Summary: <a href="http://joytripproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Wild-an-interview-with-Cheryl-Strayed.mp3"></a><br> At the age of 26 best-selling author <a href="http://www.cherylstrayed.com" target="_blank">Cheryl Strayed</a> strapped on a backpack and hiked <a href="http://www.pcta.org/" target="_blank">the Pacific Crest Trail</a>. Over the course of 94 days she traveled from Mojave California to the Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks Oregon, just outside of Portland where she lives today. Four years after loosing her mother who died of cancer Strayed ventured into the wilds of nature in order to find a part of herself she felt was missing. With absolutely now experience in backpacking she made the impulsive decision to deal with her unimaginable grief with an impossible adventure.<br> <br> Strayed:<br> I was in such a place of desperation at that moment in my life that I needed something big. I needed a journey. I needed to go, to get myself to a different place. As I say in my book to gather myself, back to myself. And I knew that that wasn't going to be a bunch of day hikes as I traveled and car camped. It needed to be a journey into the wild.<br> <br> JTP:<br> While hiking the PCT Strayed encountered much of what you might expect on a long backpacking trip. But she'd find there was more in store for her than bug bits, blisters and sunburn. Along the miles of her journey she discovered the strength to endure the pain and suffering of loss while coming to the understanding that like the trail before her life goes on.<br> I'm James Mills and you're listening to the Joy Trip Project.<br> <br> Music by <a href="http://www.shanghairestorationproject.com" target="_blank">the Shanghai Restoration Project</a><br> <br> JTP:<br> Cheryl Strayed was the key note speaker at the biannual breakfast meeting of the <a href="http://www.conservationalliance.com" target="_blank">Conservation Alliance</a> during the <a href="http://www.outdoorretailer.com/winter-market/" target="_blank">Outdoor Retailer Winter Market</a> in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had the opportunity to talk to her about her book Wild and the circumstances that started her long journey after the sudden death of her mother.<br> <br> Strayed:<br> I was really in a place of total despair. It's sort of strange for me to really remember it now, because I'm 44. I'm happy. I have this really rich happy life. But at that time I really felt like I didn't feel that I could go on. I had worked myself into such a place of sorrow over the grief of my mother. But then the things I did in that grief brought me further down. I made bad decisions. I was sexually promiscuous. I cheated on my husband who I loved. And that was really against my values. It was against the person I am. I'm not against promiscuity. I think it can have its moment in a life, but it was not the good thing for me to be doing it in that context. I was deceiving someone I loved. I was deceiving, really sort of violating a promise I made to someone I cared about. And then I got involved with drugs. Anyone who's ever been under the influence knows, those things we reach for them because we think they'll make us feel better and they always make us feel worse. When you reach for them in desperation they make you feel worse. And so those things were all effecting my state of mind too. And I got to the point where I thought, well you know why should I? Why should I go on living? Who would care if I disappeared? And I was feeling so much pain that it was the first time that I understood how it is that people would choose to end their lives. I wasn't...I wouldn't say I was honestly considering suicide. But I felt that kind of pain. Why I go on?<br> <br> JTP:<br> Is it fair to suggest that you might have gone into the wild in act of not necessarily of self destruction but in that moment in time to perhaps become reborn in a way?<br> <br> Strayed:<br> Yes.
