14-year-old helps redwoods while hiking John Muir Trail

Teen raises over $3K to protect "beautiful trees" for future generations

Lewis McColgan is a self-described “regular person” from Fremont, California. This past summer, at age 14, he spent more than three weeks in the Sierra Nevada backcountry, hiking all 211 miles of the John Muir Trail (JMT). His goal: to spend time in nature with his father and godfather while raising funds to protect the beautiful redwood forests that he loves. In total, Lewis raised more than $3,000 for Save the Redwoods League to “keep the dream of the redwoods alive” for future generations.

Lewis spoke with us about his epic backpacking adventure and the importance of protecting the natural world.

How did your love for nature start?

My parents are very outdoorsy people. They even met doing outdoor things—a backpacking trip many years back. So ever since I was young, I’ve done a lot of camping, backpacking, hiking, all that stuff.

Do you remember your first backpacking trip?

Actually yeah. I was four. It was to Black Mountain. I don’t know how long it was, but I have faint memories. I got to spend some great time with my family and also my godfather, who ended up going on every single annual backpacking trip with me, including the JMT.

Where did your interest in the John Muir Trail come from?

Again, it’s back to my parents. My dad has always been big on backpacking. He’s Scottish. John Muir was Scottish. A lot of these places, John Muir himself obviously went to. Two years ago, we did the High Sierra Trail, which is seven and a half days or so. The logical next step up from that would be the John Muir Trail and my dad definitely wanted to do that while he was still in shape and while the forest was still around. The wildfires and everything these past few years have been quite scary.

Did you hike the John Muir Trail in one go?

Yeah, it was start-to-finish 23 days just out in the wilderness—me, my dad, and my godfather. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Being out in the wilderness for three weeks—there’s nothing like it, and it’s amazing. We got to see some incredible sights. Maybe sometime in the future, I’ll go back and do it all again.

How did you entertain yourselves over those 23 days?

I don’t even know! We talked about anything and everything. Occasionally we would get news from the outside world because we had a satellite communicator. We would take the news and squeeze out every little bit of information about what was happening outside and have detailed discussions about it.

What was the most fun part of hiking the trail?

Definitely jumping in all the alpine lakes and rivers. Sometimes it’s really cold and you don’t want to get in, but you feel clean and it’s so refreshing.

What about your biggest challenges?

I would say overall, the trip went pretty smooth. But if there’s one day that was the most challenging, it’s definitely getting up to see Mount Whitney at sunrise. We had to wake up at 1 in the morning and hike up in the dark.

What was the funniest moment of the trip?

We were doing laundry in a Ziplock bag—it’s called “bush laundry.” My bag had a tiny little hole in it, so I was spraying it at my godfather like a water gun. And then the Ziplock failed and the entire bag of water, like, just blew up right over him. So bad! But he wasn’t even mad, just shocked. I said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” and then ran and got him a towel. It was hilarious, looking back.

Why did you chose to fundraise for Save the Redwoods League?

I wanted to choose a charity that’s focused on nature, because the John Muir Trail is obviously a lot about nature, and my dad has been donating to Save the Redwoods for, well, longer than I’ve been alive.

Also, a lot of the time I spend outdoors happens to be among the redwoods. I hike a lot and a lot of the places that we go to visit, Save the Redwoods League is a big part of the reason they exist to this day and why I was able to enjoy and experience them. I also go biking a lot and some of that happens within very beautiful redwood forests.

Is conservation and protecting the environment something you want to do with your adult life?

I think it’s very important to protect nature. I’ve seen the effects of climate change, especially wildfires here in California. Part of the reason why I had more urgency to hike the John Muir Trail is my dad said he wanted to do it before it all got burned or avalanched with these crazy snow years that are happening—also because of climate change. We actually saw some of the effects of that, but we weren’t too late. Thankfully, we got to see most of the trail, but I think it’s very important to protect these beautiful trees and just nature in general for future generations. So I definitely, definitely want to help with that when I’m older. I don’t know to what extent or how, but I’ll definitely try to help keep these redwoods around.

I also think it’s so important to get people involved, especially young people, future generations. Once this current group of people is no longer part of Save the Redwoods League, I think it’s so important to keep it going and keep the dream of saving the redwoods and preserving them alive.

Why are redwoods special to you?

They’re definitely majestic, beautiful trees. But I think it’s just—sometimes it’s great to go out to the redwoods, or any place outside the stresses of your regular life, and kind of relax and enjoy the beautiful trees, the beautiful scenery, the nature, and just kind of forget about what’s happening outside of your little world at that time. They provide a little sanctuary for people who go there. Redwoods show you the best parts of nature.