Going "Wild"

Since I am currently over 36 weeks pregnant, my recent adventures are fairly limited.  I can barely tie my own shoes, let alone set out on any outdoor nature excursions.  I'm aching to take the dogs hiking up in the hills behind our neighborhood, or to trek down to San Diego for a swim in the Pacific Ocean.  For now though, until my body becomes my own again, I live vicariously through the adventures of characters in books.  Most recently, I followed the harrowing and uplifting journey of Cheryl Strayed in her memoir "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail."

When I heard there was a popular book out about a twenty-something woman who had hiked the Pacific Crest Trail by herself, I was fascinated. Promptly I hit "buy" on my Nook (those e-readers make it way too easy to spend money).  I had never heard of the Pacific Crest Trail (or PCT) until I moved out here to the California desert.  For those who don't know, it is a hiking trail that runs from the Mexican border in southern California, to the Canadian border in Washington.  My husband and I have hiked a portion of it where it crosses through the Angeles National Forest near Wrightwood.  It features such challenges as water supply issues, fallen trees, hungry bears, and poisonous snakes.  For those willing to brave it, the PCT also offers such stunning visual rewards as Mount Hood, Crater Lake, and the Bridge of the Gods, just to name a few.  To hike a substantial portion of the PCT is a major accomplishment for even a seasoned outdoorsman, and most would say to attempt it by yourself is just plain crazy. Just plain crazy is always a promising premise for a good read.  One quiet afternoon, I curled up with my Nook and began to read.  Very early on in Strayed's story, I soon realized that our familiarity with the PCT was only one of many things we had in common.

Strayed also hails from the great state of Minnesota.  She grew up mere miles from the country town where my parents lived when they first got married.  She attended two Minnesotan universities, the University of St. Thomas (my alma mater), and the University of Minnesota (where my little sister recently graduated from).  Her journey on the PCT began outside of the small desert town of Mojave, California, about twenty miles from where I currently live.  Our similarities end with these odd coincidences, but they helped me to establish an initial sense of personal connection with Strayed.

After suffering multiple traumas, most notably the death of her mother and the breakup of her young marriage, Strayed grew enamored with the PCT after reading about it in a hiking guide she happened upon randomly in a Minneapolis store.  She became convinced that hiking the PCT was her destiny, and set off haphazardly to conquer it.  As you may imagine, it didn't start out well.  Strayed lacked the proper preparation, planning, and skills necessary to successfully traverse the rough trail, especially where she began in the unforgiving Mojave desert.  Luckily though, she was taken in by many colorful characters, random strangers who showed her kindness and shared their knowledge.  Notable among them was Ed, a lonely middle-aged man who parked his pop-up camper near the trail and served as a guardian angel for any hikers who passed through.  He occupied his days by feeding his grateful flock feasts of hot dogs and baked beans, and seemed more than fulfilled by it.  The quirky folks described by Strayed as she encountered them along the way really added humor and heart to the story.

When I read reviews of this book, there were many negative comments about how Strayed's telling of the story glorified her irresponsible behavior.  I imagine this is in the same vein as Jon Krakauer's biography  "Into the Wild."  Krakauer received similar criticism as he painted an almost romanticized tale of a young man's attraction to transcendentalism.  This free-spirited (and misguided) man, Christopher McCandless, abandoned his life and possessions to hike alone in Alaska's Denali Park, and eventually died from eating poisonous berries.  While I see the parallels, and Strayed certainly made poor decisions, I don't think she shied away from that at all.  She openly admitted her stupidity, sharing candidly about the time when she nearly fainted from dehydration due to poor planning, or when she was left with only one boot after accidentally dropping one off a cliff.  Strayed told of a specific incident when she was nearly sexually assaulted by a fellow hiker.  This certainly doesn't fall into the "stupidity" category, but does address the fact that she didn't think through the risks of being a female hiking alone, or take any precautions to protect herself from such an occurrence.

Strayed's focus was not on exalting her poor decision-making.  Instead it was an honest and unflinching reflection on her personal journey to achieving emotional independence.  She spent most of her life relying on and reacting to other's actions, especially those of the men in her life.  Spending weeks in solitude on the PCT allowed her to finally establish her own voice.  Strayed found emotions she had been suppressing for years flooding to the surface, and she found healing in the mountains, streams, and trees that surrounded her. Her story is moving, meaningful, and full of wit. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read on a hot summer day (we've had a lot of those lately around here).