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Dan Forget took hundreds of family, friends, co-workers and fellow parishioners of Sacred Heart parish in Castleton with him on his recent 500-mile pilgrimage on Spain's El Camino de Santiago.

They came in spirit through a list of more than 500 names he kept in a water-tight envelope in his backpack.

"So many had said they would pray for me," said Mr. Forget, the parish nurse at Sacred Heart.

He read the names often, prayed for them and left a stone in their honor at the Cruz de Ferro, the iron cross on top of a mountain at the highest point of his journey on the Camino. Other stones he left were for prayer intentions and to show his gratitude for his family, job and ability to make the walk.

The 66-year-old retired from three decades as a program manager at New York State's Office of Alchohol and Substance Abuse Services in 2002 and switched careers to become a nurse by 2004. He's been serving as a parish nurse for four years.

The beginning
Mr. Forget first read about the Camino when the Times Union profiled a local pilgrim about 10 years ago.

"It was one of those [moments] where you say, 'Someday, I want to do that,'" said Mr. Forget, who has hiked in the Berkshires, Catskills and Adirondacks for two decades.

When he saw "The Way," Emilio Estevez's 2010 film chronicling the Spanish pilgrimage, his interest grew. Rev. Thomas Krupa, Sacred Heart's pastor, gave Mr. Forget permission to take almost two months off - six weeks for the journey and some time to take an anniversary cruise in Bermuda with his wife upon his return.

"This would never have happened if it wasn't for my wife," Mr. Forget noted. "She encouraged me to go. She was totally behind it."

In fact, he felt she was actually there with him: They ran up a $500 phone bill with nightly chats; he wrote letters to her instead of keeping a journal; and they prayed with each other's rosaries daily.

"It wound up being a really nice bonding thing," Mr. Forget said. "[I was] plucked from my regular life except for my connection with [her]."

Setting out
His trip started with a flight to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France the end of May. The first day of the pilgrimage involved a 14-mile, eight-hour trek over the Pyrenees into Spain with a more than 4,000-foot elevation change.

"The weather could not have been worse," he said. "It was an absolute downpour with very high winds, cold and mud."

Other days, it was about 80 degrees with no shade. The hardest stretch lasted several days through elevated plains in 99-degree heat. One day, when Mr. Forget settled into an albergue, or pilgrim hostel, he witnessed a Canadian man die.

It gave the American pilgrim a reality check about his own heart condition.

"That really was a shocker and stayed with me," Mr. Forget said. He slowed his pace after that incident. "It's a challenge for everybody, even if you're in good shape."

Step by step
On a typical day, Mr. Forget awoke between 5:30 and 6:45 a.m. to the sounds of other pilgrims packing bags in shared sleeping spaces. Breakfast was café con leche, tostada or sweet bread and fruit. As he walked, he took breaks to refill his water bottle at public fountains or in albergues and had lunch in villages. He stopped for the day between 2 and 4 p.m.

Albergues provided paper sheets and pillowcases; Mr. Forget eventually shipped his sleeping bag back home to lighten his load and bought a single sheet for hostel beds. He showered and washed his modest supply of clothes at the facilities, took afternoon naps, dined alone and in groups and often played guitar for friends he met along the way.

One time, he led a sing-along of "I've Got a River" in several different languages.

Other pilgrims proved to be a highlight of the experience for Mr. Forget. "We're enclosed into this unreal, temporary existence," he said. "It's like a different dimension. You are forced to focus on just now. The Camino is spoken of by pilgrims almost as if it has intelligence, [like] it's a living thing. You begin to feel that. Stuff will happen, and the Camino will take care of you."

Mr. Forget didn't plan his breaks to align with Sunday Masses, but he always made it to one, even when the ancient churches he passed were boarded up.

El fin del Camino
At the end of the pilgrimage, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, which holds the shrine of the Apostle St. James, was "far beyond what I was expecting it to be.

"It's a little bit like Mardi Gras," he said. "People were celebrating."

He attended two Masses there - one in Spanish and one in Polish.

One of Mr. Forget's spiritual goals on the trip was to see the world through God's eyes and "accept the divine within me." So whenever he found himself resenting other people - like the athletic man who boasted of his abilities or the teenager who only hiked the last 100 kilometers - he prayed about it and gave the people another chance. They turned into friends.

"There's such an incredible acceptance of each other and openness to each other" on the pilgrimage, Mr. Forget said. Pilgrims often bid one another farewell with, "The Camino is still with you and it will give you what you need when you're back home."

"I believe it's the Holy Spirit," Mr. Forget opined. "It doesn't end when you get that little certificate," signifying completion of the pilgrimage. "It's hard to describe how incredibly rich it was. Everything I say just scratches the surface."[[In-content Ad]]

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