Skywalker Book Sales Increase upon Publication of ‘Wild’ by Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed’s moving memoir of hiking the PCT alone, after her mother’s death, divorce with her still-loved husband, and heroin abuse is shining the focus on the Pacific Crest Trail. This is great news for everyone–especially those who have never heard about the PCT, but will end up on life-changing hikes on it some day. Yep, it definitely will happen. That’s the nature of the game. Mrs. Strayed mentions in her book...

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Andrew Skurka has hiked almost the entire West

Uber-hiker, Andrew Skurka, did a presentation last evening at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. It was a smashing success. Highly inspirational. He seemingly has hiked all over the West, including the Sea-to Sea Trail (all across Canada), the Western Loop Trail (large parts of the Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail), and in 2010, in his greatest gambit of all, he hiked large parts of the Alaska Yukon. Large parts of...

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Appalachian Trail Culture Stuns—Good for Thru-Hikers

I was blown away in 2005 by the “support culture” of trail angels, hostels, fiestas, you name it, honoring hikers passing through. I came back in 2010 and several new support networks had sprung up in the first two states. And now in 2012 it appears to be proliferating even further. An event at the beginning of March, originally called the Appalachian Trail Backpacking and Celebration Clinic has re-christened itself, the AT Kickoff,...

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Pacific Crest Trail Population Should Increase Upon Publication of New Hollywood Movie, Wild, by Cheryl Strayed

This is great news for the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). As all former PCT hikers know, the PCT is the most gorgeous, isolated terrain on the entire American mainland. It is the closes most of us mortals will ever get to the epic explorers of yore (Christopher Columbus, Captain Cook). But because the PCT begins in the desert and then heads up into the high mountains, it has never been able to attract the masses of hikers that the Appalachian Trail...

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