We are John and Jean Strother, longtime backpackers now in our seventies who are continuing to explore mountains and canyons in retirement.
John is originally from Chicago. In 1974, after graduating from college, he spent the summer traveling throughout the western United States. Later that year, he began working in Louisville, Kentucky, intending eventually to relocate to the Pacific Northwest. Jean is originally from Jeffersontown, Kentucky, and had only dreamed of seeing the West. We met in Louisville in 1975.
In the fall of 1977, we packed a few belongings, left our family and friends behind, and headed for Seattle. Along the way, we backpacked in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and the Mission Mountains in Montana. Although John had been above tree line before (when he had traveled west), this was Jean’s first time. Now, we both knew that the mountains were where we wanted to be!
Once we settled in the Seattle area, John resumed working full-time and Jean attended nursing school before also working full-time. We were both busy, so backpacking opportunities were limited. Our son Dan was born in 1985, followed by Tom in 1987. While Jean was an at-home mom, John joined the Seattle Mountaineers and completed both the Basic and Intermediate Climbing Courses. This gave him opportunities to summit numerous peaks in the North Cascades and Olympic Mountains.
We took our boys on day hikes in kid carriers until they grew too big. Later, we began taking them on short backpack trips. Sometimes we also took a few of their friends with us. Once they were old enough to stay home alone, and when they preferred to, John and I resumed backpacking together.
We also had opportunities to experience some of the iconic natural wonders on other continents, including Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the Khumbu Valley in Nepal.
Once our sons were grown and John had retired, we were able to follow a dream. In April 2010, we sold our house and most of our possessions and began traveling full-time in a motorhome. This adventure took us north as far as Alaska and south to Arizona, with many stops, and backpack trips, in between.
For the next eight years, we maintained a blog, www.panafoot.com, chronicling 54 backpack trips in eight states and 16 trips in five countries. These adventures gave John, a lifelong avid photographer, opportunities to take countless photographs.
We lived in our motorhome for ten years before deciding to settle down again. After careful consideration, we had a house built in Quail Creek, a 55-plus community in Green Valley, Arizona, about 20 miles south of Tucson. We chose it primarily because of its proximity to Mount Wrightson (9,456 feet), the highest peak in the Santa Rita Mountains. Mount Wrightson Wilderness has become our playground! Jean stopped counting summits after 100, but John still keeps track. He is at 177 and counting.
We do not pretend that age does not matter. We have experienced family issues, injuries, surgeries, changing bodies, interrupted plans, and trips that did not end as intended. We have learned to adjust, recover, and reconsider what success means.
We hope our story offers evidence that retirement and growing older do not have to bring adventure to an end. We are still learning what our bodies can do, still carrying our lives on our backs, and still walking.
