I picked up Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail after reading several reviews a lonnnng time ago and honestly, waiting for it to be sold in paperback. I live in Washington State and while I didn’t know about the Pacific Crest Trail before starting the book it didn’t surprise me that there’s a trail running from here to California because people here are just that wild, no pun intended, about the outdoors.
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| Photo from here |
I found a lot to love about Cheryl Strayed. I loved just the idea of saying goodbye to everyone and embarking on a dangerous journey alone. Throughout the book I thought about how catastrophic a lot of the situations she got herself into might have been if under slightly different circumstances. A lot of issues were brought up — drug addiction, profound loss, abortion, self-discovery, relationships, young marriage, rural living, poverty, and education. Other things that pertain more exclusively to women were interesting to think about throughout the story — hitchhiking in 1995, being around mostly men for months, being around mostly herself for months, body image before, during, and after hiking for ten weeks.
The last topic struck me as particularly interesting, as she hiked she obviously gained a great deal of muscle but she did not slim down as much as many men she encountered. She didn’t turn into a hulking mass abs and biceps. She felt self-conscious about the patches of skin that were roughed by the constant chafing of her pack, feeling less-than-human because of their lack of feminine supple softness.
To say that Wild got me thinking about what I’m doing with my life would be an understatement. Each step of the book reminded me that, even in my twenties I can do incredible things. While I don’t think I could survive being basically alone, eating top ramen in the woods without running water for ten weeks, I did go outside after finishing Wild, as pathetic as that may seem.
