What inspired my love for the outdoors anyway; was it exploring the surrounding woods with my childhood friends, cub scouts — and the on and off two relationship years with boy scouts —, my father’s National Geographic subscriptions — I kept this habit and remain a subscriber “till this day”, early morning Captain Planet reruns as a child, camping at Pocahontas with the scouts, being employed by my colleges Outdoor Adventure Program, or having access to Pocahontas Park basically in hiking distance from my teenage home? Whatever it may have been I am beyond appreciative to live in a time that this is accessible for me to explore.

The outdoors was definitely a double edge sword growing up back in VA, going to predominately black schools up until 8th grade, one of my most memorable early encounters with racism was with the other boys in the boy scout troop being white — epithets were said around the time I stop attending. Maybe I associated that moment with being one with nature as it took a few year prior to the pandemic to be active in seek out more outdoor adventures.

Seeking out and finding a community here in SoCal with Black Men Hike LA , brothers who also sought a safe space for us to explore the great outdoors. I joined the group in February of last year for a hike and am now a hiking ambassador with the group in hopes to inspire other brothers to do the same and expand the groups scope into other outdoor spaces.

This is why this trip to Yosemite was so meaningful to help me further explore a sense of community especially with California still being relatively new territory for me. I just reached to two years in Cali a few days and feel comfortable with saying this will be my permanent home for my foreseeable future.

As an African American (or African in America as Shelton Johnson wonderfully stated on our trip) we make up about 12.2 % of the US population, but only make up under 6% of visitors to National Park. One of the biggest factors for lack of attendance by both Black and Latino/Latina communities are transportation. Yosemite is only about a 5 hour drive from SoCal so I obviously I wasn’t passing up an opportunity to go. Black People Who Hike kicked off their national tour with a trip to the 1200+ square miles of mountains, Sequoias, and waterfall. They also made efforts to to provide transportation for those who live on the opposite side of the country to experience experience Yosemite in its fullest, regardless if they were an avid explorer or first time in a National Park. We all have the black experience in common to brought us together and inadvertently make the statistic I previously mentioned to be as antiquated as the Jim Crow laws that barred and discouraged our entries into these Parks. As both an individual and representative of Black Men Hike LA we are more than appreciative to extend the invitation to join you for the Yosemite portion of their National Park Tour.

This was my second time and Yosemite and I had plenty more time to explore. BPWH provided us with full itinerary of hikes and other activities in Yosemite and at our Nature Bridge hosted campground. We had a mess hall in the middle of the camp site where our meals were provided for breakfast, lunch, and dinner around the clock and we stayed in their bunk style cabins that had sections for both the women and men. Though with all of the light pollution here in SoCal I couldn’t pass up not sleeping underneath the stars and made sure to sleep in a tent the second night of our stay.

All of this time spent with all of my beautiful black people helped reminded me of what I feel like I’ve been lacking for a good portion of my life, community. We all know the saying “Black is not a monolith” and the numerous personalities on this tour speaks to this in volumes as we continue to expand and breaking limits on what is defined as “Black”. Whether it be vibing around the campfire, early morning Yoga, wading in the waterfall of Wapama, or all gathering in the cabins for late night shenanigans to subvert the campfire curfew. We represented more than just a wide variety of states all across the US and parts of the motherland — we were a representation of another Great Migration or better yet a Great Reclamation.

Before our departure our group met with Shelton Johnson the famous US Park Ranger who spent the majority of his tenure at Yosemite. We might as well call him our John Muir, with they way Shelton’s broke down the Black experience and the outdoors with a kind unapologetic unconditional love for our people that we had some of the group making comparisons of this to church — this also did occur on a Sunday. The analogies and metaphors he using comparing our experience, the human condition and relating it back to our connection with nature; its rare that I’ve had speakers that resonate with me in the way that he did. He made sure that every one of us in attendance understood that this land is ours an reminded us that we are simply reclaiming what is ours. Being a child of the planet, we are same as the very dirt the stuck in the treads of our hiking boots. We are everything that was and will eventually be.

“We Hike Too” is the motto for Black People Who Hike for a good reason. We all understand the history of our enslaved ancestors and being marginalized in just about every space we’ve set foot in and as we continue to explore I will remember Shelton’s empowering words that helped us recognize we are simply reclaiming our birth right.

I kept this in mind during the Black Men Hike LA second annual Juneteenth Hike Celebration at Crystal Cove State Beach. This was a joint hiking event with the BIPOC women’s hiking group Honey Block. We also had a few new hikers who were curious about BMHLA and of course what we had a few of the Familia who also attended the Yosemite trip.

The family will only continue to grow as we continue to venture on.

Happy Freedom Day!

✌🏿MKH