with the entrance to the city train station of Pontevedra. Back alley walking, but very clean. The Spanish organize the trash, recycle and composting on a per block basis. Again unlike each US business which has it’s own dumpster. (And no composting). So alley walking is nice to get away from walking alongside the diesels.

I was maybe 200’ from the hotel, it was in the old city. The Google Map showed three intersections to the plaza, but I could see only two. We ended walking around the block, found the hotel, that 3rd street was about 8’ wide and sun umbrellas on the plaza hid the “street”.

Shower, nap, 8:00 dinner, and it was well past hiker midnight. Kudos for the other bloggers than can get a post out on a daily basis! 

 

Nations today:

German

UK

South Africa

Spain

 

Stats:

16 Km

 

Photos:

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John Rutkowski III
Apr 16th : John Rutkowski III
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John Rutkowski III's Bio

AKA Tercius. I started camping at age 6 doing a coast to coast camping trip. This was BEFORE Interstates and seatbelts. My AT Section and Horsehoe Trail hiking started when I was 14. And AT section hike from NJ to Leigh river to celebrate graduating from high school. College job was at Blue Ridge Mountain Sports and UVaOC sent me on many adventures and introduced me to lifelong outdoor friends. And introduced me to the Whites in winter and the AMC. I was a guide after college, Holubar Kit Specialist (the first male to hold that role), then store Manager. Fast forward to the creation of Mountain Mend which cleaned, repaired and made custom outdoor gear. Which led me to The Wilderness Group in Ventura as a Production Manager (The first days of the Ultralight trend). LOTS of 100+ road bike rides. An ex-Holubar manager offered me a job in Minden Nevada, a startup making orthopedic knee braces. It was a bike trip to Yosemite where I was filling in as Sag Wagon driver, where I met Karen, I was awestruck by her scent. She asked me to warm her feet at the bluegrass concert that night, I proposed in six weeks. Then life happened, started an IT company, BOLDER Designs selling AutoCAD. Eight years later we had a son, who was introduced to the outdoors with many car camping and he did the Whites Presidential Traverse to celebrate graduating from 1st grade. More life, at 63 started a series of cancer surgeries and treatments. Getting back on the trail was my method of recovery. I'd be sweating bullets just walk the gentle valley loop in the White Clay Creek park behind my house. In 2019 I recover to be able to walk Hadrian's Wall from the Irish Sea to the North Sea. With my son, climbing buddy from Utah days, and a college outdoor buddy that I had not seen since 1975, and the father of my son's friend who did the Presidential Traverse 3 times. I sold my business in 2022 and retiring on 2024-04-01. Now at age 70 we are off to Spain (4 of us) to Walk the Camino Portugues, and if we are feeling good, on to Fisterra. Nothing like a good walk with friends.

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