Central Coast Journal • February 2022

On the Cover

JOAN & LARRY PARKER:

40 Years and Then an Epic Trek

by Will Jones

W

hen most couples think about celebrating a milestone wedding anniversary, their ideas might range from good food and champagne at a local restaurant, a luxury weekend at a spa, or maybe even a trip to Hawaii or Europe. But not San Luis Obispo residents Joan and Larry Parker. Their idea of an appropriate celebration was to hike 2,650 adventure-filled miles on the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexican to the Canadian border.

Larry and Joan met as undergraduates at UC Berkeley. Larry grew up in Fremont and Joan in Concord. Both were athletic and outdoors-oriented. Joan played two seasons of water polo for Berkeley. Larry was a swimmer and an Eagle Scout, and, later, a Scoutmaster.

A few months after they started dating, in February 1980, Larry took Joan on her first backpacking trip in Little Yosemite Valley. It was memorable for three reasons: a bear removing a pack Joan was using for a pillow from beneath her head while she was sleeping and neatly consuming five pounds of trail mix and a pound of salami; an ascent of Half Dome; and Larry proposing after the initial excitement was over. Joan still has the ring Larry fashioned from pine needles. Larry was 23 and Joan 22 when they married in October of 1981.

The Parkers moved from Walnut Creek to San Luis Obispo in 1993 when Larry, a mechanical engineer, was transferred to Diablo Canyon

by PG&E. Joan, a financial adviser, commuted to Walnut Creek for a couple of years until she was hired by Wacker Financial Planners in 1995.

Backpacking continued to be a family activity as their sons, Scott, 34, and Eric, 31, were growing up.

“We tried to do a trip every summer,” Larry said. “To have that time on the trail with them was priceless. In the wilderness, they’d share all the things that were going through their minds, things they didn’t have time to talk about during busy lives at home.”

The second most ambitious hike the Parkers completed was section hiking the John Muir Trail during the summers from 2013-16, four separate one-week hikes covering over 200 miles.

“We actually found that more difficult than the PCT because we had to acclimatize four different times and get on and off the trail several times,” Joan said.

They also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro as a family in 2010.

Larry and Joan started thinking about hiking the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT) in 2013.

Joan and Larry Parker celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in October 2021. Contributed photos 18 | FEBRUARY

“We’d be hiking and meeting young women hiking the PCT Central Coast Journal