My name is Ken McGowan.  I’m a Christian, husband, and father living near Portland, Oregon.  I’m sound in my faith, I love my wife and children, and I’m pretty content with my career so far.

Still…

I started Walking to Fuji back in 2008. Maybe I was facing an early mid-life crisis. Maybe all the health issues surrounding my family and friends drove home the truth that life is short and unpredictable. I wanted to get out and do… something. I wanted to do something bigger than myself, something I could tell stories about, and I wanted to start as soon as possible.

I eventually settled on the idea of walking to Mt. Fuji.  The plan was simple: walk every day, keep track of the distance traveled, and plot it on an imaginary line reaching from my front door to the peak of Mt. Fuji.  If I had reached my goal of traveling five thousand miles in five years, I would have treated myself to a long walking tour of Japan. I would have ended the trip by ascending Mt. Fuji to watch the sun rise.

It would have been beautiful. It would have changed me. Five Years, Five Thousand Miles. A new outlook on life, people, and possibilities.

That was the idea, anyway. As sometimes happens, it didn’t work out. Severe allergies brought my walk to an end. It’s difficult to traverse the countryside when everything green and growing threatens your health. I’m no quitter, but neither am I a fool. Better to find other, metaphorical mountains to climb.

So my journey isn’t going to be the one I planned. That’s common enough, isn’t it?

Fine by me. I’ll keep walking.

If you happen to be interested in video games, and games with strong stories in particular, you might enjoy my other blog at pdxkcm.com.