Syracuse.com - Cheryl Strayed's 'Wild' reading at Syracuse University was a homecoming, an inspiration

[HuntingNY-News]

"I wanted the whole world to stop following my mother's death. The hope that I had was lost in me," she said, describing her self-destructive behavior. 'I knew that the wilderness was a place that made me feel whole. So I went there.

Cheryl Strayed's Wednesday evening appearance at Syracuse University to answer questions and then read passages from her bestselling book about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail was a homecoming for her - and for many of those in attendance, an inspiration.

 

"I spent all day walking around Syracuse and having flashbacks," said Strayed, who attended Syracuse University from the fall of 1999 to 2002 and graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction writing from the university's Creative Writing program. She appeared in the Gifford Auditorium as part of the Raymond Carver Reading Series.

"There's a great legacy here, of people who were here while I was and those before and after," she said, adding she named her son, Raymond, after Carver, a renowned poet and short story author who later in his career taught English at the university.

Strayed's book ,"Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Knopf, 2012), describes her summer 1995 solo hiking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. She traveled 1,100 miles from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State after her mother died at 45 of cancer, her marriage was ending and she was dabbling in heroin.

"I wanted the whole world to stop following my mother's death. The hope that I had was lost in me," she said, describing her self-destructive behavior. 'I knew that the wilderness was a place that made me feel whole. So I went there."

A backpacking beginner, she struggled with numerous problems and setbacks. Her pack, which she named "Monster," was too heavy. Her shoes didn't fit, she suffered painful blisters and lost most of her toenails. At one point she walked with sandals held together with duct tape.

She was also dogged by lack of food, water and inclement weather.

Strayed's book is being adapted into a movie, starring Reese Witherspoon, with a screenplay by Nick Hornby. She said she still hikes and backpacks with her husband and two children, and still has most of her gear from 1995 trek. Some of it is being used in the film, she said.

She said both her children have acting parts in the movie and her husband is an extra. Her daughter is playing the part of Strayed when she was 7.

Strayed said the most emotional, painful scene in the book describes when she and her brother had to put down her mother's ailing, aging horse and the gunshot to the head didn't initially work.

"They're filming that scene today," she said.

Strayed, 45, and now living in Portland, Ore., told the audience that she's been criticized for writing about how she had an abortion before the hike and how she carried a condom on the hike. She said she's received numerous letters, referring to her pre-hike promiscuity in highly uncomplimentary terms.

Strayed said in the question and answer session with Mary Carr, an award-winning poet and memoirist who is the Peck Professor of Literature at the university, that no one is perfect and when you "tell people the truth, they'll love you for it."

Amanda Kernahan traveled from Rochester to meet Strayed. Kernahan said her book really resonated with her.

"My mom died four days after my 26th birthday," she said. "I went through a lot of the same struggles that Cheryl went through. I felt nobody understood. What healed me and healed my marriage was hiking. We started hiking in the Adirondacks and that's where I found solace."

Karen Schroeder, Syracuse, said her book club had a great discussion about the book.

"The self discovery. Her fearlessness. Some might say stupidity. People telling her she shouldn't, she couldn't do it - and she did it anyway, " she said.

Diane Revere, of Oneida, said she was impressed by the "brutal honesty" of Strayed's account.

"It made me think I might want to do it. But I won't," she said. " It's one of those things people would like to do. But would they pull the trigger?"

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog