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The Camino for the Rest of Us: A Comprehensive Guide to a Life-Changing Journey on the World's Most Approachable Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage is an age-old custom and a vital aspect of life in virtually every modern culture. It is also a lost art in the English-speaking world. What are we missing?
In this first-of-its-kind guidebook, The Camino for the Rest of Us reintroduces this core human experience by way of the Camino Francés – the most traditional pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. With a conversational style and offbeat humor, Tim Mathis demystifies pilgrimage for the modern traveler and illuminates the unique characteristics that make the Camino de Santiago the ideal place to rediscover the transformative power of a very long walk.
Inside you’ll
Levelheaded guidance about how 21st-century people can experience truth, beauty, and transcendence on a 1200-year-old pilgrimage (without suspending disbelief).A curated stage guide with the daily experiences that make this 500-mile walk across northern Spain magic, from the Pyrenees to Santiago.A structured training plan to help new pilgrims fall in love with hiking and minimize the chances that injuries will derail your trip.Answers to questions like “Which apps should I download to avoid getting lost in Burgos?” and “Which items will I regret packing by my second day on trail?”A journey through the myths, legends, and history that have drawn people to Santiago for centuries and continue to make the Camino the most popular long trail in the world. A bonus guide to the Camino Finisterre, suggestions for further reading, and more.
The Camino for the Rest of Us is your comprehensive guide to a life-changing journey on the world’s most approachable pilgrimage.
About the Author
Tim Mathis has hiked thousands of miles on trails around the world, but the Camino de Santiago is his favorite. He is a psychiatric nurse, a former Camino-skeptic, and the author of two other The Dirtbag’s Guide to Eternal Truth for Hiker Trash, Ski Bums, and Vagabonds, and I Hope I Was Wrong About Eternal An Absolutely True Memoir.
In this first-of-its-kind guidebook, The Camino for the Rest of Us reintroduces this core human experience by way of the Camino Francés – the most traditional pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. With a conversational style and offbeat humor, Tim Mathis demystifies pilgrimage for the modern traveler and illuminates the unique characteristics that make the Camino de Santiago the ideal place to rediscover the transformative power of a very long walk.
Inside you’ll
Levelheaded guidance about how 21st-century people can experience truth, beauty, and transcendence on a 1200-year-old pilgrimage (without suspending disbelief).A curated stage guide with the daily experiences that make this 500-mile walk across northern Spain magic, from the Pyrenees to Santiago.A structured training plan to help new pilgrims fall in love with hiking and minimize the chances that injuries will derail your trip.Answers to questions like “Which apps should I download to avoid getting lost in Burgos?” and “Which items will I regret packing by my second day on trail?”A journey through the myths, legends, and history that have drawn people to Santiago for centuries and continue to make the Camino the most popular long trail in the world. A bonus guide to the Camino Finisterre, suggestions for further reading, and more.
The Camino for the Rest of Us is your comprehensive guide to a life-changing journey on the world’s most approachable pilgrimage.
About the Author
Tim Mathis has hiked thousands of miles on trails around the world, but the Camino de Santiago is his favorite. He is a psychiatric nurse, a former Camino-skeptic, and the author of two other The Dirtbag’s Guide to Eternal Truth for Hiker Trash, Ski Bums, and Vagabonds, and I Hope I Was Wrong About Eternal An Absolutely True Memoir.
261 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 5, 2024
40 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Tim Mathis
5 books13 followersJoin the mailing list at TimMathisWrites.com for ongoing projects.
Or follow on Instagram @dirtbagguide
I was born country, and raised near Middletown, Ohio - the town that was the subject of J.D. Vance's memoir of poverty and suffering, "Hillbilly Elegy." I didn't think it was as bad as he made it out to be, and I spent my childhood building forts in hay bales, behaving irresponsibly, and filling Quaker Oats containers with snakes that my friends and I caught in the creek.
I've traveled a lot since then. On my first trip overseas when I was a teenager, I went to Peru on an Evangelical mission trip with my youth group, and tried to share the Gospel by dressing up like a clown and performing for street children.
In my 20's I married my high school sweetheart, Angel, and we moved to New Zealand for two years, where I earned a Masters Degree by writing a thesis about various ways that people try to find sense, beauty and meaning in the messy evolutionary history of the universe. The scenery there made it feel like the right thing to do at the time.
After that we moved to the lovely, mossy Pacific Northwest, and it's been our base ever since - first in Seattle, and now in Tacoma (which is a way cheaper place for a dirtbag these days). Along the way I ended up as a psychiatric nurse, so now I do that in exchange for money.
Otherwise, Angel and I try to make the most of our lives by traveling and playing outside. We've run El Camino de Santiago in Spain and finished a bunch of trail ultras in the Pacific Northwest. We've hiked the Pacific Crest and Tahoe Rim Trails, along with part of Te Araroa and a bunch of the "Great Walk" system in New Zealand. We've spent about six months drifting around Latin America in buses, and have picked up a bit of Spanish, which helps.
Along the way I've done a fair bit of writing. I've written for Trail Runner Magazine, Grit City Magazine, Oru Kayak's blog, Ultrapedestrian.com, and I've been interviewed on The Art of Manliness Podcast.
Or follow on Instagram @dirtbagguide
I was born country, and raised near Middletown, Ohio - the town that was the subject of J.D. Vance's memoir of poverty and suffering, "Hillbilly Elegy." I didn't think it was as bad as he made it out to be, and I spent my childhood building forts in hay bales, behaving irresponsibly, and filling Quaker Oats containers with snakes that my friends and I caught in the creek.
I've traveled a lot since then. On my first trip overseas when I was a teenager, I went to Peru on an Evangelical mission trip with my youth group, and tried to share the Gospel by dressing up like a clown and performing for street children.
In my 20's I married my high school sweetheart, Angel, and we moved to New Zealand for two years, where I earned a Masters Degree by writing a thesis about various ways that people try to find sense, beauty and meaning in the messy evolutionary history of the universe. The scenery there made it feel like the right thing to do at the time.
After that we moved to the lovely, mossy Pacific Northwest, and it's been our base ever since - first in Seattle, and now in Tacoma (which is a way cheaper place for a dirtbag these days). Along the way I ended up as a psychiatric nurse, so now I do that in exchange for money.
Otherwise, Angel and I try to make the most of our lives by traveling and playing outside. We've run El Camino de Santiago in Spain and finished a bunch of trail ultras in the Pacific Northwest. We've hiked the Pacific Crest and Tahoe Rim Trails, along with part of Te Araroa and a bunch of the "Great Walk" system in New Zealand. We've spent about six months drifting around Latin America in buses, and have picked up a bit of Spanish, which helps.
Along the way I've done a fair bit of writing. I've written for Trail Runner Magazine, Grit City Magazine, Oru Kayak's blog, Ultrapedestrian.com, and I've been interviewed on The Art of Manliness Podcast.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 12, 2024
When a true storyteller meets the desire to create a guidebook, the result is absolutely stunning! THE CAMINO FOR THE REST OF US by Tim Mathis has found a place at the top of my list of favourite Camino de Santiago books. Written as a guidebook, one can't help but notice it reads like a wonderful collection of stories interwoven with everything you need to know about following your own Camino pilgrimage. This book is written by a storyteller who did a seemingly endless amount of research, as well as trekked a few Caminos of his own. Mathis knows what he's talking about with this guidebook...the fact that he also made it endlessly entertaining is an almost insurmountable feat. And yet he did it. I found myself slowing down to savor it more...racing to the end and then stalling that race to enjoy the moment. Having read so many Camino books, I went into this one thinking I wouldn't necessarily learn anything new about the Camino stories and legends floating around out there. But I did! Mathis uncovered some great legends I had somehow not yet discovered. And the format of the actual Camino path, and the way he breaks it down with amenities and services pointed out in every town along the way, is just brilliant. If I take one guidebook with me in 2025 when I return to the Camino de Santiago, it will be this one! I know John Brierley's Camino guidebooks have become the 'Camino Bibles', and even more so with his recent passing, but I assure you this book, THE CAMINO FOR THE REST OF US, is as awe-inspiring. If anything, it would make the perfect companion piece to Brierley's Camino Frances guidebook. Or, to be honest, a replacement. If you're one of those people who love to be fed information with a side of storytelling with a wonderful sense of humour, this is the guidebook for you. Read it BEFORE you head out on your adventure. And take it with you to reference while you're there. It's available in ebook format and I fully intend to reference the stage breakdown section next year while I walk. It's the perfect layout that I wish I had access to during my previous Caminos. Well done, Tim Mathis! This is such a fantastically entertaining guidebook. I only wish all guidebooks could be this entertaining. I highly recommend this one!
December 28, 2024
Informative and entertaining - would love to do this walk
January 28, 2025
The most practical and concise guide to the Camino I have encountered.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews