"Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Cheryl Strayed (pub. 2012).
The name Strayed, as it turns out, is a chosen monikor after a divorce, that the author found fitting as one who went away from the common path.
Coming from a family with an abusive father, she was very attached to her mother. And when Strayed’s mom died in her mid-40s from cancer, it turned Strayed’s life upside down for several years.
Her answer was to hike 1,100 miles by herself on the Pacific Crest Trail, covering most of the distance through California and Oregon.
It was hard: “I stopped in my tracks when the thought came into my mind that hiking the PCT was the hardest thing I’d ever done . . . Watching my mother die and having to live without her, that was the hardest things I’d ever done . . . But hiking the PCT was had in a different way. In a way, it made the other hardest things the tiniest bit less hard.”
It was monotonous: "There wasn’t a day on the trail when monotony didn’t ultimately win out, when the only thing to think about was whatever was the physically hardest.”
Fear? “It was a deal I made with myself months before . . . Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story . . . I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave . . .Insisting on this story was a form of mind control, but for the most part, it worked . . . And it wasn’t long before I actually wasn’t afraid.”
And it was worth it: The last several miles “I seemed to float . . . buoyed by a pure, unadulterated emotion that can only be described as joy.”
The entire hike was a conquering, cleansing, and much-need life-changing experience. And an interesting story about the events, characters, and situations along the way.
I read the book because of another review, and was pleased to find numerous Minnesota references, since Strayed spent much of her childhood here. I spent a lot of time matching up timeline and geographical facts.
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I see that Cheryl Strayed will be in Minneapolis March 6 for a fundraiser for the Women's Foundation of Minnesota. Details here:
• Cheryl Strayed schedule
• Women's Foundation fundraiser
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