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. Roberts’ previous postcards can be found under the heading “Postcards from the John Muir Trail”.

Muir Pass, with its beehive-shaped stone shelter, is my favorite mountain pass on the John Muir Trail. The first time I hiked this pass in 1993, it was snow-bound on both sides, so it was a slow-going slog, and my two girlfriends and I were told by other hikers that they didn’t think we would make it, so when we reached the top, I felt an immense sense of accomplishment. Although that original trip had been full of strife up until that point—we had been dealing with lightning storms, injuries, and food shortages—when I reached Muir Pass, I finally understood why I was out there. I realized the going and getting there were never the point—when we are always almost somewhere, we can’t be happy where we are. I looked out over the snowscape, the vast range of light, glowing pink and yellow in the late afternoon sun, and I felt a strong connection to the Sierra Nevada, which would ultimately chart my life’s course. In the coming years, I would make my home in the mountains I had come to love.

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