John was born in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Port Angeles. His love for trails began in the Olympic National Park, where he worked four college summers on trail crews. He got his degree in mechanical engineering at the UW, then worked at the Applied Physics Lab at the UW before joining the Peace Corps to avoid going into the military. He married Dottie Davis and raised two kids, Ian and Theresa (the first of Ticklemouse's best friends). John and his family have hiked nearly all the trails in Mt. Rainier National Park. The hardest physical achievement of his life was standing on the summit of Mt. Rainier with his 14-year-old son. John loved his 30-year professional career with Weyerhaeuser R&D, inventing, designing, building, testing and licensing equipment for wood products.