The Journey to the John Muir Trail

I haven’t written about this upcoming adventure much at all. Partly because I wasn’t sure it was going to be a reality, partly because it is overwhelming and partly because it meant sitting down and organizing my thoughts.

Well, it’s happening, I’m past being overwhelmed and I happen to be sitting down. I want to start at the beginning so that I can always remember why this adventure is happening in the first place.

Back in January of this year, my friend Elizabeth reluctantly told me of a conversation she had with God. The gest of it was that she was to tell me that I was going to witness/evangelize on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Now, she had good reason to hesitate in telling me this because we have had conversations in the past about how she wants to take time away and challenge herself to hike the PCT. I had made it clear that I didn’t want to spend the time or energy doing something like that.

I told her that I would humor us both and write it down in my journal so we would have something to look back on and chuckle if something ever came about. If you know me, you know that I can turn the page of my journal and never think about what I wrote again (thus the importance of me writing things down!). This incident was no different.

Fast forward to the middle of March. I was two weeks out of knee surgery (to clean up the meniscus on my right knee) and scrolling through FB, as we do, when a message comes in from Jessica. Now Jessica is someone that I have met two or three times in the past, but it had been a couple of years ago. To say this message was out of the blue is not an exaggeration.

In her message, she tells me that she saw on FB that I had knee surgery and hoped I was healing well. Then she dropped these words, “It may seem this proposition is coming out of left field, but after giving it some thought, I would really love to have you join us as our 3rd partner in the 210-mile, John Muir Trail hike in August.”

At first, my brain totally skipped the 210-mile part and all I recognized were the words Muir Trail. I thought she was talking about climbing up Mt Rainier to the Muir Camp – cool! That sounded like a great challenge! As I read it to Phil, he said I needed to look it up because it’s not what I think it is. Upon further review, he was indeed correct.

Let me pause for a moment and put in for the record that not only was my right knee healing from surgery, but I was also mentally preparing for a total knee replacement of my left knee in the Winter.

My reply back was that I was honored to be thought of and would like to meet up and hear more about it. We scheduled a meet up time and it gave me 5 days to do some research and come up with questions and concerns.

My biggest concerns were my knees. I mean I can push through day hikes and an overnighter, but what happens to my knees after 3 days, a week, 3 weeks??!!

As I was googling what the John Muir Trail was all about, I discovered that approximately 160 miles of the 210 mile hike converge with the Pacific Crest Trail…my jaw dropped and I instantly started crying. What the heck??!!

Through tears and a large lump in my throat, I told Phil about Elizabeth and I’s conversation back in January and showed him the journal entry. He said, evidently you are doing this!

It’s now the end of July and we leave in 3 days to head to California…

There is more to this story, but for now this will have to do.

<>< KC