Mary Jane Wild: Two Walks and a Rant

Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2106 Presidential Election, Brooke Williams loaded his pack, stepped off his porch in Castle Valley, Utah, and walked across the desert into the Mary Jane Wilderness. He needed the clarity and perspective he'd come to depend on wilderness to give him. He needed time alone to ponder what had just happened, and forget, if just for two nights. Brooke needed to reorient, recalibrate, and make a plan to cope for with the new political landscape. He turned toward the wilds hoping it would absorb the darkness which had enveloped him.

Following the 2020 Presidential Election, Brooke walked across the same desert, again into the Mary Jane Wilderness. He hoped that camping in the same wild place might help him see what had changed in four years, and more importantly, what had not. Although there were votes still to be counted, slivers of light hinted at a new administration. The possibility of a new president and restored democracy contributed to the lighter mood he carried. But, there was more.

Evolution by its broadest definition, is not necessarily improvement, but "adaptation to changing conditions" and conditions have changed in America. Racial injustice has been exposed, political decorum abandoned, truth sacrificed for power, the environment for profit. Radically changing conditions require radical adaptation. For Americans, this is time for evolution. Evolution requires wildness.

Mary Jane Wild is the story of how Brooke Williams adapted--evolved-- to four of the most tumultuous years in American history.