Backpacking for 21 days

LANESBORO, Minn. — When Tom Holst retired and sold his 190 dairy cows in the spring of 2023, he knew it was time to fulfill a lifelong dream that started in high school: hiking the John Muir Trail.

The John Muir Trail in California spans 211 miles with 10 mountain passes through the Sierra Nevada mountain range, as well as multiple river crossings. The trail is remote, requiring hikers to carry everything. For Holst, this meant food, a sleeping bag, a ground pad, a tent and a camp stove.

The altitude varies from 4,051 feet in the Yosemite Valley, where Holst started, to 14,550 feet at Mt. Whitney near where Holst completed the trail.

“The beauty was just beyond your wildest imagination,” Holst said. “I had no idea how beautiful it would be, absolutely spectacular.”

Holst hiked the first 16 days solo and the final five days he hiked with his son, Mike.

Conditions are primitive. The trail has no designated camping spots, showers or warming houses. Because of space constrictions, Holst had no changes of clothing.

Holst also had no fire to warm up with. The Pacific Crest Trail Association recommends hikers consider not using a fire because it is prohibited in some areas of the trail and the firewood supply is depleted because of the volume of hikers.

“I don’t think a day went by when I didn’t think to myself that, ‘This is awful, why did I ever want to do this?’” Holst said. “I (also) don’t think a day went by when I wasn’t absolutely overwhelmed by the beauty that surrounded me, and I would think to myself, ‘I am so grateful that I’ve got this opportunity.’”

Holst had done physically challenging adventures before. He has gone to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness every year save one since 1986 and has completed four marathons. To help prepare for the trip, he hiked the rolling hills of rural Lanesboro, where his farm is located, carrying a 40-pound pack on his back.

During the hike, there was little cell phone reception. Holst called his wife, Sue, twice during the trip and was also able to send a few text messages.

“You are absolutely disconnected,” Holst said. “For 21 days, the outside world basically ceases to exist.”

Holst said disconnection was a powerful part of the experience.

“Your mind is just free to roam far and wide,” Holst said. “That’s something I don’t think we do enough of. … We’re so busy meeting our deadlines and doing our job and worrying about this, that and everything else.”

The alone time was also challenging.

“This was like the world’s cheapest therapist,” Holst said. “You were forced to take a reckoning with your life. … You can’t run from yourself when you’re out on the trail. … It provided me an opportunity to maybe deal with some things in my past that I had been running from for years. … You don’t go there with the intention of digging up all that stuff, it just happens.”

During the trek, Holst said he met 5-10 other hikers each day. They always stopped to talk. Afterwards, he ruminated on the conversations for several hours.

“Everybody was going through the same thing,” Holst said. “We all had that same set of interests, and we were all craving some outside company.”

Holst was significantly older than the average hiker at 59. He said most hikers he met were in their 20s.

The cold was a challenge Holst faced. Getting a permit to hike the trail is on a lottery system. Holst entered the trail Sept. 12, 2023. He estimates daytime highs ranged from the mid-30s to mid-60s. At night, temperatures dropped below freezing.

“I was cold a lot,” Holst said.

One night, it was so cold his water bottles froze, and he could not use them the next day.

Partway through the hike, an impending snowstorm forced Holst off the trail and several miles away to a town. After the storm passed, hiking in 8 inches of snow had Holst’s feet cold and soaked. After ringing out his socks and hanging them up to dry, he was forced to put his feet in frozen socks the next morning.

On his journey, Holst had two food restocks. The danger of bears on the trail requires hikers to carry their food in bear vaults. Holst’s vault could only hold about a week’s worth of food. Several restocking locations miles off the trail allow hikers to ship themselves packages of food beforehand to pick up.

Holst only heated water to make food. His menu was two packages of instant oatmeal and a hot cocoa packet for breakfast. For lunch, he ate granola bars and trail mix. For supper, he heated water and poured it into a Ziplock bag filled with a freeze-dried backpack meal. These meals included cheesy chicken and broccoli, chicken alfredo and beef stroganoff.

“That makes it sound much more highbrow and gourmet than it really is,” Holst said. “The reality is, it’s mush in the bottom of the bag. … The food is calories to keep you going.”

He also brought peanut butter.

Holst said he had mixed emotions about the hike. He spent the next year unpacking the experience mentally.

“When I got off the trail, I was happy to get off the trail,” Holst said. “I’d been gone for a long time, and I was tired of being cold and hungry. … (However) life is a lot simpler on the trail too, and you get out and you long for that.”

This fall, Holst, at 61, will again be hiking the John Muir Trail, this time with Mike hiking the entire trip with him. Holst plans to bring warmer clothes, an extra pair of socks, different footwear because the hiking boots he used last time put large blisters on his feet, and a better way to keep his dinner warm as it rehydrates.

“Doing it with (Mike) will be a really cool experience,” Holst said. “Who gets the opportunity to do a grand adventure with their son like that?”