It Is Trish

If the movie is anything like the book, I completely understand why Wild has been getting so much attention.  Strayed’s story is amazing!  It would be compelling enough as one woman’s journey hiking the PCT alone, or else to describe the grief of losing your mother at a young age.  The fact that Strayed’s story does both at once is a testimony to the power of travel, the healing growth that comes from pushing your limits in a new, difficult situation that demands your full attention.

Strayed is a brilliant writer, balancing the introspective moments of hiking alone with humorous (or occasionally terrifying) interactions with fellow hikers.  I loved getting to see the PCT culture that bonds disparate people because of a shared intense experience.  I’m not sure I could ever hike the PCT, but Strayed does a remarkable job of making it sound appealing despite descriptions of lost toenails.

I loved this book, and I’m going to watch the movie so I can relive the experience.  Nature, healing, endurance, learning who you are–the story is beautiful, and I’m so glad I got to read it. 

Book Jacket

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir:  the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe–and built her back up again.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything.  In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed.  Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life:  to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State–and to do it alone.  She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.”  But it was the promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail.  Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

Release Date:  March 2012