Cheryl Strayed: "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-03-28/cheryl-strayed-wild-lost-found-pacific-crest-trail
Pacific Crest Trail in the Mt Jefferson Wildress
Karl S Johnson via Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlsjohnson/
A young woman in her twenties loses the mother she adores. The death sends her into a downward spiral of divorce, drug use and loss of identity. Her salvation is to go on an 1,100-mile hike alone. Cheryl Strayed says these circumstances lead her to the Pacific Crest Trail. She hoped the journey would make her into the woman she knew she could become and turn her back into the girl she had once been. Strayed was recently revealed to be the advice columnist "Dear Sugar," a kind of "Dear Abby" of the digital age. Cheryl Strayed talks about going from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Guests
Cheryl Strayed
author of the novel “Torch,” and the upcoming “Tiny Beautiful Things,” a collection of her “Dear Sugar” advice columns from the Rumpus.
Comments
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I am so excited you are featuring Cheryl Strayed on the show today!!! I just started reading Wild this weekend and it is one of the best books I've read in a while. Not only is she a fantastic author but the brutal honesty with which she writes will make you laugh out loud and then want to cry by the next page. This book is so inspiring to any young woman at a crossroads in her life, just yesterday I was fretting over a major decision and opened the book to a page where she was discussing overcoming fear with power and it was as if I was meant to read that page. Thank you for this fabulous book Cheryl Strayed!
Your lucky to have had your mom even for the short time because it sounds like she gave you so much love and for many people, they never have a mothers love. So even the short amount of time is better than none. Thank you for your journey and your book. :)
W.PerryRN
i admire you. Nature is my healing peace.Saved my life as well.Only in solitude did i find my self worth.Thank you i will read your book.Never GIVE UP
My husband died in Dec. 2012. We married in Jan. 1949, when I was 19, so I had spent almost all of my life in tandem with him. Like your guest, I couldn't imagine how I would get along on my own. But I had been very strong; I taught for 20 years, raised 3 children, spent summers camping and traveling. I thought maybe at 83 I would be able to sit and read--but with my family's encouragement I booked a 4-day ViaRail trip from Windsor ON to Vancouver BC alone, followed by 3 weeks with my son's family in LA!
The rail tour was perfect for me, to grieve alone or to mingle with others as I wished, and to be looked after very pleasantly. And the whole trip restored my self-confidence and my trust in my own strength and judgement. For some of us this may be the best way to deal with bereavement.
How long did it take the author to complete the trip?
Having hiked the 2100 miles of the Appalachian Trail I'm sure there are many of us listening that are enjoying this interview. Especially the weight piece, everyone I ever met on the trail had been so studied that every item in the pack had been weighed.
Normally I love to hear authors stories, but this is such a self-indulgent interview, glorifying the author's poor choices and pretty typical experiences. I am glad she has written a book, and I hope it is successful; but I do not see how this fits as a story of hope and change.
FYI: There's a plethora of information about long distance hiking from the Appalachian Trail Conservatory. Going alone is the best way, you meet folks along the way but you're able to be totally independent. A little preparation... maybe a lot of preparation and there's nothing to fear; go for it. BTW, I'm 70 and going back to the trail in a month for another 150 miles.
Wonderful journey thank you for sharing your story, I had a similar quest, mine was a journey through europe on bike, my mantra became all roads lead to zero, this primal urge to migrate is as much as part of the human condition as eating and sleeping. I now trek with my dog almost daily and this gives me a wonderful reset.
Yes... training on the trail is a great way to go.
Michael
I am 24 years old and have done some short term hiking in the SE. I've told myself I would hike the Appalachian Trail(AT) by 30. Your story is wonderfully inspiring and I'm now even more motivated to make this happen. Maybe even next year....I wanted to know if you have any more plans to do some long term hiking. Also, I'm curious if you acquired a trail name. met a guy named sticker on the AT who was 65 and it was his fifth time through hiking from Georgia to Maine.
While I commend Cheryl's journey but listeners and readers who wish to embark on a similar hike on the PCT or AT should seek the advice of a specialty outdoor store and thier staff. Equipment and technology have greatly changed in the past 15+ years. Cheryl may not be the best expert to ask how to prepare physically for this type of journey.
Cheryl mentiones a few books she enjoyed on her journey. Can you help me recall the titles?
Amazing interview! Can't wait to read the book!
Great show today Diane. Fascinating author, just ordered her book.
Eastern shore listener.
.
Thousands hike the AT and PCT solo. The difference between most of them and your guest is that they respect nature and the wilderness and practice a leave-no-trace ethic. You glorify your guest's act of throwing her boot into the trees as if it's some sort of deep metaphor. It was littering, Ms Rehm, and creating an eyesore for all the others who are out enjoying what would normally be pristine wilderness were it not for the thoughtless acts of your guest. While she's collecting roylaties on her book, a thoughtful hiker will be burdening themself with the added weight of her discarded boot in order to keep the wilderness free of man's imprint. Many, many lovers of nature would find her act far more reprehensible than a conservative talk show host calling a Georgetown Law student a name. By embracing and glorifying her thoughtless act, you've stooped to becoming her accomplice. Pity. Not surprising. But a pity, nonetheless.
In 1972 I Sailed a 42 foot sailboat (along with 2 other guys) to Tahiti. The trip started as an around the world trip but we were shipwrecked in the Tuamotu island, rescued and then went on to hitch hike through both islands in New Zealand.
I too found this to be a life changing and affirming experience and certainly a rite of passage. Last September I did a 4 day hike in Yosemite which brought back a lot of the best memories and created some new ones.
My question is: how did you find writing the book after 12 years passed. In my case it has been 40 years. Really a
lifetime in terms of change.
Well, hope and change are in the eyes and ears of the beholder, I guess. I found it inspirational.
how great thou are and the truth will never be told she has dumped all over her stepdad and me and the truth if it was not her way it was no way she is the one that truned her back on her step dad who is still here waiting for her to quit blaming him for moveing on with his life with me i started dateing him 8 months after her mothers death and her clothes were still hanging in the bed room the kids went thier way but he was left here alone with the hurt i found him in a beer bottle and we were not married until 4 years after she death and did not live together till my girls were growin married 3 years before we even lived together she is so full of it
and don't get me going about killing a helpless horse that was old but cared for and in northern minnesota in the winter is not the time to drop a horse in spring you dig a hole shot behind the ear and they drop in the hole it is a 4000.oo fine to drop a horse and leave it lay the day after xmas my husband was out there digging a hole for a blood dead horse of 800 lbs threw 19 inches of frost because cheryl decided it was time and didn't tell thier stepdad they were even going to do this he found a letter on the table when he go home that they had killed lady that is the truth
i love her as a writer but i just hate that she uses her talent to make herself look great and slams the only man in her mothers life that cared and i am married to him and after 21 years i can say he still loves her
To Jim Davis' post: Wow, I think that's a bit harsh. I've come across "bits and pieces" left by previous hikers on my many treks and gladly pick up and carry what I can, knowing that not all of us can be at our "shiny best" all of the time, and certainly not when undertaking a physically demanding activity such as this. What ever happened to helping our brother/sister out when they couldn't carry all they'd taken on, both literally and figuratively? C'mon, lighten up (pun intended)! :)
Wow, what a great story! Liked the part about making her own boots from duct tape. I think Ms. Strayed could have made it in Special Forces.
De oppresso liber!
I am a little late to the game. Listening this a.m. in the car to the full hour. Was left in tears of sorrow and joy not to mention late for class. Can't wait to read the book. Thank you to the author for sharing such a deeply personal story and to my beloved Diane for such a probing interview.
Maggie Lippens
Ann Arbor, MI