James Brown embarks into wilderness

Wilderness is filled with adventure, fear, breathtaking beauty, and allows you to take a step back from daily life to be able to spend time with God or to just admire nature. There are hundreds of different trails throughout California, all with varying difficulty levels. Popular trails include Muir woods in Mill Valley, Arroyo Seco in Pasadena and The Pacific Crest Trail in Tuolumne Meadows are walked by hundreds of hikers everyday.

James Brown, an alumni of FC was led to walk The Pacific Crest Trail, which starts on the Canadian border and leads to the southern terminus at the Mexican border southbound. The trail is a long distance hiking and equestrian trail that is 2,669 miles long. While walking the Pacific Crest Trail it leads you through 26 National Forests, 7 National Parks, 5 State Parks and 4 National Monuments.

Brown talks about how it was a perfect time to go on a walk and how he felt that God was calling him into the wilderness.

“The whole story for me is that I have to give all the glory of God and He was pulling me into the wilderness,” Brown said. “I was living up in Chico and I started following the Lord and He started drawing me away from Chico. I left my old life there and I moved to Oregon and God was calling me into nature. That’s when I got the idea to walk the Pacific Crest trail, so I just left everything and started walking on July 12.

Brown has countless memorable moments on the trail but shares this one in particular moment where he encountered two newly hatched warblers

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While on the trail Brown had and saw many beautiful encounters, thrilling encounters, and frightening encounters. He recalls one moment when he found himself in a face off with a mountain lion.

Brown explains how there were many positive things on the trail especially when God promised him a new life, and how this journey marked his first footsteps with God in his new life.

“I had a couple of mantras while on the trail,” Brown said. “Thank you God for my health, thank you God for my safety, and thank you God for the weather. That was my main mantra that I kept telling myself and I had another one that was, no one said it was going to be cheap, no one said it was going to be easy. Trail magic was really cool too. Trail magic is where people would leave magic for you on the trail such as hotdogs, hamburgers, sodas, and they would do this out of their own good will if they saw someone hiking through the town.”

Brown explained how he kept himself preoccupied during his journey, creating his own games on the trail.

“I invented a game and the goal was to stab a pinecone with your trekking pole and throw it in front of you and if you get it three times then you win,” Brown said. “I feel like through the whole time God had angels guiding me because there would be so many moments where it was obvious that he did like when I needed rides people would show up and ask me if I needed one, people sang to me while on the trail and I would never have to worry about running out of food or money.”

Throughout the trip, Brown’s mindset evolved. He reports feeling support during his journey, which changed his perspective.

“The first half of the walk I wasn’t really in touch with anyone about it, then later I started breaking out of my shell, so to say, and about half way through my hike I just felt this wave of support. I ran out of money on my trail and needed help from somewhere and that’s when my family got behind me.”

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Click here for more information regarding the Pacific Crest Trail.

You can reach this writer via twitter: nate10messi1 and via email: Nathan Mount