Wild

I made this trek and I’m glad that I did. Not the Pacific Crest Trail that Cheryl Strayed hiked 1,100 miles from the Mojave Desert through Oregon doing but her memoir about her long walk in the summer of ’95. There’s plenty in “Wild” that might rile you: particularly how crazy it is to attempt such a journey so ill-prepared and by yourself at age 26. Wouldn’t you practice or get in shape first? Take a test-run, a buddy, and enough money? Know what you’re doing? I had to roll my eyes at the beginning: it seemed pretty dumb if not totally dangerous. She is in agony most of the time from boots that don’t fit and toenails that fall off and pockets short of coin.

But people that are lost and youthful don’t always make the wisest of choices. She acknowledges her “idiocy” at the journey’s beginning. But before going, Cheryl had been dealt a heavy blow with her mom dying at 45 of cancer that left her reeling. Her siblings scattered as did her stepfather. She was using drugs, fooling around on a husband she cared about and going nowhere under a heavy maze of grief. After seeing a book about the Pacific Crest Trail (which goes from Mexico to Canada), she gets the idea to hike a good portion of it in hopes that it will turn her life around. And so her journey begins.

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a sucker for healing-seeking, journey-type stories and devoured Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” about a 24-year-old’s attempt to live in the wilds of Alaska. Fortunately, Cheryl’s trek has a much happier outcome. The trail works its magic on her through all the pain, endless miles and solitude of walking in the wilderness alone. She does befriend quite a few fellow PCT hikers along the way and has various adventures, coming upon rattle snakes, bears, a migration of frogs, and non-PCT folks who are most often a bit weird but friendly.

Cheryl tells of her trek rather open and straightforwardly, often unsparingly of herself. “Wild” is not as gripping as Krakauer’s books, but it did keep me reading and thinking about it, as if I were traveling alongside her on the trail. I felt for Cheryl over the sadness of her divorce and mostly her mother’s death, which is palpable and enormous in the book. I wanted her to find solace. And indeed she seems to grow stronger and more courageous as she moves forward along the PCT.

There’s some good passages in the book, a few profound about her life growing up and her mother and family and being on the trail day and night and the hardships life throws you. I might not always agree with her choices but she comes across most often heartfelt, likable and a bit irreverent.

One thing that sort of made me hesitate about “Wild” is that it was published over 15 years after she did the trail, apparently from journals and such. Maybe that holds back some of the vividness or action in parts of the book. It’s a bit amazing she can piece together all of the conversations from back then. But despite whatever flaws, “Wild” still hits a human chord that leaves a pretty deep impression. And it might just leave you wanting to do the PCT yourself.