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Wild
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Wild (2012) (edit title/settings)

From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

by Cheryl Strayed (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.   At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's devastating death, her family... read more

Summary edit see section history

I was just amazed that this was a true story. When I think times are tough, I just think of Cheryl and I know I can
do hard things. I know think of hiking in a totally different way-especially of The Pacific Crest Trail.
This book isn't always lighthearted but it is her life story... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

I was just amazed that this was a true story. When I think times are tough, I just think of Cheryl and I know I can
do hard things. I know think of hiking in a totally different way-especially of The Pacific Crest Trail.
This book isn't always lighthearted but it is her life story and she overcame some huge odds.
I was really touched how the journey was in tribute to her grief of losing her mother.
I was really touched in the pages she wrote about having to put down her beloved horse.
I was always think of heavy backpacks, blistered feet and the importance of a book in The Wild.

People edit see section history

  • Cheryl Strayed: Cheryl, the author and narrator of this book, is 26, divorced, and mourning the loss of her mother (and what was left of her sense of family and 'home') when she finds herself beginning the hike on the PCT. Trail name "Queen of the PCT"
  • Doug: Another PCT hiker that Cheryl encounters at different times throughout her journey. Doug and Tom's trail name preppies
  • Paul: Cheryl's ex-husband and best friend.
  • Jonathan: Wilco t-shirt wearing 34 year old who in 1995 had seen Michelle Shocked three times live . . . lives in a wall tent on an organic farm outside of Ashland, Oregon. Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure.
  • Matt: A fellow hiker on the PCT; son of Albert; from Georgia. Matt and Albert's trail name was Eagle Scouts
  • Rex: A big red-haired gregarious hiker who told Cheryl that REI had 100% guarantee and they would replace her boots free of charge
  • Ed: A Trail Angel; set up camp in Kennedy Meadows in order to greet the PCT hikers as they passed
  • Bud: A drifter that offered Cheryl his bread and bologna.
  • William J. Crockett: Vietnam vet missing in action. Cheryl wore a bracelet with his name on it
  • Aimee: A friend of Cheryl
  • John: As a couple he and Sarah were hiking the CPT; from Alberta, Canada
  • Paco: Cheryl met him along with two firefighters on the road. He gave Cheryl a Bob Marley t-shirt saying that it was sacred and allowed her to walk with the spirits of the animal, earth and sky
  • Guy: Ranger who invited Cheryl up for drinks
  • Dave: Was in the vehicle with Lou and Spider that picked up Cheryl to take her to the junction to meet Stacy and Trina. He was marrying Lou soon
  • Albert: A fellow hiker on PCT; father of Matt, Matt and Albert's trail name was Eagle Scouts
  • Rick: CPI hiker from Portland. Rick, Josh and Richie had all gone to college together in Minnesota. They had a trail name of the Three Young Bucks
  • Greg: A fellow hiker that Cheryl meet on the PCT; an accountant from Tacoma. Trail name The Statistician
  • Lisa: A friend of Cheryl's who lives Portland
  • Vera: A fellow hiker accompanied by a five year old named Kyle, a dog named Miriam and a llama named Shooting Star
  • Susanna: A women from Switzerland who Cheryl met in Ashland. She told Cheryl that the spirits told her to massage her feet.
  • Kyle: A five year old boy whose mother had asked Vera to take him along on the hike while she got her life back together
  • Eddie: Cheryl's stepfather.
  • Miriam: Vera's dog
  • Jason: Lisa's boyfriend from Portland
  • Sam: Married to Helen; hiking the CPT
  • Tom: A fellow hiker on the PCT. Doug and Tom's trail name the Preppies
  • Christine: Cheryl met Christine, her husband Jeff and their two teen aged daughters at Packer Lake Lodge Restaurant
  • Clyde: Long bearded man that Cheryl met at the concert in Ashland. He lives in a tepee
  • Sarah: As a couple her and John were hiking the CPT
  • Spider: Was a passenger in the car that picked up Cheryl to take her to the junction; owner of Stevie Ray
  • Karen: Cheryl's older sister
  • Dee: Stacy's friend whom she had made plans to meet in Ashland and then continue to hike through Oregon
  • Stacy: Another women who was hiking the PCT. She worked as a book keeper for her father
  • Jimmy Carter: A reporter from Hobo News
  • Walter: One of the miners that Cheryl met on the road
  • Pat: An astrologer who did a reading for Cheryl in Minnesota
  • Roger: A two year old Gelding that Cheryl's mother had bought. Plays a part in Cheryl's dreams as she remembers his death.
  • Helen: Her and her husband Sam werw hiking the CPT; from Maine
  • Trina: Owner of Odin; 59 year old school English teacher from Colorado hiking the PCT
  • Jen G.: A women working at the co-op in Ashland
  • Leif: Cheryl's younger brother
  • Frank: One of the miners that Cheryl met on the road
  • Odin: A dog in Belden Town owned by Trina
  • Stevie Ray Vaughan: Blue-eyed husky belonging to Spider
  • Lou: Gave Cheryl a ride to the junction;soon to be married to Dave brother of Spider
  • Catherine Montgomery: Add a description of this character.
  • Richie: CPT hiker from New York. Rick, Josh and Richie had all gone to college together in Minnesota. They had a trail name of the Three Young Bucks
  • Josh: CPT hiker from Eugene. Rick, Josh and Richie had all gone to college together in Minnesota. They had a trail name of the Three Young Bucks
  • Carlos: One of the miners that Cheryl met on the road
  • Brent: Another hiker on the PCT; was referred to as the "kid"
  • Barbara (Bobbi): Cheryl's mother
  • Joe: A boyfriend Cheryl had who led her into heroin use. However, he had some good points.
  • Annette
  • John Muir
  • Clinton Churchill Clarke
  • William Faulkner
  • Joe
  • Ray Jardine
  • Vince
  • Val
  • Flannery O'Connor
  • Jeff
  • James Michener
  • Warren Rogers
  • Jerry Garcia
  • Michelle Shocked
  • Bob Marley
Show all 67 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “This was once a mountain that stood nearly 12,000 feet tall and then had its heart removed. This was once a wasteland of lava and pumice and ash. This was once an empty bowl that took hundreds of years to fill. But hard as I tried, I couldn't see them in my mind's eye. Not the mountain or the wasteland or the empty bowl. They simply were not there anymore. There was only the stillness and silence of that water: what a mountain and a wasteland and an empty bowl turned into after the healing began.”
    Cheryl Strayed
  • ““The universe, I'd learned, was never, ever kidding. It would take whatever it wanted and it would never give it back.””
    Cheryl Strayed
  • “Her death had obliterated that. It had obliterated me. It had cut me short at the very height of my youthful arrogance..... She would always be the empty bowl that no one could fill. I'd have to fill it myself again and again and again. Fuck her, I chanted as I marched on over the next few miles.”
    Cheryl Strayed
  • “It was my life- like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred.”
    Cheryl

First Sentence edit see section history

The trees were tall, but I was taller, standing above them on a steep mountain slope in Northern California.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Author's Note ix
Map xi
Prologue 3

Part One. The Ten Thousand Things
1. The Ten Thousand Things 9
2. Splitting 28
3. Hunching in a Remotely Upright Position 38

Part Two. Tracks
4. The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 1:California 47
5. Tracks 61
6. A Bull in Both Directions 76
7. The Only Girl in the Woods 102

Part Three. Range of Light
8. Corvidology 119
9. Staying Found 136
10. Range of Light 146

Part Four. Wild
11. The Lou Out of Lou 177
12. This Far 190
13. The Accumulations of Trees 206
14. Wild 222

Part Five. Box of Rain
15. Box of Rain 237
16. Mazama 262
17. Into a Primal Gear 274
18. Queen of the PCT 289
19. The Dream of a Common Language 300

Acknowledgements 313
Books Burned on the PCT 317

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Death and Loss: Cheryl's journey, both physical and emotional, is driven by the grief she experiences after the passing of her mother. She struggles with acceptance of her loss and loses her identity in the process, spiraling into a life of self-destruction.
  • Forgiveness: Cheryl is aware that her emotional wounds will begin to heal once she practices forgiveness. She is overwhelmed by her feelings of abandonment by her mother and family, but also feels intense shame for allowing her marriage to a good man fall apart. A part of her sets out to hike the PCT desperately hoping to forgive and let some of this heavy baggage go.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Amazon.com Best Books of March (2012). (authoritative list)
This book is in 2012 Published Books. (community list)
This is book 1 of 2 in Oprah's Book Club 2.0. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Cheryl Strayed (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Knopf
Country: United States
Publication Date: March 20, 2012
ISBN: 0307592731
Page Count: 336

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3619.T744Z46 2012
  • Dewey: 920

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • Oprah's Bookclub
  • Cheryl Strayed: Home page - "Cheryl Strayed is the author of #1 New York Times bestseller WILD, the New York Times bestseller TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS, and the novel TORCH."

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