Going Through European Long Distance Paths, Virtually
Once, while walking not far from my home, I noticed a label on a tree and took a photo.
Later, I googled the term “E1” and discovered a huge topic that I had never heard of before — European long distance paths.
As someone who enjoys hiking; having read about the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail; having watched movies about them and “Camino de Santiago” I was very surprised that I had not heard of E1, E2, E3, and other European long distance paths.
The next surprise: both, E1, which is the longest, and E3, which includes the “Camino de Santiago”, pass very close to places I often walk. In fact, I had already walked several segments of them, which made me realize what a shame it was that I had not known about them earlier.
Further research revealed that walking the entire length of either path would require several months of walking, and even doing it piece by piece is far from easy. Both E1 and E3 are much longer than the PCT and AT.
However, now I have a good unit of measurement for my yearly steps.
- The E1 is 7000 km long
- The E3 is 6950 km long.
In 2022, I walked 2609 km, which is one-third of either E1 or E3, or mostly the complete E10 (2880 km).
Since 2019 — time when I start using Samsung watches and Samsung health — I walked around 11700km — more that E1, but still less than E1+E3. This is way more interesting that “Berlin to Tokyo” I used before (“How many times I walked though the Europe with my Samsung Watches?”)
Another takeaway for me from this story: pay attention to unknown labels, even small ones 🙂
