Wild

In these first 100 pages Cheryl hasn't been having a very good time yet. It seemed in her summary of the events that led to her hiking the PCT on her own that she's cursed or something. Starting out in life with an abusive father and poor family, things seem to get better when her mother remarries someone pretty solid and they move to a farm. Farms bring happiness. But then when she's in college and married to "Paul" (apparently she changed everyones names) who also seems pretty solid, her mother gets cancer and dies. Cheryl is not happy. Her family splits apart despite her efforts and eventually her marriage splits up too, and then she gets into heroin with a nice-but-not-as-solid boyfriend named "Joe." Oh and she never graduated from college. So eventually after everything is really really bad Cheryl decides that hiking the pacific crest trail on her own would lead to some spiritual healing. So she packed up a super heavy pack and started on a 6-month-journey by herself into the wilderness. She meets some friendly hikers but mostly she's suffering from heat and snow and blisters and dirt and scary animals and is still sad about the various bad things that have happened. Cheryl's journey is admirable, since most hikers don't attempt this specific trail without a lot of experience, especially without a partner, and she's the only solo woman currently on the trail (and maybe ever?). I think spending this much time by yourself is extremely dangerous and you are more likely to go insane/be gored by a moose and your remains will never be found than experience worthwhile spiritual healing. Maybe a month by yourself max. Still, I felt kind of jealous of her lone journey, reading about wandering around in the wilderness on the six hour ride to suburban Virginia.