A Force to Be Reckoned With

Joan Griffin was my 8th-grade English teacher and has had a great impact on my life in multiple ways. She inspired me throughout high school and college while I pursued a degree in English and a teaching credential. In 2004, our small town and school were devastated by the loss of another beloved teacher in a tragic car accident—she was Joan’s best friend and much of the inspiration for Joan’s story.

In July 2004, just after celebrating her fiftieth birthday, tragedy struck Joan Griffin’s life in a way she never expected. In the face of loss and heartbreak, she retreated to Yosemite National Park for a summer of solitude and peace to regain her spirit. She brought with her a box of books about nature and healing to try to do a “self-healing,” as she calls it, around the loss she experienced. During her time there, she discovered that spending time in nature is, in fact, therapeutic. Joan said in an interview, “If this healing is true in small doses just doing day hikes out of Tuolumne Meadows, imagine what a whole month could do for my mental health, my heart.”

It was that moment that sparked her dream of hiking the John Muir Trail.

Many hikers seek solitude on the trail for one reason or another: to find themselves, learn something, bring peace to their lives, or work through difficulties. This is exactly what Joan needed. After lots of discussions with friends and family, losing and gaining trail partners, and two years of preparation and training, Joan turned her dream into a reality. In 2006, Joan and her two friends, Cappy and Jane, set out on a great adventure, feeling prepared but not knowing exactly what lay ahead. This uncertainty is demonstrated on day two of their hike when they found themselves in the middle of a terrifying lightning storm at 11,000ft on top of Donohue Pass. In the first week of their hike, they faced many adversities, and Joan questioned her decision numerous times.

As days passed, Joan, Cappy, and Jane met several other hikers along their journey and were even given a trail name—The Three Women. Along the way, Jane split off to return home, and Joan and Cappy were down to two. As they pressed on, they “adopted” a young woman who they’d previously met and had just been abandoned by her trail partner—The Three Women once more. They spent a month out on the trail, each of them with different motives for their journey.

When speaking with Joan, she explained the impact the trail had on her. “Going into the hike, I thought I was in tip-top physical shape and courage. We had a plan for more than a year ahead for the physical training we were going to do, and I was religious about it. Walking around the neighborhood with a forty-pound pack of sand and water on my back, but when we got out there, I was exhausted after 6 miles. We had to take a zero day at Red’s Meadow because we were all tired. It upped the ante on the inner strength we had to have too.”

Joan embarked on the trail to heal from loss. She now believes that when you have faced a hardship, you can face another one. When you have dealt with unexpected problems and solved them, you can deal with the next one with a little more confidence—they don’t seem so intimidating. After her life-changing hike, she pursued a master’s degree and then began writing a book about her experience. She continued to teach middle school English until her retirement after 25 years. Her book Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, published in late 2023, has already inspired others to begin their journey.

Joan lives in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada Foothills, a world she loves exploring. She now teaches literature and women’s history at the Osher Lifelong Learning Program (OLLI) at Sierra College. Joan enjoys travel, photography, and spending time with friends. She is currently working on her second memoir about the adventure of growing up an adoptee.