Earthkeepers: A Circlewood Podcast on Creation Care and Spirituality · Forrest Inslee

One Step at a Time: Finding Recovery Together in the Outdoors, with John Vicory | Ep. 138

·37 min·2 clips

John Vicory says alcohol felt like “a toxic friend” he could not live with or without.

1. Earthkeepers: A Circlewood Podcast on Creation Care and Spirituality centers on John Paul Vickery's recovery from alcohol addiction through outdoor community. 2. Forrest Inslee hosts John Paul Vickery, who lives in Kirkland, Washington with his wife and two teenagers and works as director of marketing at UW Bothell. 3. The episode asks how OSAT, or One Step at a Time, uses the outdoors to support recovery and spiritual connection. 4. John says OSAT began with Jim Hinkaus, an AA member and mountaineer, who wanted an AA meeting at the top of Mount Rainier. 5. The first OSAT meeting happened on Tiger Mountain, and John says meetings still occur there twice a week throughout the year. 6. OSAT has expanded beyond mountaineering into car camping, canoeing, cycling, and trips like the Highland Way in Scotland. 7. John says groups also travel to Central America to climb mountains, while local outings happen across the Pacific Northwest. 8. John describes OSAT as open to old-timers with 30-plus years in recovery, newcomers, and family members involved through Al-Anon. 9. He says the group is not limited to people with a specific addiction, because alcohol, drug use, and family support all show up in the community. 10. John frames his own addiction as a toxic relationship with alcohol that damaged health, parenting, marriage, and work. 11. He says he missed an activity with his kids in August 2019, then went to the hospital, spent the night in the ER, and entered inpatient treatment on August 11th, 2019. 12. John says he completed 30 days inpatient, nine months outpatient, and 90 AA meetings in 90 days to build a recovery foundation. 13. He says joining a climbing course for Mount Rainier brought back his childhood love of biking and hiking in Colorado. 14. John says OSAT became foundational because most of his friends are now in recovery and in that community. 15. Forrest Inslee connects John's story to his own history with alcohol-related loss, including his mother's death from related complications in college. 16. John says the glacier-climbing course gave him a practical framework for change, including safety skills, rules, and people to be with. 17. He describes a graduation climb of El Dorado Peak with seven other students and four instructors as both physical and emotional. 18. John says walking side by side makes difficult conversations easier, and he compares OSAT's community to a higher power for some members. 19. The interview style is personal, reflective, and grief-aware, with Forrest drawing out both recovery details and theological implications. 20. Listeners interested in addiction recovery, outdoor spirituality, and community healing will get the most from it, while people looking for a quick trail-guide episode may skip it.

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