In 2004, Jay Willison chose to leave a comfortable home, surrounded by friends to live in a primitive encampment in the Sycamore Wilderness, two-days walk from town. Was he fleeing from some ill deed or running toward a greater destiny?
Eileen Moore describes how this young man from the streets of Los Angeles came to the Coconino National Forest. She writes of how he first became a drug dealer, then using his artistic talent, turned to creating innovative tattoos. Finally, sensing his drug use was destroying his body and mind, he began to pursue the inner spiritual life. In that pursuit, he understood he must separate from the distractions in his life. He looked to the Desert Fathers and Trappist monk Thomas Merton for inspiration.
In February 2004, Jay caught a ride into the Sycamore Wilderness and began dragging his heavy duffle into a steep-walled canyon. And so began his five-year stint as the hermit of Sycamore Canyon.
In time, US Forest Service would remove his camp and Jay would find a new home among the juniper of the Coconino Plateau. He remained faithful to his study of spiritual themes and left an example of a man who chose temporary discomfort for a higher goal.