The book opens 38 days into Cheryl’s journey. Cheryl is in a bind: One of her hiking boots has accidentally fallen down a steep slope on the PCT. Frustrated, she launches her other boot down after it and finds herself alone and barefoot in the woods. Being alone is not unusual for Cheryl, a 26-year-old orphan whose mother died of cancer four years earlier and whose father walked out when she was six years old. Cheryl first learned about the PCT from a guidebook titled The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 1: California, which she saw at an REI store seven months before starting her hike. The PCT runs from southern California to the Canadian border. It traverses three states—California, Oregon, and Washington—passing through national parks as well as federal, tribal, and private lands. The rugged terrain includes deserts, mountains, and rainforests. Cheryl engaged in self-destructive behavior after her mother’s death. She went from one meaningless job to another, drank, did drugs, and had extramarital affairs. Realizing she had strayed, Cheryl hiked alone for three months in hopes of rediscovering the person she was before losing her mother.