Wild by Cheryl Strayed

"The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so profound to me that summer was how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing I least wanted to do.  How there was no escape or denial.  No numbing it down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay.  I could go back in the direction I had come from or I could go forward in the direction I intended to go.  And so I walked on."

Cheryl did indeed walk.  She walked from the Mojave desert in California all the way to the Oregon-Washington boarder.  Alone.

After her college graduation, Cheryl had difficulty coming to terms with her mother's untimely death. She had several affairs and her marriage fell apart.  She traveled from one place to another, never staying long.  She had relationships with the wrong guys, one of which introduced her to heroin.

In mental anguish over her mother's death and the destructive choices she had made in her own life, Cheryl set out to face the physical challenges of The Pacific Crest Trail.  Long hikes without enough water, blistered aching feet and a pack weighing half her body weight, one hundred degree heat in deserts and freezing temperatures in ice and snow through mountain ranges, as well as encounters with rattlesnakes and bears led her to discover that she was strong enough to bear the unbearable.

Wild From Lost To Found On The Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed is the true story of one woman's long distance hike, but it's also the story of one woman's personal journey of healing and self discovery.  This compelling book is insightful without being self-absorbed.  I really enjoyed reading her story and highly recommend it!

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