Hi there! Welcome to my (sometimes updated) website.
My name is Jennifer Mabus.
My trail name, and one you might know me better by, is Starburst.
In April 2018 I set foot on the Pacific Crest Trail at the Southern Terminus in Campo, CA. From there, I spent over 5 months walking this foot wide path that I trusted to take me right into Canada at Manning Park. Surprisingly enough, I made it. All 2,650 miles of it.
I can’t even tell you when or how or why I decided to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail, but I knew I had to do it. Something in me kept drawing my mind and my heart to the trail until it got so distracting that I had to do something about it.
I was working as a Mechanical Engineer and was living in downtown Seattle at the time when I walked into work one day requesting a sabbatical for me to attempt this surely challenging feat.
They agreed.
I was shocked.
So I did it.
And the entire journey literally changed my life. I mean, how could something like that not? But one aspect that shocked me, in a pleasant way, was how much I enjoyed sharing my journey WITH YOU. I posted daily vlogs of my trip, which was not planned by the way, but I couldn’t contain my excitement and all of the wonderful people I was meeting and experiences I was having. I was overflowing with this energy and gratitude and I needed to share it. You can find the PCT vlogs here.
Then something even more beautiful happened after that. YOU started sharing your testimonies with me. Your hopes. Your dreams. Your inspirations. And it all rocked me to my core. I shared tears with you, smiles, sadness, anxiety. All of it.
So here I am, wanting to be more accessible to post my life changing adventures that have inspired me, in hopes they inspire you. And in return, I get to share in your adventures and be inspired that we are in fact, one incredible community.
Please feel free to contact me via this website, or message me on Instagram (@thewhimsicalwoman). I respond to messages there much quicker than in my e-mail, but I do my very best to respond to every single message.
Happy trails my fellow hikers and travelers.
-Starburst, The Whimsical Woman