Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

The world is a better place because of Cheryl. Her story has made each of us more human.After watching a beautiful video of the Pacific Crest Trail on PBS, I came upon this book by accident and was immediately awestruck. This is a personal memoir, a mental journey towards acceptance and transcendence, interwoven with a grueling physical journey through 1100-mile exotic wilderness.Attempts to describe the book inevitably diminish and trivialize. I cannot impart what David by Michelangelo is. The experience is uniquely mine and you have to go there to experience it yourself. Oprah Winfrey called the book “inspirational”. But I think it oversimplifies. The author herself says if there is one word to describe the book, it’s “acceptance”. But that leaves out an important word: transcendence. Acceptance of the loss and the transcendence over it, is what weaves together her story.Some readers are disappointed that her journey didn’t end with big revelations in bullet-points. It rather ended with anti-climatic complex emotion of “healing”: relief, anger, a sense of permanency in loss, happiness and sadness. Her authentic style is unmistakable: the real meaning of her journey was not revealed to her for years to come. The end of her journey was the beginning of her new life. She met her future husband nine days later on the Bridge of Gods. She settled in the new state. Years later, her future children would sit on the same white bench where she had sit slurping ice-cream, listening to mom’s story of hiking the wilderness alone.Since finishing the book, I have been avidly reading her anthology “Tiny Beautiful Things”, and her many interviews as a writer. Through her “unprecedented” honesty and openness, I pieced together her life story with details as minute as the outstanding student loan balance. The process blurs her individual writings, but brings forth her life story as an art form in my mind. Cheryl’s life has been carved by unpredictable merciless torrents, but also sculptured and shaped by her unrelenting drive to make sense and make something out of her dealt hand. Her literary work is the window to peek into her life as art, and to touch her better self.Being of the same age as the author, tracing her story naturally made me contemplate and compare my own formative years of the 20s and family losses, and reflect upon friends who suffered immense tragedy with a new life-long reality to cope. Many of us have had unbelievably privileged and sheltered lives. Others are not as fortunate (see “Tiny”). But we are all united in that we all have our own metaphorical PCT to trek, and the opportunity to climb the staircase of self-transcendence. As Cheryl put it, neither exciting life nor tragic life is art. Transcendence is. She calls upon us to make our life an art.Our world today does not need yet another shiny tablet, or faster stock/bond trades and GDP growth detached from the reality. Nor do we need a glib leverage-buyout-specialist-turned-presidential-candidate, who would demand his pound of flesh, and is as principled as a weather vane. The world needs you, the modern day art benefactors, and artists like Cheryl to make us grounded as human. Steve Almond eloquently wrote in his introduction to “Tiny”: “Late-model capitalism is working overtime to keep us focused on products, not people. And the ultimate dwindling resource in our human arrangement is not oil or precious commodities, but mercy.” Cheryl’s literary art is what counter-balances our modern empty and soulless pursuit of growth and technology breakthrough.Cheryl’s work would expand a reader’s perspective on the vicissitude of life. For older readers, it allows them to taste their life a second time. For young readers, it offers the rare gift of traveling to the future to reflect, and then come back to re-examine the unquestioned assumptions about life, and live it differently.

I started reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Vintage) by Cheryl Strayed with some resistance. I had heard many people gushing about Wild, and, far too often, I am disappointed by books people gush about. I tried to temper my expectations as I started the book. My resistance faded quickly. Strayed writes honestly, sometimes brutally, about her life and her experiences. The words often felt so raw they rubbed against my comfort zone bringing old insecurities, stupid decisions, and brazen moves to the surface. I winced in recognition of emotional states and shook at my head at decisions I would never have made because I wanted to change the trajectory of Strayed experiences. Wild immerses the reader in Strayed’s decision making, or sometimes lack thereof. Strayed takes the reader along on a ride that at times feels like being pulled onto a trail without full knowledge of what one is doing just as was Strayed’s experience. I felt immersed in the book to the point, my feet ached from her shoes as she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and my back tensed as she struggled with her backpack. My heart ached as she faced her mother’s illness and death. I winced more than once as she struggled with family issues. As Strayed recounted her encounters with people both on the trail and off, she proves no matter how many people surround us, we can find ourselves alone and no matter how alone we feel, there are people with whom we can connect. Wild offers a wild hike through one woman’s journey of healing and discovery.

I wondered if I would like this book. I didn’t see the movie (yet), so I decided to go ahead and read this before viewing the film. All I knew was that it was about some woman who hiked this long trail by herself. I had never seen her in the news or on TV. So this was pretty much 100% new to me. As a lover of nature I felt hopeful that maybe I would enjoy this.Well, never in my ‘Wildest’ dreams could I imagine a book that I fell in love with so much. It was completely honest, raw and refreshing. The story also involves the woman (Cheryl) ‘s mother who was a big part of her life. They were very close and then her mother passed away when she was middle-aged. Too early to leave. This was to impact Cheryl in a very dramatic way. Her loneliness and grief took her to the depths of despair to the heights of her life. In fact this ‘walk’, this hike became the highlight of her life. Not only in the literal way of thousands of feet above sea level…climbing mountains…but in the heights of her emotions and the ultimate learning about herself.I loved this book because she wrote it in such a natural manner and I felt as if I was there with her on the trail. I swear I was out of breath and sweating along with her. And when a writer can do that – get the reader to the point as if they have been transported somewhere else – then they have won. This is as good as it gets when you’re an author.I haven’t read any other reviews of this book here on Amazon. I’m sure most of them would agree with me and that they are quite positive about this book. If you have any doubts and you actually read my review (I’m sure there are about 10,000 other reviews before mine) then ask yourself the following questions:1. Do you enjoy being outside? If yes, then this book might be for you.2. Have you ever hiked or taken nature walks in the woods or along a trail? If so, then you may like this book.3. Have you ever lost a parent or a loved one? If yes, then has their loss affected you deeply? If yes, you could possibly relate to this book.4. Do you enjoy Memoirs and reading about real living people who have done incredible things? Yes? Then this book is for you.5. Lastly, have you ever done something in your life that you weren’t sure you could do and it surprised even you that you chose it? Have you done something that challenged you in a major way and you succeeded and you felt so much better having done it? Okay, then.Read the book. I’m so glad I did. I almost didn’t and I would have missed out on a story so strong and so special.

I love Cheryl strayed and I will love everything she has to say for the rest of eternity. I’m grateful for her words always.

I felt as though I took this journey with Cheryl Strayed. I felt her exhaustion, pain, and exhilaration all the way through. I’m not a hiker–I’m not even a nature lover. In fact, one way for a writer to put me to sleep is to rhapsodize over the beauty of a scene in nature. There is some description of this type in Strayed’s story but no more than necessary.I have read stories about hikers before, and the authors who peak my interest are the ones who describe their physical and emotional struggles–their war against the elements so to speak. Let the trees and flowers be and tell me what you’re feeling–tell me about those mutilated toes with the blackened toenails or the aching back with the monstrous backpack. Tell me about the creatures, both beasts and humans, who threaten your existence on the trail. Tell me about your all-consuming hunger and thirst and, yes, you can even tell this Medicare recipient about your sexual yearnings. I’m up to all of it. Tell me about handling your bodily functions. I’m not the squeamish type. I want to know about how you handled yourself in every way, especially as a woman on the trail. I want to know how your journey changed you, how it healed you. If it helped you to finish grieving the end of relationships and/or the death of a parent, I want to hear all about it. And, Cheryl Strayed, you did it–you told me everything I wanted to know and in the most beautiful prose. It was sprinkled with some obscenities–but nothing horribly offensive. By the last few pages Strayed had me in tears–I was so moved.If you’re a backpacker with a need for specific information about the Pacific Crest Trail, I’m sure that there are many other books more appropriate for you. But if you enjoy human stories which make you feel as though your feet are the ones walking the trail, give Wild a try.

Life-affirming read for me, and then passed along to some of my memoir writing clients.I first read this book anticipating that I might glean some direction to overcome some life hurdles that came my way. Not only did I read it in two sittings, mesmerized by the quality and content of the writing, but I was able to see my own undulating path through life. And therein lies the hope I came away with from her story. In one moment I recalled memories stuffed away into of free-wheeling into whatever brought me escape, and then came the bright light that hard work and hope can bring.I recommend it to anyone who is running from something to gain hope and perspective to run toward something instead.

Cheryl Strayed:If we could spread our arms wide enough to reach from the Mexican border to the Columbia River in Washington State, that’s how much Cheryl Strayed loves us the readers of her book “Wild!” She took me a reader on every painful and joyous step with plain honest words that cut out the crap and tolled it how it is. We all have “demons” and cannot leave them behind us; they stay in our minds until we deal with them or die. I was surprised and touched about how she got her last name “Strayed” how fitting! She dealt with the untimely passing of her mother as best she could and the dissolving of her family. When she had to put down “Lady” I could not see the pages any longer.Cheryl also decoded “The girl Code” in several places in the book to my great delight. If only I had read this book when I was 20 years old I would have been much luckier with the ladies. I have come to believe we do not choose the one we love, our heart chooses for us.Next time I go to the Market I am going to buy a six pack of Staple Lemonade and drink a toast to Cheryl Strayed a wonderful story teller.Ron Rarick18201 Burrell RoadOdessa, Florida 33556813-787-1787Rip01959@aol.comRonald Rarickrip01959@aol.com

I give Ms. Strayed extra gold stars for writing this book as a memoir. This means she’s writing her life and putting it out on the page for all of us to examine. It’s not her imagination–I hope since she’s calling it a memoir–it’s her reality, and it’s raw, painful, and inspiring.I kept thinking as I read it about the power of her words and about how brave she was. Yes, she was brave–and perhaps a bit naive and stupid–to set out to conquer the Pacific Crest Trail. She was alone and wholly inexperienced. She did it out of pure instinct, and I admire that. But even more, I was in awe of her ability to expose herself to us, the readers. She writes about her life in raw and rugged terms. She is honest about her failings and the failings of those around her. There were times when I saw myself in her universal expose of what grief feels like. And when that happened, when I saw myself in her prose, I felt something else. I felt respect and awe of Cheryl Strayed as an author and as a fellow comrade. She knows how to reach in and pull all the innards out of an experience. She created the characters that peopled her journey in minute detail so they were as real to me as they were to her on the PCT. That’s a rare quality for an author to achieve.Of course, she had the outstanding setting to provide the backdrop for most of the story. But it was the interspersing of her personal details of how she found herself 6,000 feet above the ocean. Those are the painful parts from her mother’s death to her divorce. It’s all there while she makes her way from California to the Columbia River on the border between Oregon and Washington.

All advertised accurately

Such a good read! Well written and detailed. Helped me also seem from new perspectives.I hope others enjoy it as much as I did!!!

100% recommend

I became interested to read this after havibg seen the movie with Reese Witherspoon. The book and the movie make excellent companions. The book has characters that were composited in the movie and also adds depth, context, and additional meaning to some of the quotes in the film.Once I got going I couldn’t stop easily — one night staying up until 2 reading. You get a real sense of how one person found their way out of a terrible black hole and into the light of understanding. I can see how attempting to do something that FORCED her to think only of her own survival powered her human mind out of its death spiral and then allowed her to build a new way of thinking and living, as her mother used to say, ” putting her in the way of beauty”. (I know that’s in the movie – not sure if that quote is in the book.) Anyway it’s a MUST READ for anyone who feels hopeless in life, and also for anyone going through the motions who has lost sight of what it means to live. Makes me want to hike again, like I did as a teen. (Except I think I shoukd do it in a more balanced way…. I’m 62….)ENJOY!

I have purchased maybe hundreds of items from Amazon, including some things that I have loved very dearly; however, I have never been inspired to write a customer review on any items until today. My sister’s boyfriend started this book and stopped after a few hundred pages because he found it “boring.” This book is far from “boring.” Maybe it is because I, too, lost my mother to cancer when she was in her early 40’s. Maybe it is because I, too, had less than one year to watch my mother painfully slip away from me. Maybe it is because I, too, was forced to grow up at the blink of an eye. Although the book is marked as fiction, it became clear to me immediately that Cheryl lived through what she described. There were parts of the book which rang so true to me, and my personal journey with the loss of my own mother, that I had to put the book down and walk away–the pain too acute and real for me to continue reading without opening my own wounds. She perfectly describes the mixture of feelings of loss, and does so with such eloquence that I will borrow a few of her lines the next time someone asks me how I am doing regarding my own loss. It was so nice to finally read a book with a hero or heroine who hurts in the most real way. This book is raw, real, and the opposite of boring. Thank you for your honest recount of the pain of losing someone you love.

Absolutely loved this book. I wondered about her name before I read it and then to find out that I was partially correct made me laugh. There were situations that she was in that I myself have been in as well. I couldn’t put this down and wanted to just plow through it but tried my best to savor it too. I will read it again for sure, and now I’m thinking about possibly reading some of her other titles. I had wanted to read this before seeing the movie and I’m glad I did as most movies made from books miss important parts or they change the story to something else. I also had a want to read this as I’ve only ever read one other book about hiking and that was “Following Atticus” by Tom Ryan. For a man who wasn’t a writer or a hiker reading his story was exceptional in pulling you into it. I wanted to go out and hike every mountain I could find after reading it. The same with “Wild”. I feel a trail calling me and I’m realizing that it’s been way too long since I myself was out alone in the woods and mountains. I grew up horseback riding all over New England and again after reading “Wild” I feel that need to be wild myself again, one more time…

You can take a girl out of Oregon, but you cannot take Oregon out of the girl. I’ve dreamed of hiking parts of this trail. It saddens me the canopy she describes in Oregon has burned. Having been to Bagby, my last road trip with my mother was below the PCT from Santiam River to Clackamas the last days of June 2020. When we felt safe enough to go out and see Oregon before I flew to the EU to be with my husband. I want so much to see my mother again. Thank you Cheryl for publishing this book. I became aware of it because of Gilmore girls and so happy to have read it before watching the film. God I’m so homesick.

I came late to this book probably because the initial publicity seemed to imply it is an easy uplifting, and sob-inducing read. I am very glad i got past my resistance. It is one of the finest books I have read this year (and i am a big reader).Cheryl Straying writes beautifully, and she isn’t reluctant to show us exactly who she is — trust me, she doesn’t come across as someone you want to be your best friend. She is extremely close to her mother — a wonderful character that shines through and becomes truly three dimensional by the end — and Cheryl is overwhelmed with grief and loss when her mother dies too young, just in her mid-forties. After Cheryl spends a few years behaving badly (to say the least!) and then breaking up her marriage to a man she both loves and respects, she heads for the Pacific Crest Trail to clear her head.The journey is exciting and we go along with her as the author vividly describes the scenery, the people she meets, her aching feet and back, and setting up camp, the tent that becomes her cozy escape from the world.It’s not an adventure book though, really. It is a deeply moving account of a tough, smart woman who comes to terms with who she is, what her life is, and her desire, finally, to move forward in it. I felt in some small but important way that reading her book and the insights her adventure brought her changed me as well. If that sounds hokey, well so be it.Enjoy the movie, but don’t overlook reading the book!

I got delightful by the fact that I’m not alone. Trekking is more than just a journey. It’s life philosophy. I love how she merge the life problems with trekking story and lay out her lesson at the end of each struggle.How wild it was, to let it be.

Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild is exactly the type of book that appeals to me. I love stories of people setting off on adventures and I also feel connected to stories of grief and attempts to find a place in the world.After her mother’s death, Strayed found herself in her early twenties and falling apart. Her once close-knit family took an isolationist approach to grief and grew distant. Strayed dropped out of college just shy of graduation, cheated on her husband and turned to heroin. She found a guide-book to backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail, a trail that stretches from Mexico to Canada and although inexperienced, decided to give it a shot.Strayed saved money from waitressing jobs, bought what she thought was proper gear and planned ahead, parceling out money and supplies sent ahead to post offices along the route. She decided to spend a few months along the trail from Death Valley, California to Portland Oregon. Strayed soon learned all of the book information and hiking tips from REI, did not adequately prepare her for this journey.The brilliance in this memoir is Strayed ability to write about her life in a way that is so relatable. She exposes herself, warts and all, and her vulnerability makes her so likeable. It made me root for her to succeed on her journey, even though she has made some monumental mistakes in her life. She doesn’t gloss over the spousal cheating and drug use. She doesn’t make excuses or ask the reader to forgive her. She just exposes herself and it makes the reader accept her past, but love her for the person that she will become, as we get to be part of watching the transformation.This book is exciting. It’s filled with plenty of action and tense moments, as the trail is a harsh place and Strayed is definitely unprepared. Besides Strayed’s story, the book is interesting because it exposes a subset of society, those who backpack on these trails. It’s a culture and it’s fascinating. Strayed makes plenty of friends on her adventure and each has an interesting story of why they are on the PCT. The PCT is its own character that’s constantly changing and filled with surprises.Strayed’s memoir is rooted in grief and is very healing. It made me cry, in several places. I had been reading it during my lunch breaks at work, but found it to be so emotional, that I finished it in the privacy of my home. The emotional passages hit me like a ton of bricks and were hard to predict where they would fall in the book. They are profound and sprinkled throughout. Strayed is very self-aware and has a knack for keen observations often leading to profound statements.This book is a must read.Please check out my […] for more reviews and life adventures!

The writing sensation that is Cheryl Strayed…Wow. I found her first on The Rumpus.net. Her column was/is compelling, compassionate, inspiring, beautiful. Unfortunately, I was a day late (& a dollar short) as she had stopped contributing at the time. Oh I was wishing she were still there. I still wish she were still there. I missed that boat. But I read every dang one of those columns and all of her beautiful, sweet loving advice to the heart broken who had reached out to her. I love how she says: “Write like a Mother-f-er” on her column. I want the mug. Through the Rumpus I found her book. AMAZING & BRAVE & couldn’t put it down. Have turned so many peeps onto the book. And her other books. My life is in turmoil (hugely at this moment), but I know it’s all for my best. I have just been granted the precious gift of TIME to write (got fired yesterday!).I then found she was doing a seminar in Petaluma, CA. Wanted to go to that. WAS going. May still. Then I found she was at Esalen Institute. I called to book it. I knew it was my destiny to be there for the writing workshop with her & Pam Houston (another fave). NOPE. Boo, hoo. Long since sold out. 50+ peeps on the wait list. I added my name. Not that I can fly from SW Florida to CA on a moments notice. Damn. Esalen…looks, must be, IS amazing from what I can see. My soul needs it so badly, it almost makes me cry. So, I still may attend Petaluma (1 day seminar) and STILL may make it to Esalen for a different writing workshop. Cheryl Strayed rocks. To anyone attending her Esalen workshop, know that MANY (I’m sure) are jealous!!!!! But happy for you to get to be there. Wasn’t my destiny, but the other will prove to be. Hopefully.

4.5 stars. In the beginning, I struggled to connect with the narrator because she acted so impulsive and immature. It irked me that she pulled away from a husband who seemed ultra-supportive, followed such a self-destructive path and took no responsibility for her actions. I especially found her drug addiction and nonchalant aborting of her pregnancy difficult to connect to. As an athlete and recreational hiker, the fact that she didn’t train for the PCT or properly research what hiking it entailed shocked me. However, the beautiful writing and the depth of love she had for her dear mother she lost to cancer kept me reading.Her devotion to her family and her sensitivity and vulnerability began to grip me as the story moved along. Her descriptions of the scenery, the difficulties she faced and the people she met along the trail kept me turning pages. I loved how all the happenings of her hike were presented in context with the losses she endured and how she was processing and moving through those. The poignantly written scenes with the mother who had lost the child and her flashbacks of her and Leif at the hospital after her mother died and later “putting down” their mother’s beloved horse had me sobbing. As an avid reader myself, I could relate to how she hunkered down at night with her books and devoured them, seeking truth.By the time her long hike ended, I connected with Cheryl to the point that she felt like a close friend and when I was ready to give her a high five and a hug, the book ended, which I found jarring. All at once, she’s married and has children and during the journey, she worked through the loss of her mother and the fragmentation of her family, but to me never explored why she had sex with random men in her previous marriage and I found myself worried she might “stray” again. I also wanted to know if her relationship with her brother and sister ever improved. I found myself Googling for stories to find out more about her life today!I’m sure I’ll read Wild again and again and probably learn something new from it with each reading. Thank you, Cheryl, for taking the risk of putting your journey out there and touching so many peoples’ lives and hearts.

Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling and critically acclaimed memoir that inspired the 2014 feature film starring Academy Award®-winner Reese Witherspoon is one of the best and most heartbreaking non-fiction books about finding yourself since Jon Krakauer’s 

Into the Wild

. The memoir recollects her early life before and in the wake of her mother’s death in 1991, and also focuses on her 94-day and thousand-mile hike across the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995. I invested myself into this memoir because of the heartbreaking and powerful story, not just about how Strayed made that long hike across the trail but also why she did it in the first place. The writing in 

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

 is incredibly strong and makes great use of the author’s style and purpose, with Strayed incorporating sensory imagery and descriptions to describe not only the journey through the PCT, and dialogue in order to build tension and relationships between her and the many people she has known before the hike and the people she meets during the hike. I like the use of the sensory descriptions as it helps me invest myself in Strayed’s story while visioning the path and the many hardships she had to face along the way. I think the use of dialogue also helps to picture these people that Strayed meets and why they exist in her life before the hike and why they exist after the hike. The structure of the chronological plot mixed with flashbacks of Strayed’s early life may build too slowly for some readers, but I love the way it was paced. The flashbacks help break up the otherwise long descriptions of Strayed’s hike and also to take a break to see why she chose to hike the PCT in the first place. Overall, Wild is a heartbreaking, powerful, emotional, gripping, and inspiring story about losing one’s previous self and walking back to the person one was meant to become. As memorable as the feature film adaptation, “Wild” is a highly recommended read for the people with an interest in life-changing stories and a sense of adventure. This is one of the best memoirs I have read in recent years.

A couple recommended this book to me when they saw me trying on backpacks at REI. Admittedly, I’m a strong willed female who does not like to provide fodder for the “girls aren’t as good as boys” club. I strive to be completely independent and do my adventurous activities with equal precision, skill, and endurance as male counterparts. Usually I read biographies of females who not only keep up with men, but far exceed the bar with calm-assertive strength (such as climber Lynn Hill). After a first read through the description of this book I thought, “Why would I want to read a story about a woman who attempts a grand adventure totally unprepared and then makes a ton of mistakes?”. I brushed it off assuming this story just perpetuated the stereotype of women as being emotional and lacking the necessary skills to undertake adventures.I.WAS.WRONG. For some reason, I could not stop thinking about the book so I just went ahead and got it. Shortly after receiving it, I couldn’t put it down. This book is about the true inner strength a person has. Cheryl is brilliant and her story is sad, funny, hopeful and encouraging. I found it comforting to read about how she dealt with the fear that can only come from being a woman who is traveling alone and how she eventually conquered that fear and embraced, even sought out, solitude.Let me caveat this review by mentioning that, and much to the chagrin of reviewers with negative comments, this book is not a “how-to” PCT trail guide and actually isn’t necessarily about backpacking or trails at all. It is about having the wit, guts, and sheer determination to overcome something so overwhelming in your life that it seems impossible. It’s about problem solving in the moment, digging deep and finding energy you didn’t think you have to keep going forward. Strayed’s book is more a how-to guide on being honest with yourself and listening to your inner voice (rather than the voice of reason, in some cases, or nay-saying but well-meaning friends and family). She reminds us that it’s okay to have done things we weren’t proud of, it’s okay to be a human who does incredibly bone-headed things, and it’s okay to take risks and step into the unknown (on a shoe-string budget no less). Rather than lying about her blunders, she gets through them, gets wiser, and lets it all hang out in the process. This book is fascinating, empowering, at times maddening, but over all one hell of an adventure in life!

When I had no roof, I made audacity my roof- Robert PinskyI never heard of the Pacific Crest Trail. Now after reading wild by Cheryl Strayed I will never forget it. The Pacific Crest Trail is not a trail to take lightly. The weather conditions are harsh. Their aren’t many other hikers on this trail, and there aren’t any well developed lodges like the photos you might see in a travel magazine. I believe the sort of circumstances where a hiker finds herself has something to do with how successfully or unsuccessfully the hiker will ascend and descend the trail. It’s important to know about Cheryl Strayed’s life before she walked the PCT. “…my hike on the Pacific Crest Trail hadn’t begun when I made the snap decision to do it. It had begun before I even….” Before the hike she suffered through the illness of her mother. Then, watched her mother lose her battle to cancer. She also struggled through a bad marriage with Paul, her husband, which would lead to divorce. Last but not least she had been strung out on heroin with a man named Joe. Cheryl slept with different men looking for love as they say in all the wrong places. She also had a father to remember for all the wrong reasons. This is her baggage when she starts her trek on the Pacific Crest Trail.She didn’t choose an easy route to hike. The Appalachian Trail is easier to hike than the Pacific Crest Trail. The Pacific Crest Trail is out West: Oregon, California, Washington State,etc. The Appalachian is a trail through Georgia and up to Maine. The author briefly compares and contrasts the two routes in her book. The Pacific Trail is cruel. It’s like a man who beats up an old lady and takes her money. I thought it was fitting when Cheryl Strayed met the two or three men who seemed to want something more than a hike. Their intentions were anything but nice. After meeting those men Cheryl Strayed felt humiliated, frightened and a bit unclean just like she felt at different times on the PCT. The trail raped her soul and heart before it ever gave anything back to her. In the end she received the gift of seeing her inner and outer self in a clearer and brighter light. I doubt if before the journey Cheryl Strayed knew exactly what her toenails looked like. She definitely didn’t know what the toes looked like after the nails dropped off. The trail filters out the pond smudge like a water filter. Cheryl Strayed is the water. After the climb she would feel clean and clear like fresh spring water discovered in the mountains. No wonder she would be named The Queen of the PCT after ending her travels. “There was the woman I was before my mom died and the one I was now, my old life sitting on the surface of me like a bruise.”Along the way the author meets a few other people walking at their pace through the trail. Some choose to walk through heavy snow and some choose to bypass such a hardship. The memoir is all about shifting, leaving behind and picking up what is most needed. It makes sense that her backpack is named Monster. Monster, to me, symbolized the burdens she carried in her heart. Those heart burdens, as I wrote, were monstrous and painful. Monster will help her learn about loneliness and being alone. “Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, so if it weren’t a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to…”It is fitting that Cheryl Strayed is the only woman the men meet on the trail at that time. Her backpack is almost too heavy for the men to pick up. I think women carry heavier and bigger emotional baggage in the than men. I think we carry love on our shoulder. I am always aware if anyone tries to give me love or take it from me. Women will fight for love to never end. They don’t give up quickly. The thought is that everything will be alright in time. Hope and love are a woman’s battle gear.In conclusion it’s a memoir not just about traveling a physical trail, but also it’s about traveling life’s emotional trail where anything can happen to tear apart our will to exist from day to day and chance never seeing the light of another morning. Cheryl Strayed ends the memoir with gratefulness. “Thank you, I thought over and over again. Thank you. Not just for the long walk, but for everything I could feel finally gathered up…”storify.com/OprahsBookClub/wildcherylstrayed

It is possible to see Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail as similar to John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, the tale of the life and death of Chris McCandless in the Alaska wilderness (1) (see my review of this book). Chris McCandless and Cheryl Strayed were of a similar twenty something age, Cheryl being some four or five years older than Chris. On the surface, both seemed to view venturing into the wilderness as a way to test themselves and gain insight and understandings about themselves. And both were essentially unprepared and ill equipped for the test they set for themselves.(2) But here the stories diverge.Chris was a total romantic about the redeeming powers of wilderness. After graduating from college he gave away all of his money and ditched his old car. Again and again he would launch into wilderness experiences with little or no preparation and the implicit belief that the wilderness was benign and would shelter and protect him. Of course, it did not. (3)Cheryl on the other hand had struggled with several demons in the years beyond college. She was married early to a man she loved but was unable to be faithful to. The death of her mother at age forty-two devastated her. And she became addicted to heroin. In an effort to redeem herself and turn her life around, she divorced her husband, kicked her heroin habit and somehow latched onto hiking the 1300 mile Pacific Coast Wilderness Trail: California as a way to come to grips with all of her personal issues.Unlike McCandless, Cheryl was not unprepared for her adventure. She had read the trail guide over and over. She had been to the REI store many times for advice and to secure the equipment she thought she would need. She had prepared re-supply boxes for a friend to ship to post offices along the trail as she would need them. She was not completely unprepared for her adventure, but in many ways she was not well prepared either, and she was naïve about the demands, both physical and personal, she would face.I think I liked this book for many of the same reasons that I liked Warren Richey’s book, Without a Paddle (see my review of this book). Richey used the challenge of the Florida circumnavigation race as a personal physical challenge, and way to be alone with his thoughts after a difficult divorce. He used the time alone as time to reflect and gain perspective on what had happened. His story swung between the very real physical challenges of the trail and his equally challenging inner struggles. Strayed’s story has the same Yin and Yang as Richey’s. And they both have a way of using humor to lighten the darkness of their struggles.To my surprise, I found I could relate to many of the feelings in Strayed’s book. I can’t say that I ever picked up women in bars or had one-night stands. I’ve never done drugs of any kind, though alcohol has played a role in my life. But I have been divorced and left with a lot of pain and questions that needed sorting out. And I have sought out “wilderness” as a place to be alone with my thoughts.Like the Richey book, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, will not appeal to everyone. The hike is really the background story, the sub-context here. But there are enough personal and physical challenges confronted in this book that those readers with some years of living or difficult life experiences under their belts will relate to. In that sense the book has universal appeal.NOTES:(1) While in Alaska I passed along the Teklanika River in Denali National Park, within a few miles of the abandoned school bus where Chris McCandless lived and died. It is truly wild country.(2) It should be noted that the McCandless book was written by Krakauer from research he did on Chris’s life, while the Strayed book was written by Cheryl herself, many years after her adventure. If Chris had been able to write about his adventure many years after the fact, his story might sound different.(3) See […]

I think memoirs may be kind of my thing right now — travel memoirs, specifically. After reading an excellent memoir (Love with a Chance of Drowning) I was craving more of the same, so I finally picked up Wild. I had been meaning to read it for some time, but continued putting it off until I finally picked it up last week.This book hooked me from the very beginning and even though Cheryl Strayed and I share little to none of the same life experiences, I felt connected to her and her journey throughout the book and like I was there with her. I would personally be terrified to hike the PCT, or any long trail for that matter, by myself and there were certainly times throughout the book in which I thought to myself “what is this woman thinking?” But as time goes on, I felt the trail became somewhat of a companion for Cheryl. It was almost like a friend who was a great listener, just there as Cheryl makes her way through the trail and begins coming to terms with her life, her mother’s death, and her relationship. She was alone, but for some reason it never really felt that way in the book.I found this book to be very empowering. When you set out to do something completely alone, it’s impossible not to grow from it in some way. Especially when you realize you are capable of so many amazing things on your own. It was fascinating reading about Cheryl’s reflections on her life and also witnessing pivotal moments in her journey in which you could actually experience her growing and healing. I still think what she did was absolutely crazy, but it was also amazing.I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys travel, the outdoors or just wants a good read that will make you think and contemplate your own life. I’m excited to see the movie next month.

A brilliant first person narrative that made me feel as if I was actually watching Strayed throughout her Pacific Crest Trail journey. Watching her is one thing, but to actually get inside of her head with its almost bare and naked emotions. Now that is something rare which is captured on the pages of the book. Strayed’s writing is hypnotic for those so inclined to accompany her on her journey. The book was even more compelling than the movie.

Sometimes I happen across a book that leaves a profound impression on me and this was one of them. I have hiked sections of the PCT as well as nearly all of the Colorado trail, a lot of it solo in a two month long quest. My quest was very different but there were amazing parallels. Wild was an inspirational and emotional read for me. This book has inspired me to expand my own trekking journal-not as a copy cat but as a pure inspiration to tell my own story of my exit and reentry into society which is profoundly different than hers.I was a much more experienced outdoors person then Cheryl Strayed when I did my trek but I was impressed by her ability to adapt and learn the skills of a long distance hiker through the school of hard knocks. When you are soloing in the wilderness a minor mishap can spiral into a life and death situation. The book does a good job illustrating this fact of life for solo wilderness adventures. I think at times she was on the brink and if she would’ve suffered an accident or worse than this quest could be viewed as a suicidal undertaking-much like Christopher McCandless’ fate in John Krakauer’s Into the Wild. I have wondered this about myself and the deeper motivations for my own solo wilderness undertaking.In reading about her experiences on the PCT, I remembered the exhaustion camps, navigating through waste deep snow, walking the dry sections in thirst, yelling at wild animals, and living off dehydrated food that was mailed to me on different legs of the trip. These were definite parallels that hit home. A hot meal, a shower, and a beer become luxuries when you leave the ordinary life we live where we take such things for granted. She called her pack the monster, I called mine the pig. I too experienced some trail magic as well as some moments of existential terror.Getting a woman’s perspective on solo trekking was very interesting and enlightening for me. I didn’t see a woman on my own trek unless I went to a mountain town or was on a popular day hike section of the CT. The challenges of soloing are indeed magnified by being a female alone and vulnerable. Being able to persevere and not bail out at the earliest convenience is also one of the books main themes. When you undertake a quest like this you are often riddled with self doubt and the whole why did I do this when I could be home in front of the tube with plumbing and central heating?I found the tone of this book to be extremely sad and I feel that her experience was about dealing with loss and rebuilding one’s life in the face of hopelessness and despair. When one leaves the ordinary life for an adventure like this it is often a quest. I believe her quest was a transformation even though to some it might have seemed half-baked and possibly suicidal. I lived in Portland from 1992 to 1995 and am from the same generation. I wonder if Cheryl and I ever crossed paths in Portland? I would like to think so because solo trekkers are kindred spirits. When I finished this book I was almost moved to tears and deeply thankful to the author for sharing this experience with such a straight forward writing style that hid nothing and reveled the inner workings of the mind of a lost soul.I only heard about this book when I saw the movie trailer and was compelled to read it before seeing the movie which I believe Reese Witherspoon might be miscast. Every once and awhile you come across a book where you would like to thank the writer for writing it because it touches your life-this book is one of them.

Sometimes I happen across a book that leaves a profound impression on me and this was one of them. I have hiked sections of the PCT as well as nearly all of the Colorado trail, a lot of it solo in a two month long quest. My quest was very different but there were amazing parallels. Wild was an inspirational and emotional read for me. This book has inspired me to expand my own trekking journal-not as a copy cat but as a pure inspiration to tell my own story of my exit and reentry into society which is profoundly different than hers.I was a much more experienced outdoors person then Cheryl Strayed when I did my trek but I was impressed by her ability to adapt and learn the skills of a long distance hiker through the school of hard knocks. When you are soloing in the wilderness a minor mishap can spiral into a life and death situation. The book does a good job illustrating this fact of life for solo wilderness adventures. I think at times she was on the brink and if she would’ve suffered an accident or worse than this quest could be viewed as a suicidal undertaking-much like Christopher McCandless’ fate in John Krakauer’s Into the Wild. I have wondered this about myself and the deeper motivations for my own solo wilderness undertaking.In reading about her experiences on the PCT, I remembered the exhaustion camps, navigating through waste deep snow, walking the dry sections in thirst, yelling at wild animals, and living off dehydrated food that was mailed to me on different legs of the trip. These were definite parallels that hit home. A hot meal, a shower, and a beer become luxuries when you leave the ordinary life we live where we take such things for granted. She called her pack the monster, I called mine the pig. I too experienced some trail magic as well as some moments of existential terror.Getting a woman’s perspective on solo trekking was very interesting and enlightening for me. I didn’t see a woman on my own trek unless I went to a mountain town or was on a popular day hike section of the CT. The challenges of soloing are indeed magnified by being a female alone and vulnerable. Being able to persevere and not bail out at the earliest convenience is also one of the books main themes. When you undertake a quest like this you are often riddled with self doubt and the whole why did I do this when I could be home in front of the tube with plumbing and central heating?I found the tone of this book to be extremely sad and I feel that her experience was about dealing with loss and rebuilding one’s life in the face of hopelessness and despair. When one leaves the ordinary life for an adventure like this it is often a quest. I believe her quest was a transformation even though to some it might have seemed half-baked and possibly suicidal. I lived in Portland from 1992 to 1995 and am from the same generation. I wonder if Cheryl and I ever crossed paths in Portland? I would like to think so because solo trekkers are kindred spirits. When I finished this book I was almost moved to tears and deeply thankful to the author for sharing this experience with such a straight forward writing style that hid nothing and reveled the inner workings of the mind of a lost soul.I only heard about this book when I saw the movie trailer and was compelled to read it before seeing the movie which I believe Reese Witherspoon might be miscast. Every once and awhile you come across a book where you would like to thank the writer for writing it because it touches your life-this book is one of them.

A very powerful story about a woman who loses her mom and then loses her direction in her life. She chooses to hike the grueling Pacific Crest Trail by herself which restores her perception ANF confidence.

I’ve read many of the reviews of this book. The reason was that I was surprised at how many reviewers really hated it. As I read the reviews, I found two common threads. First, there are those who have actually hiked the PCT and expected to gain some sort of kinship with the writer by having read the book. Then there are the readers who buy the book expecting it to be of some particular use to them, either as a hiking book or as a personal journey of enlightenment.I, myself, have no experience hiking beyond day hikes, but I do enjoy reading about long distance hiking. That was what drew me to the book. I will admit that you will be no wiser a hiker for having read this book (except to learn what NOT to do). You will also be no nearer to resolving your inner demons for having read this book. It’s not a hiking guide and it’s not self-help. It is, however, a very good read. I began reading this book with no expectations whatsoever other than someone’s experiences on the trail. I accepted the author’s intent for what it was without trying to pigeonhole her into what I wanted her to be. She rewarded me by giving me an honest and raw account of her own life, laid bare without hiding her fear, foolishness, or selfishness for the world’s critiquing. She didn’t try to justify herself and she didn’t try to pass herself off as being particularly good at anything.What she did for me was show me that no matter how screwed up you are, there’s hope. That hope was what shined at the end of this wonderful, terrible memoir.

Cheryl Strayed is such a good writer that you never doubt for a moment that her totally improbably experience solo hiking 1,100 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail – over glaciers, through snow drifts, without water during 100 degree days and avoiding being attacked by bears, rattlesnakes and creepy hunters – is completely true. The strength of the book is her ability to not only convey the drama of the physical expedition, which consumed more than 100 days of her life, but also her internal journey to find herself after the multiple losses of her mother to cancer and her marriage to divorce.As you hike with her you feel the pain of her tortured feet in the boots that are a size too small, the loneliness of her self-imposed exile on the dangerous trail and also the joy she finds in the daily small miracles of bathing in a cool stream after a 10-hour hike, drinking a cold Snapple lemonade when she briefly stops in a camp or takes the time to take in a breath-taking view of the Sierres. You actually long for her to get to the infrequent camps where she has mailed her supply packages with the meager $20 that she allocated for each leg of the back-breaking hike. And you slowly understand, as she lets you share in past memories what took her on this life-changing challenging walk.It’s very unlikely that anyone will follow her onto the Pacific Crescent Trail after reading Wild (and if they do they surely will be better prepared and will certainly make sure that they get good hiking boots) but her lessons of self-discovery are universal – and ultimately quite inspiring. This is a read that stays with you.

My only regret is I gave this book away! Wild was one of the 1st books I read about anyone who has accomplished a thru-hike, and in this care a very long hike on the PCT. A long hike by a tiny but mighty woman was nothing short of inspiring. I would be lying if I wasn’t afraid for her when that drunk creep returned to ask her unsettling questions. Thankfully his equally creepy friend returned and got him the heck away from her, but what would’ve/could’ve happened had the other guy not came back. Its scary to know so many creepy men are lurking on the trails. Its speaks volumes to the courage of Cheryl Strayed. I do not know if I could have continued on had it been me. There is a portion in a book I recently read called Lost on the Appalachian Trail, by Kyle Rohrig, where he tells of a woman who was walking the trail alone and towards the end she just disappeared, never to be seen again or found. It was hard on Kyle who could only surmise foul play. However both books were very inspiring and lit a fire in me to get back on the trails and plan something BIG, but I am not courageous enough to do a thru-hike alone. And I’m bringing a gun….don’t judge, just saying…

A few weeks ago I was skiing with my brother and his family at Mount Bachelor when he mentioned that he was in a book about the PCT. He completed the thru hike the year Cheryl hiked portions of it and appears as Josh one of three “young bucks.” I enjoyed the first piece Strayed’s writing I read years ago, a raucous and raunchy essay that appeared in America’s Best Essays. “Wild,” my second Strayed read, is an emotionally raw and honest book. It is more of catharsis and a rebirth than an adventure book. The process of completing a long hike is simply putting one foot after the other. Almost anyone can do it. That alone is not so sexy, interesting, or even adventurous to make a book I would want to read. So I am thankful that Cheryl shared what was going on in her thoughts and part of her history in a self effacing manner. I especially enjoyed her discussion of songs stuck in her head because my brother had “Poisoning the Pigeons in the park” by Tom Lehrer stuck in his head for three full days on the trail and I can still, at 39, get him into a fighting mood by humming a few verses. Also growing up in a backpacking family I could relate to all of the fantasies about food. The moving and mixed way Cheryl writes about her mother will make you want to call your mom and tell her that you love her. I am giving this book to my office landlady and I think it will be book club fodder in Albany, Ca. If you’re not in touch with your emotions, are judgmental about sexuality or drugs, or do not like to hear about how other’s work out difficult life issues, then this is not the book for you. If you’re a puritan and righteous indignation is your thing you will love this book. But if you have struggled, lived as a deviant in order to process life, or just like to read some interesting perspectives on life this book well worth reading.

A Awesome read

I absolutely loved this book! As you might have gathered from other reviews, this is NOT a trail guide, or a book solely about details of hiking – this is a book about growth, awareness, acceptance, soul-searching and soul-finding. I was hooked from the first word – and when I was done reading it, I downloaded the audio version.The book would not be what it is without Cheryl Strayed’s vulnerability, honesty, and willingness to tell her story, all of it: the good, the bad, and the ugly, as well as the beautiful. Parts of it were heart-wrenching and difficult to read, parts were funny and touching, all of it added up to a very moving book.I enjoyed having Oprah’s notes through the book. I liked seeing which passages she highlighted and why, and how the same paragraph might strike us both very differently, though each of us got something meaningful from it. I didn’t find it distracting at all, though others might.I have read some reviews that are critical for Ms. Strayed’s lack of explanation for HOW she grew and changed, how she made the changes she made, but I think most of us don’t have that knowledge about ourselves, at least not in a way that can be prettily summarized in a chapter. It is enough to know that this hike changed her. I don’t need to know how she incorporated those changes; the story of the hike is enough.Just as: It is enough to know this book has profoundly affected me, I don’t need to be able to articulate the details, loving this book is enough.If you are judgmental, close-minded, don’t like sex or people who like sex, and have never made a bad decision in your life, this book probably isn’t for you. (read some of the one-star reviews for details) If you live your life fully human, open to possibility, if you sometimes make poor choices in order to keep moving forward, you may very well love it.

I read the book a second time, first from the middle to the end, and then from the beginning to the middle.All of you who are judging Cheryl, please read the beginning again. Unless you have experienced a loved one dying of cancer, you cannot really judge. She was such a young girl, and she was the only one who took care of her mother at that time. This book is a tribute to her mother. Her mother, who after being a battered wife finally had the courage to take her three children and leave. Her mother, who went to college too, when Cheryl went and got all A’s. Her mother, who never complained, or was bitter at having to die such a painful death at such a young age.My father lost his wife of 42 years, and he too allowed himself behavior he would not have indulged in while she was living. His grief was so overwhelming he did his best to overcome it.She is often very honest, uses the four-letter “f” word more than is acceptable to me, but this generation does that. It is almost considered wholesome, used on prime time TV.Cheryl Strayed is a complex person: she is promisicious, irresponsible, loving, callous, intelligent, stupid, isolated, indulgent and disciplined. She does not fall into any type of stereotype hero, but she is as every inch a force to be dealt with as any other male hero that dominates our literature. And she is a real, honest heroine.She does talk about the trail, giving some history to some sites, and often compares the real thing to the description in her guidebook. She reads and she has a disciplined routine she seldom veers from.But most delightfully, the message that resonates in my brain is: “Cheryl Strayed, but the Wilderness tamed her!”I would definitely recommend this book.

This book probably doesn’t need another positive review, but here I go anyway. I simply loved it. It filled me with wonder and admiration and ….envy. Cheryl made the kind of journey that I fantasize about in my deepest heart. The sheer physicality of the challenge, the overwhelming beauty of the surroundings, and the unpredictability of nature (and of the strangers met on the way) fuel my head with longing to make the experience my own. This woman had guts, though, that I do not possess. A woman alone on the trail for months with little experience, no weapon, and hardly any money seems like a fool and I found myself angry with her several times for her poor planning. What would have happened if the sandy-haired guy got rough? How did she, in the planning stages, not arrange to have more money available? What was her plan in an emergency? I keep oscillating between awesome-cool and bat-shit crazy in my assessment of her trek. Nevertheless, I loved it and was inspired by Cheryl’s daring and bravery (and angered by her poor judgment at points). The writing is very good. The metaphors she uses are well-placed and evocative. I was able to picture the trail, in all its natural gristle and beauty, throughout the book. I will carry this with me for a long time.

WILD is a fearlessly told, wildly fantastic, and entertaining story. The author, Cheryl Strayed (not her birth name, but one she chose after a her divorce) exceeded any and all expectations I had when Wild arrived in my mailbox. This is a memoir, but reads like a novel. All human behavior, interaction, and communication, I think, is best understood via the narrative, in other words–a story. And so I am going to talk about this story as if it were fiction – in the language of the six fundamental elements of a story.Title. Perfect. To look at the spine is to see ‘Cheryl Strayed WILD’. Which would induce me to pluck it off any shelf. [However, I think the cover would have been better with a snapshot of Cheryl, or a trail maker of the PCT; but I understand the choice of the boot.] Cheryl Strayed is a wild girl, as she says: “I was an experimentalist … An artist. The kind of woman who said yes instead of no.” (p. 54) That is a trail marker letting the reader know just what kind of journey you are about to get into.Plot. One of the best – Redemption of the human soul through the force of will, strength, and toughness. Briefly, Cheryl was born in 1968, white, female, attractive, intelligent, and in addition had the benefit of a college education. You could call her advantaged. But, big but, she was born into rural poverty and domestic violence and then her champion, advocate, and sole support – her mother – died suddenly of cancer when Cheryl was twenty-two. Cheryl, lost, descended into debauchery, seemingly bent on self- destruction via sex and drugs.Characterization. Not only did I quickly begin to root for Cheryl, I fell in love with her. She was/is the personification of my “perfect” woman. [I am aware, wistfully, that the person I am in love with is a fiction–a 26 year-old woman with the wisdom and wit of the same person 15 years later.] Not only was she white, young, attractive, intelligent, and funny; she was by her declaration: “–strong and responsible, clear-eyed and driven, ethical and good.” (p. 57) [And] “I was a big fat idiot and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing …” (p.58) [Told you she was funny.] And it just keeps getting better, funnier; and yet in the next sentence she is as likely to bring tears to my eyes as to make me laugh out loud.Point of view. Her voice is perfect. I can hear her, see her! In all her joy and sadness and frustration, in other words, in all her humanity … or femaleness. Cheryl blends the past with the present in the telling of her story masterfully. There is no confusion for the reader. Her wisdom and humor and reflection merge in ways that are really rare in writing.Setting. The Pacific Crest Trail, from the deserts of southern California, through the high Sierras and into the “Box of Rain” to the Bridge of the Gods on the Columbia River in Oregon, she describes it beautifully, as well as all the characters, camps, and towns along the trail. And most significantly for me–what it is like to hike alone, mile after mile after mile. [A thing I am very, very familiar with.]Theme. The power of the human spirit and the unequivocal interaction of the force of nature with that of man (woman) to combine to heal and restore a person to their true self.This is a rare book. I read a lot, and have never fallen for a writer and a voice and a story like I did for Cheryl Strayed and WILD.

Cheryl’s book WILD took me back to our “week long” hikes in the John Muir wilderness in the early to mid-1990’s. Actually 8 to 9 days, so we hiked 72 to 100 miles total at 8,000 to 11,000 feet elevation. I could feel her pain with her boots and the hard ground and the changes in weather and believing the crest of the mountain was just ahead only to find it was still many many steps yet to come. The endless switchbacks, steep steps dripping wet in the morning, the outcroppings of rocks and trusting our boots to keep us from sliding right off the side of the mountain. The sound of our boots as we quietly and reverently trudged across a mountain meadow and lovely mountain lakes where I couldn’t tell the edge of the water from the reflection of the mountain above. I can also understand how she was able to clear her mind and emotions and begin to heal and see her life more clearly. What is it about getting out in pure nature with nothing electrical or even much battery operated that allows our minds to flow more freely? Less mental clutter and the stimulation of our electronic world?This book touched me deeply with her coping with her mother’s cancer and her family’s reaction to it as well. She made some unwise choices, I’ll agree, but she tells her story honestly and without apology and ultimately I had to applaud her and shed some tears for her journey and her growth. But we laughed with her and were charmed by her all along also. Was this a how-to guide on hiking and survival on the PCT??? Heavens NO!! Don’t try this at home. Cheryl must have had her little guardian angel with her all along, as well as the kindness of strangers.All in all, an excellent read.

The journey is both physical and restorative. At times it is hard to tell if the narrative is about the pain of her body or soul. An inspirational read for all of us

It is possible to see Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail as similar to John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, the tale of the life and death of Chris McCandless in the Alaska wilderness (1) (see my review of this book). Chris McCandless and Cheryl Strayed were of a similar twenty something age, Cheryl being some four or five years older than Chris. On the surface, both seemed to view venturing into the wilderness as a way to test themselves and gain insight and understandings about themselves. And both were essentially unprepared and ill equipped for the test they set for themselves.(2) But here the stories diverge.Chris was a total romantic about the redeeming powers of wilderness. After graduating from college he gave away all of his money and ditched his old car. Again and again he would launch into wilderness experiences with little or no preparation and the implicit belief that the wilderness was benign and would shelter and protect him. Of course, it did not. (3)Cheryl on the other hand had struggled with several demons in the years beyond college. She was married early to a man she loved but was unable to be faithful to. The death of her mother at age forty-two devastated her. And she became addicted to heroin. In an effort to redeem herself and turn her life around, she divorced her husband, kicked her heroin habit and somehow latched onto hiking the 1300 mile Pacific Coast Wilderness Trail: California as a way to come to grips with all of her personal issues.Unlike McCandless, Cheryl was not unprepared for her adventure. She had read the trail guide over and over. She had been to the REI store many times for advice and to secure the equipment she thought she would need. She had prepared re-supply boxes for a friend to ship to post offices along the trail as she would need them. She was not completely unprepared for her adventure, but in many ways she was not well prepared either, and she was naïve about the demands, both physical and personal, she would face.I think I liked this book for many of the same reasons that I liked Warren Richey’s book, Without a Paddle (see my review of this book). Richey used the challenge of the Florida circumnavigation race as a personal physical challenge, and way to be alone with his thoughts after a difficult divorce. He used the time alone as time to reflect and gain perspective on what had happened. His story swung between the very real physical challenges of the trail and his equally challenging inner struggles. Strayed’s story has the same Yin and Yang as Richey’s. And they both have a way of using humor to lighten the darkness of their struggles.To my surprise, I found I could relate to many of the feelings in Strayed’s book. I can’t say that I ever picked up women in bars or had one-night stands. I’ve never done drugs of any kind, though alcohol has played a role in my life. But I have been divorced and left with a lot of pain and questions that needed sorting out. And I have sought out “wilderness” as a place to be alone with my thoughts.Like the Richey book, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, will not appeal to everyone. The hike is really the background story, the sub-context here. But there are enough personal and physical challenges confronted in this book that those readers with some years of living or difficult life experiences under their belts will relate to. In that sense the book has universal appeal.NOTES:(1) While in Alaska I passed along the Teklanika River in Denali National Park, within a few miles of the abandoned school bus where Chris McCandless lived and died. It is truly wild country.(2) It should be noted that the McCandless book was written by Krakauer from research he did on Chris’s life, while the Strayed book was written by Cheryl herself, many years after her adventure. If Chris had been able to write about his adventure many years after the fact, his story might sound different.(3) See […]

I am amazed by some of the criticism of other reviewers – especially their judgement of her character and analysis of her psychology. Have these people ever experienced loss at all in their lives and a loss at such a young age and that too compounded by having had a violent father. Have they ever experienced the literal heart ache, the feeling that there is nothing worth living for anymore, that the best possible (love) is behind them – and to feel that at such a young age. Anyone who has felt any of this would not be judging her.I also do not understand their disappointment over not finding the book inspiring or insightful of how she overcame her grief. In grief, and the mess that it is, validation is what is needed. For anyone who has experienced deep loss will feel validated after reading this book. There is no reason to “overcome” anything and to “inspire” others. The best you can do is validate what they are going through and give them permission to take their time and their messy path to survival and recovery. She has achieved that in this book.It seemed to me that she was trying to get back her healthy self after having lost it in the aftermath of her loss. She did get that back at the end of her journey. She stopped doing those self-destructive activities. That is a huge accomplishment and quite understandable that the physical journey led her to it. That is called pilgrimage.

Though the subject matter has been written many times over, this particular book by this particular author places it leaps and bounds above the rest. Her writing style makes this a superior book about a solo hike along a long and treacherous path.

Outstanding book! I saw the movie before I read the book, and you know how that goes, one or the other usually disappoints. Not this time. Within reason, the movie was a faithful companion to the book. I thoroughly enjoyed both. The book was able to delve a little more deeply into Cheryl’s story and more fully examine the mess she had gotten into after the death of her mother. Two things are absolutely clear by the end of the book- Bobbi loved her kids absolutely, did her very best for them, and Cheryl loved her mom deeply as well.The hiking scenes were very well done, and as someone who has done my share of hiking (though no large scale hikes like the PCT or Appalachian Trail) I could readily identify with so much of it. That stage where you’re just plodding along, putting one foot in front of the other, is well-known to anyone who hikes. When you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you’d like to just quit, you realize that you can’t. No helicopter is going to swoop in and pluck you off the trail just because you’re tired of doing it.Her relief at the end of the day, getting rid of her heavy pack and getting off her feet, is also familiar. At the end of the day, no better feeling than getting this bitch off my back”! Her appreciation of little things like wildflowers and the animals she sees are what hiking is all about.In short, you feel as if you’re with Cheryl every step of the way. Yet she blends the hiking and the battle with her demons in such a way that neither part of the story overwhelms the other.Hiker or not, this is a must-read. It’s very well-crafted and engaging. You’ll find yourself reading far into the night!

I loved this book, as well as the movie version. Very inspiring

Though the subject matter has been written many times over, this particular book by this particular author places it leaps and bounds above the rest. Her writing style makes this a superior book about a solo hike along a long and treacherous path.

When I started this book I didn’t think I was going to like or finish it because I initially didn’t like the protagonist. However, after only a few chapters, I couldn’t put the book down. The honesty and purity of Cheryl’s willingness to share her story, even when it was not complimentary to her character was courageous and eventually added to the overall growth of her character.Cheryl did an extremely courageous act by hiking the Pacific Trail alone and I think I was more frightened for her than she was. Her ability to make what would seem a mundane topic shine is a credit few authors possess. By bringing in outside characters upon which to reflect, such as her brother and her shooting her Mother’s horse, was expansive and gave us such insight into who she was. Her insistence on hiking alone while still incorporating characters she met and entreated with helped make this so multi dimensional, the reader began to care for all of the characters. I was actually frightened for her at times, such as when she ran into the hunters, but she always came through stronger and wiser on the other side.Cheryl was definitely the Queen of the PCT and it was amazing how she never used her position to garner help but that everyone loved her and wanted to help her. Finding out how the hike helped her heal and learning about her future in the last chapter was uplifting. The mere fact that she didn’t give up, even when her boots and pack worked against her was amazing. Most people would have given up long before the trail ended but because she didn’t, I believe she attained the goals she set out to accomplish. Getting over the death of a parent is so tragic but one lost at such a young age as Cheryl’s mother made her quest seem overwhelming. I did not want this book to be over, it was soooo good.

Cheryl Strayed is an outstandingly accomplished writer. Her account of a brutal, 3 month hike on the Pacific Coast Trail by herself is written so clearly and cleanly that I felt throughout my reading that she was sitting across from me telling the story.This is a story of a woman who chose an extreme physical challenge to overcome the complete personal and spiritual meltdown she had experienced in her private life. At age 26 she had lost the person who had meant most to her in the whole world, divorced a husband who loved her, and engaged in some very risky behavior. She pulls no punches about the state of her life before the hike and where the fault belonged for its condition.The reader will wonder throughout the book how she managed to stay with it given feet with excruciating pain that would not quit, lack of sufficient money, the constant threats presented by the weather, animals and some humans, as well as the crippling exhaustion that overtook her from time to time. The reader will also be amazed by the honesty she displays in describing her faults, accomplishments, regrets, fears, hopes and dreams.I was sorry to finish this book and have added Cheryl Strayed to my dream dinner party list of people I would most like to meet, talk to and spend the evening with. I would call this a must-read, inspirational book that anyone would thoroughly enjoy but perhaps especially those who are going through a dark period in their lives.

This book speaks to our human condition, buried deep within us, the things we seldom speak aloud or even admit to ourselves. I was deeply moved by her personal journey and breath-taken by the views along the way.

I recently finished Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. It is a book about a woman who hikes a trail on the west coast in hopes of finding herself. It is an autobiography written by Cheryl herself as she hikes.I think this book is a must read. It was inspiring and uplifting, in a way that only a book about a woman who has hit rock bottom and fights her way back up can. Although there are plenty of books about women who struggle with self identity and depression, Cheryl did a good job of making this one engaging and different. I happen to like the autobiography genre because I like that the story is about real peoples struggles. I like to read about the challenges and how they overcome them, even if the challenges that most autobiographies are written about are extreme and hard to imagine, I feel that I can easily take them in context and apply them to situations that may arise in my, or someone close to me’s life. Cheryl made me feel like I was her friend and companion on the hike. I laughed when she laughed and cried when she cried. Although there were points in the journey when even I was bored with the walking, I felt that those points were necessary to make the journey feel real. She did a great job of pulling me back in after these lulls and I was just as engrossed as before.I found the miscellaneous characters that flutter in and out to be quirky and entertaining. At the end of the book I thought about them and wondered where they were now and how they were doing. She only gave us a fleeting view of them, but she also had just a fleeting view of them herself. She focused more on how they affected her and what she learned from them, rather than on actually developing the characters. I liked that even though it was a book all about the discovery of who Cheryl Strayed really is, she gave us an insight into other characters that she met along the way. She was descriptive enough to set the plot for me, enabling me to envision her beautiful and treacherous hike while at the same time not being sickened by the descriptive words of beauty.I found the plot easy to follow, although considering the plot is almost entirely about a woman hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, you would think that would be pretty straightforward; however, Cheryl found a way to entwine her trials and tribulations into the book while not making it confusing and jumpy.I would recommend this book to anyone going through a hard time in their life, but even for people that are not. It is a feel good book that makes you want to go strap a backpack on and take on the PCT today!I wanted to include some of the negative reviews that I found online. I found that most of them had to do with the actual hike, or the genre as a whole. Many people had written that all she did was complain through the book. I didn’t find this book to be whiny or self-centered. I liked the way that she was forced to focus on herself the entire time. I will say that she complained, a lot, about the hike and how hard it was but I believe that she was using that as a tool to show her readers how much of a journey it was. I think she whined to show that not only was she working through some very tough emotional stuff, she was doing it while working through some very tough physical stuff as well. I am not a hiker, so I have no insight into whether she portrayed hiking, as a sport, correctly so if you are a hiker and would like to shed some light here, feel free. The last complaint that I will talk about was the one of her lifestyle before the hike. I think that many people were cruel in the way that they bashed Cheryl’s lifestyle leading up to the hike. I think that she accurately portrayed a 25 something woman who has a pretty messed up life. I will agree that her choices were poor, but I think she handled it how she thought she could and I think that people who threw stones in the reviews about her life choices, sounded like they hadn’t really dealt with heartbreak and total life failure. There are different types of people in the world, those who make lemonade when life throws them lemons and people that throw the lemons away and chug a bottle of vodka.If you liked my post, visit my website at http://www.balancingemma.wordpress.com