Wild: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Cheryl considers the history of the PCT, noting that it was a woman, Catherine Montgomery, who first suggested a border-to-border trail through the western mountains in 1926. The trail, however, didn’t end up being designated until 1968, and it wasn’t finished until 1993. As she walks to Castle Crags in her flimsy sandals, she considers all the people and all the years and all the efforts that went into creating the “utterly timeless” trail. The sensation of “how it [feels] to be in the wild” is so “powerful and fundamental,” Cheryl is realizing, that it has pushed people to create the PCT, and other places like it, out of reverence for nature.

As Cheryl hikes, her sandals fall apart and she’s forced to put her boots back on. Still, she takes comfort in the mountain vistas all around her as she battles through the pain. Late in the afternoon, after covering several miles, she sits down on the side of a hill and pulls off her boots and socks, massaging her feet as she takes in the vista before her. As she reaches for the side pocket of her pack and pulls on the zipper, Monster tumbles over and knocks one of her boots—the left one—over the edge of the mountain. Cheryl clutches the right boot to her chest for a long, disbelieving moment before hauling it over, too. She puts her socks back on, uses duct tape to reinforce her sandals and make a kind of bootie on each foot, and then hurries on towards Castle Crags.

Cheryl hikes a bit further before stopping to make camp for the night. She feels lonely—a rare sensation on the trail—and longs for her family, even as the sheer thought of them fills her with rage and sadness. She reflects on the week before she left for the PCT. She visited her family in Minnesota, and when she went to visit Leif at their old house, she found that Eddie and his friends had carved their names and some random phrases into the wooden dining table that had been in their family since Cheryl’s childhood. Cheryl was filled with anger at the table’s destruction and disappointment in Eddie. Leif shared Cheryl’s sadness, and comforted her by stating that neither of them would ever carve their names into the table because of the lessons of the woman who raised them.

The next day’s hike is difficult. The terrain is “churned” and “barren” in some places, and Cheryl struggles all day to get her bearings. Her sandals continue to give her trouble, and she grows more and more agitated as she continues getting lost on unfamiliar paths that take her in circles. Finally realizing that her best hope is to walk north instead of westward, where the PCT diverges at this point in the hike, until she reaches a nearby highway. Cheryl continually reminds herself as she makes camp that night that though she’s lost, she has everything she needs.

The next day, Cheryl continues walking until she reaches a highway. She begins trying to hitch, and eventually a large man driving a pickup truck offers her a ride to a nearby trail which will put her back on the PCT. Once she is back on the trail, she continues hiking at “record speed,” and at last manages to arrive at Castle Crags by the afternoon. Her booties have disintegrated, but luckily, her box from REI is waiting for her at the post office along with her next care package. A woman named Sarah whom Cheryl met at a campsite earlier on the trail flags her down, and when Cheryl explains that she got lost and had to double back, Sarah explains that almost everyone at Castle Crags got lost on the rough patch of trail preceding it.

Cheryl puts her new boots on and luxuriates in their “virgin tread.” She walks into a restaurant in the small town to find Sarah, Rex, Stacy, and other hikers familiar to Cheryl all sitting and enjoying some food. After the meal, they all trek to the state park campground and set up their tents, laughing and talking as night falls—and warding off two black bears who stumble onto the campsite. Cheryl drinks steadily all night, and in her dehydrated state, becomes terribly sick. She is embarrassed as she vomits again and again.

In the morning, Cheryl takes a shower and fights off her hangover—she has to get back on the trail by noon. She hydrates and reads the letters that have arrived for her from Paul, Joe, and Karen. Cheryl organizes her backpack and sorts through her heavy load of food from her resupply box, preparing for the 156-mile stretch between here and her next stop. One of the other hikers sits with Cheryl as she prepares, and reminds her that there’s only one more stop before Oregon. Cheryl admits she’s looking forward to Oregon—but reminds herself that she must conquer California first.