The WILD Effect

I will admit that I only recently heard about the Pacific Crest Trail.  A few months ago a friend of mine that I work with posted something on Facebook about her son hiking the PCT.  I was like, What? he's doing what? I checked out all the pictures that he had posted on fb and then I think I googled it, which led to hours, I mean days of watching you tube videos! In the back of my mind the entire time I was thinking, I could do this. I joined facebook groups, I started researching gear, I figured that by 2016 I could do this!

Then I found out about the book "Wild".

I think it was my mom that first asked me if I had read it. "No", I answered, but I'll add it to the growing list of books, websites, databases and fb pages I will need to read and study. I kept noticing people talking about "Wild", and not in a good way from hikers anyway, and not just any hikers, but pct thru hikers.  I knew nothing about the book, but read the comments and was pretty turned off by the negative things said about the book, the author, and the movie.  Yes, the Oprah approved book, loved by millions was made into a movie, with none other than Reese Witherspoon playing the main character (and writer) Cheryl Strayed, how could you not love it?

One day some troll posted a link to the trailer along with some comment meant to insight reaction.. and it did. from me. I still had not read the book. I'm not sure why he was so hateful about some women who wrote a book about her journey.  Maybe it was jealousy, maybe hate towards women, maybe he was just one unhappy man, whatever, it left a bad taste in my mouth.  One thing was for sure, and it seems to be the biggest complaint about the "wild effect", is that the trail will become more popular.  Is that a good or a bad thing?  Should something so magical be kept a secret for only the "serious" hikers to know about? I heard that in 2013 about 700 people stopped by one of the trail angels houses near the beginning of the trail, in 2014 they reported about 1400 people, in just 1 year the amount of people doubled. Who knows how many people there will be in 2015, 2016 and beyond. When I first heard about the "wild effect" I decided to move my hike up from 2016, to 2015, hoping to hike the trail before it becomes to busy and maybe a little touristy.  The concerns are legitimate, will there be enough water at the water caches left in the middle of the desert for the hikers by trail angels? Will the small stores in town run out of food and supplies that people buying along the way depend on? Will the trail angels that let people stay at their homes be overwhelmed? Can you imagine 1400 people staying at your house during a couple month time period? They truly are angels!

I remember a man in the fb post I was talking about before saying to the guy, if we are worried about a movie bringing light to the PCT then we must also worry about all the blogs, and the independent films and the you tube videos and the facebook posts, they all introduce the trail to people who have never heard of it. In this day and age, where technology and sharing our lives with others has become so common place, there is no way to keep this private. By the end of the post I felt like I needed to write on the back of my backpack "I HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK !" I feel as though, because I am a women, I am immediately put in that group.  I am nothing like Cheryl Strayed, I exclaim!

The movie came out to select theaters this week, and there are already talks about an Oscar nomination for Reese Witherspoon. I've noticed no more negative talk in the groups, still concern for the effects it will have, but no negative comments directed at the writer. I'm starting to believe that it was just that one guy posting in different groups.

So the other day I did it, I downloaded "Wild" into my Nook app on my phone and began reading it and I'm glad I did. Not because it's some great novel that everyone must read, but because it is about one women's journey to find herself and she just so happened to do it on the the Pacific Crest Trail.  A trail I will be hiking in 4 months and 1 week (but who's counting). I winced when reading about all the gear she took and the weight of her pack! I enjoy hearing her story.  Just as I enjoy reading blogs from other female hikers.  She Hiked her own hike, and she did that when not that many women did it solo, good for her!

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 4 months. I'm sure that friends of mine that have shown no interest what so ever in my plans to hike the pct will now be interested.  I'm sure I will be tagged in lots of articles about the movie and I will have to get use to saying "yes, I've heard of the movie Wild".

I will finish reading Wild.

I will go see the movie.

Then I will go "Hike my own Hike"

p.s.
my trowel from "Duece of spades" arrived in the mail this week.
:D