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Social Studies teacher Eric Stanek got into backpacking through a wilderness program when he was a student at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio. He has done hikes through Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Monongahela National Park, Allegheny National Forest and some sections of the Appalachian Trail, including a 60-mile section. His biggest hike, however, was inspired by a movie, The Way, in which the main character hikes the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile hike from St. Jean Pied de Port in France across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The hike is a religious pilgrimage to the resting place of St. James.
“Four years after I watched The Way, I got one thing for my birthday from my wife: a Camino guidebook,” he said. “She gave it to me and she said, ‘You’re doing it.’”
He spent a few months getting gear together and then flew to Bordeaux and jumped on a bus to St. Jean Pied de Port.
“I started it like I start all things which is poorly planned and full of energy,” he said. “The bus I took to St. Jean left Bordeaux at 3 a.m.”
Once he arrived in St. Jean he was ready to get on the trail.
"I checked in with the pilgrim office and decided to go to the second stop. The dude who spoke English was looking at me like, are you sure you want to start hiking now, at 9:30 am? Apparently, most people don’t start after 7 a.m.” Mr. Stanek said. “I’m confident about what I’m capable of accomplishing so I say yes. He convinces me to stop at the halfway point of the first stage, but they’ll only hold the reservation until noon. It’s really hard, there aren’t a lot of stops and the overnight stop is basically at the top of the mountain. But I thought, 12 kilometers? I can do 12 kilometers by noon! Also, I hadn’t eaten since 6 p.m. the day before and so I have no snacks with me. I head off and I’m trucking along and passing everyone else and as soon as I hit the incline I’m getting passed. I barely got there before noon."
The rest of the trip involved numerous adventures including using every last euro before arriving at the next ATM machine, being served pasta cooked by an older Italian couple who didn’t speak a word of English, and being saved by a newfound hiking buddy when the trail caved in under him.
“What I loved about the Camino was that it was all of these little experiences that alone weren’t significant but together create the entire experience,” he said. “I reconnected with faith as a result. I was at church more in that month and a half than like the six years prior.”
One thing to know about Eric Stanek is that, no matter what the topic of conversation is, he’ll most likely surprise you with his sense of humor. For more on that, check out his answers to our teacher spotlight questions on Instagram.
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