Remember when we were all on that big Gilmore Girls kick over the holidays because Netflix released 4 new episodes? If you always considered yourself a Rory + Loralei nerd, lemme tell ya. You haven’t reached true Gilmore Girl nerd status until you read the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed just because it was part of the plot.

In one of the new episodes of Gilmore Girls, (spoiler alert), Loralei needs a moment of clarity and decides she’s going to do Wild.

Everyone on the show knows what she’s talking about, and thinks she’s crazy. It seemed like a big deal whether she was doing the book version or the movie version.

But I’m not on the show. And I had never heard of Wild.

And I really like Loralei.

What is Wild by Cheryl Strayed About?

I Googled it, and found out it was basically a west coast version of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. Bryson’s autobiographical book talks about a pair of older dudes walking the Appalachian Trail. Wild is Cheryl Strayed’s autobiographical tale of a 20-something chick hiking the Pacific Crest Trail alone.

That was good enough for me – I loved Walk in the Woods. I put a hold on the library’s copy of Wild, and just finished reading it over the weekend. One of my irrational someday dreams when Josh and I retire is for us to disappear for months and do one of these crazy long ridiculously hard hikes through thousands of miles of wilderness together. No technology, no cell phones. It sounds amazing.

I was ready for the adventure. I was ready for the grand sweeping descriptions of the view, and the hardships that come with taking on a trek you have zero business doing without prior experience. (That’s what I’m gonna be like when I finally sign up to do one of the local Big Nasty Mud Runs.)

I wasn’t ready for what led up to the adventure, or why Cheryl Strayed hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. 

I won’t go into detail – you should get a copy of Wild and read for yourself. She had a rough background and kind of fell apart in her mid twenties. Going out into the wilderness alone for months was her way of putting the past behind her, dealing with it, and getting herself back together to move forward.

A lot of this book really spoke to me; so much so that I have a few quotes I’ve written down to keep handy long after this library book gets returned.

Thank you Gilmore Girls for the book recommendation. Next up, I’m going to start guzzling coffee nonstop and talking as fast as I can.

You can pick up your own copy of Wild by Cheryl Strayed here.