Almost thirty years ago, Suzanne Roberts, author of Animal Bodies and Bad Tourist, embarked on a twenty-eight-day hike on California’s John Muir Trail that changed her life. Her story of a month in the backcountry Almost Somewhere was first published in 2012. The new edition, forthcoming from Bison Books in October, includes an afterword from the author looking back on the ways she and the trail have changed over the past thirty years. In this blog series, Suzanne Roberts shares postcards from her time on the trail, both then and now.

Last summer, my husband and I hiked California’s John Muir Trail, a trip I first took in 1993. Back then, I was 22-years old and inexperienced: my stiff leather boots were uncomfortable and my too-heavy backpack resulted in a knee injury. I cried at the top of every pass, scared to hike down the snow-bound north faces (we were heading NOBO), knowing my knee would be even more painful on the way down. This past summer, nearly 30 years from that first summer in the Sierra, I cried at the top of every pass for very different reasons. The most difficult passes, like the long approach to Mather Pass, did not feel like torture, but the most joyful parts of the trip. I shed tears of gratitude for the body that could still get me over mountain passes and into one of the most rugged and sublime landscapes in the world. I’m not physically stronger or more fit than I was at 22, but in the past three decades, I’ve done hard things: I’ve buried both my parents, lost dear friends, married and divorced and married again. I’ve learned I can do much harder and scarier things than backpacking a couple hundred miles, so now hiking the mountain passes is the highlight of the trail.

Almost Somewhere is available for preorder now. Visit Suzanne’s website for more.