On our first night in St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port I visited the pilgrims office since I left my credential in Olympia. Once there I’m informed that I must walk the side route along roads to get to Roncesvalles as opposed to the orange line going through the Pyrenees in the guide book I studied on the plane over. The lady at the desk who first told us we couldn’t go over the mountains noticed my sad expression and assured me I would be happy since it was snowing up there, but that didn’t make me happy. After many seminars on what the true pilgrim was I was convinced I wanted to follow the true Camino and the one along the roads seemed false.

Once we hit the part where the path over the mountains and through the valley split I was tempted to take the one that seemed to be the true Camino so I could appease my own hunger for a true pilgrims journey. I refrained from that urge knowing it would end in a nightmareish situation regarding the cold and a markless trail. We continued along the red path rather tHan the green as marked by small Camino plaques scattered 500 meters apart. The markings all screamed Camino, but I still questioned whether it truly was. I thought about whether I might re-do the Camino so I could walk over the Pyrenees or even if I took a short cut accidentally later on would I walk back so I could walk on the true path. All these thoughts came to mind until I thought of Jack Hitt’s book where he convinced a fellow pilgrim to walk along the highway instead of the marked trail because it was probably the true trail that the Romans used and has been moved when our society became modernized. I felt like that pilgrim who walked with Hitt only to leave him once they reconnected with the marked trail. Although the path we took was easier and most likely the original Camino that the Romans took, since the Camino was adapted from Roman trade routes, I still felt cheated and question whether I started in St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port or Roncesvalles.