The

The My name is Rachel. I'm from Los Angeles and have recently discovered your Spotify podcast,

and I think I have a story for you and your listeners. You see, back in 2013, I read a book called

Wild by Cheryl Strait. It's all about how the author's life fell apart after the death of her mom

and how she used hiking to get herself sober and put her life back together.

Most of the book takes place on the Pacific Crest Trail,

with the physical challenges prompting the author to have a series of realizations about her life,

and to me, it was like the hardship of walking a

thousand miles of trail allowed her to unlock some kind of untapped source of ancient, collective

wisdom.

I was 22 when I first read it, and honestly it spoke to me more than any piece of art or literature

had before.

I wanted that same kind of clarity, that innate wisdom to know what did and didn't matter in life.

I just didn't think that I had it in me to go hiking the PCT all alone.

That all changed around 2016.

When the hiking bug finally bit me and I started planning my own hiking

trip along the Pacific Crest Trail to try and capture the same kind of magic I read about

in wild. Since I couldn't afford to spend too much time away from work, I decided to hike

a five-night stretch of trail near a place called Tahitapi on the far-western

edges of the Mojave Desert.

I chose this area for three reasons.

First, I loved the section of the book where Cheryl writes about the region.

...