The Decided-Upon Trail

Our Camino de Santiago (route: The Way of St. James) guidebook arrived in the mail today. I've been reading Wild some as well (a fantastic book). For weeks I've basically been in a reverie regarding the trail. But not a stupid innocent "this is going to be tremendous fun," reverie.

   I was standing in the kitchen looking down at my feet and realising that they should be larger or sturdier or something. I thought, 'these are the feet that are going to carry me nearly 500 miles,' and then I thought, 'I need Hobbit feet.' I mean, I've walked trails before, carrying awkward maintenance tools and small backpacks, and I've hiked up and down hills in 80 degree-weather, but this is going to be so much different. I don't really know what it'll be like. Any opinions or pre-conceptions I have right now probably will be thrown to the wind once we actually start hiking. I'm trying to decide whether or not to bring a camera. I really want to, but will it be distracting? I think everyone will be so exhausted most of the time we won't have energy to pull out cameras, set them up, and take the picture. The guidebook says to just immortalise the views, etc., in your memory, but then there's family to consider, and won't they like to see photos? I don't know. My head is swimming with what to pack.