“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees.”

Have you ever had an interaction with another human and felt as though it was divine intervention, maybe you joked that they were an angel? 

Now, have you ever had countless interactions like this in a matter of weeks? 

In a matter of the three and half weeks we were out on the trail…we had five or six moments like this…where you walk away and you can’t believe something just happened, or you walk away with restored faith in humanity, or you are just in complete disbelief. Where we literally said out loud what we needed and less than an hour later someone appeared to solve the exact problem we had…the timing was uncanny. 

Let’s start in Independence. We had just climbed Kearsarge pass as you read in the last emails. Kearsarge pass is actually not officially a part of the JMT but many people take it because it out to Independence to resupply food as mentioned. When we arrived in town, soaking from the storm, we wandered the one street and ended up at a random motel chosen solely on proximity to where we got dropped off. We walked in to see if there were any vacant rooms. We hadn’t planned on staying but by this point the storm stretched across the mountains all the way into town and the clouds were only getting darker. After she assured us that there was a room, we mentioned going to the post office to get our packages and she graciously offered to drive us down the one little street but also informed us that the post office is only open 9-11AM on Saturdays and that it does not re-open until Monday at 9:30AM. It was 1PM. 

When we drove up to the clearly closed post office, my stomach sank. We were already going to take an unintended zero in town due the storm, we didn’t want to wait a whole day longer. We also only had 24 hours worth of food left. Seeing the disappointment in our faces Lynn mentioned that she has a friend who knows the guy that works the post office on Saturdays. She mentioned that she would call him and see if he could ask the man to come back in to deliver our packages. 

Not 20 minutes later, the man from the post office calls back and was just finishing up lunch across the street. Another 15 minutes and the packages were in our hands.  

Fast forward a few days later, we are struggling by a stream. My water filter bag had sprung leaks days before and now Haley’s was doing the same. PSA: Sawyer water filters are great but their bags are not. So now, were sitting there trying to filter water and its shooting out the holes and barely getting any into our bottles. After a 13 mile day, this is the last thing you want to happen. We still had 5+ days to our next resupply and we weren’t sure they would even have water bladders. Finally, we see a lone man approaching on the other side of the stream and Haley excitedly and slightly aggressively yells “HEY!” and waves her hands. He was slightly startled and told us to hold on until he crossed the stream. While drastically overwhelming the fairly reserved person in front of us, we told him our debacle. He raised his hand signaling us to give him a moment and he started opening his pack. He then presents us with two un-used completely new water filters, not to just use but to have. He just gave them to us. We thanked him profusely and continuously talked about the situation the rest of the evening in complete disbelief of what had just happened. 

As you know, we had to stop at a few different spots to resupply food. Being the inexperienced backpackers we are, we had sent 10 days worth of food to our second pick. Upon arrival, we priority shipped 5 days of food to the next pick up spot, assured that this is done all the time and that it will be there. When we arrived, it was in fact not there. The best part being that when we tracked the package, the website said it was labeled but not sent. So even if we did find a 40 minute ride into the town of mammoth, there was no possibility of it being there. There were only 5 days left in our hike so there was no option in our minds to stop. How fun. As we continuously asked the women in the store if they could check again for our packages knowing deep down that they were not there, the campsite host walked in. She heard our pleas and mentioned that she had some donation buckets from people who hadn’t finished the trail and pulls out 3, 5 lb buckets for us to search through, providing us with an abundance of food to get us through our last 5 days of hiking for nothing. We got to spend the rest of the day enjoying a cheeseburger and milkshake as well as going in the hot spring there and relaxing. The next morning, we headed out at our intended time, not a care in the world. 

We ended up reaching Tuolumne Meadows, our originally scheduled ending point, with still a few days scheduled for hiking. Since we had started 20 miles south of the official trail, we had planned to stop 20 miles short of the official end. Caught up in the trail, we had decided that it might be nice to finish the entirety AND we both were not ready to be done. As we looked at our food and considered our insatiable hunger the last few days, we questioned whether we had enough to finish. We decided to eat our dinner and then look at our food rations and make the final call afterwards. Just as we sat down, a couple walked up to us asking about where we were camping. After a few minutes, we told them that we were low on food and super hungry. They immediately dropped their packs and started handing us extra bars, bread, an apple, even some chocolate that they had left from their shorter trip. On top of the food donations, they insisted on taking all of our trash because they were heading out that night. Right as we had discussed needing a bit more food to really finish, they had emerged out of the bushes and given us just exactly the amount of food we needed. 

Each and every one of these moments, we were shocked at the generosity, at the flawless timing, truly in disbelief. Maybe, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Maybe it is the belief that what you are striving for is coming, maybe it is not striving at all. Maybe it is learning to be present and engaged, maybe it is accepting the journey, knowing that their may be hiccups but also knowing that you are supported, watched over. It’s hard not to feel this way after this experience.