Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail Paperback – Large Print Author: Visit Amazon's Cheryl Strayed Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1594136742 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Download Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Large Print
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- Paperback: 605 pages
- Publisher: Large Print Press; Lrg edition (April 5, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1594136742
- ISBN-13: 978-1594136740
- Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
I love a title with more than one meaning. In this case. Wild can refer to the idea of hiking more than a thousand miles of the 2,663 mile Pacific Crest Trail, the wild trail itself, and even to the author, particularly in her former life. Wild by Cheryl Strayed is well named.
When Cheryl Strayed contemplated hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) she had no idea of the magnitude of her impulsive decision. She was totally unprepared for this rugged endeavor. She had researched the trail a bit, inquired and shopped for equipment at REI, and bought a trail guide. But she hadn't done any preliminary back-packing to test her equipment, nor to build up her stamina. Indeed, she'd never backpacked at all, only day-hiked.
She starts her journey at the south end of the trail, near the Mexican border. She actually packs her backpack for the first time in the motel room the morning she is to begin her journey. She can barely lift it off the floor. She soon learns that her boots don't fit her correctly, a mistake that plagues her during the entire trip. When she encounters snow and ice, she's woefully unprepared and under equipped. Although she has arranged to have relief packages mailed to herself along the way, she underestimated the amount of money she'd need.
Still, over the next several weeks she strives on, overcomes fear and struggles through pain and extreme exhaustion. Her daily mileage is at first pathetic, but she eventually achieves an impressive 17 to 19 miles per day. Strayed's appreciation of the beauty around her bolsters her morale. Her intention is to achieve this ambitious feat alone and for the most part, she is alone, though she encounters a few people along the way. She gains a reputation among other hikers and is dubbed "Queen of the PCT.
I read this for my book club. The club members who have no experience backpacking tended to like it, with a few exceptions. Those like me who have experience backpacking ALL found the book alternately:
-boring, non remarkable. I like to hike but reading about someone else's hike if nothing unusual happens (except that she's remarkably ill prepared) is not interesting.
The only astounding part is to see how willfully ill prepared the author is and some of the dumb things she does along the way.
A few of many examples:
- How do you buy a backpack and buy stuff to put in the pack without a) seeing that the stuff fits and b) trying on the pack? This author did neither.
How does one possibly buy a backpacking stove at REI without understanding that different models take different types of fuel? All the info at REI is all about fuel differences, plus and minus's of different fuel etc. And it was that way in '95, which I bought my first backpacking stove.
- And how do you go on a 2-month trip without considering to TRY essential items like the stove and boots first?
These are just a few of the remarkably stupid things the author does in journey.
Is this book popular with people who've done stupid things (as we all have) and want to read about someone who does an unbelievably large amount of MANY MORE dumb things, over and over again? Well, to each their own.
Yes, there is the backstory of her issues with her father, her mother's early death, her failed marriage, and her self-destructive habits such as using heroin. I did not find that personal material compelling compared to many other memoirs such as this.
The writing is good but not enough to make up for the boring subject matter.
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