by Cheryl Strayed
New Adult Nonfiction 813.6 S
No stranger to impulsive decisions, Cheryl Strayed, a young woman from Minnesota with zero backpacking experience decided to solo hike 1100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. The PCT is the lesser know cousin of the Appalachian Trail, running from Mexico to Canada. Although the reader gets a pretty good sense of the trail and all its challenges – yes, there are bears and rattlesnakes -- this is not a travel guide. It is about her personal journey. And it’s a stunner.
Cheryl was a woman lost. She was 22 when her mother died, her remaining family crumbled, and her marriage disintegrated. She dabbled in all the dangerous things that lost people dabble in and she comes clean about all of it. A few years later, as she was hitting bottom, she decided that while she had done and been many things “A woman who walks alone in the wilderness for eleven hundred miles? I’d never been anything like that before. I had nothing to lose by giving it a whirl.” Nothing to lose? That might sound crazy to most people but Cheryl sold all her possessions, learned everything that the good folks at REI could teach her, and sent boxes with provisions ahead to all the outposts of civilization she would be near. And then she strapped on the backpack she refers to as “Monster” and headed off on the trail.
Cheryl quickly came to the conclusion that while she felt like an experienced backpacker due to all the advice she had received at REI, she really was ill-prepared for the journey. Her boots were too small; her backpack, too weighty; the money she sent ahead, too little. And yet… this woman has a fighting spirit that is just amazing. She endures.
Cheryl has a writing style that makes you feel like you are right there with her, every painful step of the way. Hers is a fascinating story of courage. And proof that, if you want to badly enough, you can change your life.
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