Wild: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Cheryl is standing by the side of the highway alone, having just bid goodbye to Stacy and Trina after hiking with them for several days. Though all three of them were hitchhiking together, Stacy and Trina went in a car that had only enough room for the two of them, leaving Cheryl alone. Now, a silver Chrysler pulls up—and to Cheryl’s surprise, a man steps out. He tells her that he can’t take her with him, as he has no room in the car—but says he wants to interview her for a publication called “the Hobo Times.” Cheryl insists she’s not a hobo, but the man doesn’t believe her and continues trying to interview her.

As the man—who introduces himself as Jimmy Carter—continues asking Cheryl about her journey, she becomes discomfited by the similarities between her situation and a hobo’s. She stinks, she has everything she owns on her back, and she’s slept under a roof only three times in the last month. Cheryl insists that “being a hobo and being a hiker are two entirely different things.” Against her protests, Jimmy snaps a photo of Cheryl for the “Times,” thanks her for the interview, and gets back into his car. He rolls down the window and says he hopes she has a gun—she’s about to enter “Bigfoot country.” After the man leaves, Cheryl, unable to get a ride, sits down on the side of the road and eats some beans from a can.

After a while, a couple with another man with them—as well as a dog—offer Cheryl a ride in their truck. The man introduces himself as Spider, and the woman introduces herself as Lou. The third man, Spider says, is his brother, Dave. Cheryl tells the group her name and thanks them for picking her up, trying to mask the “unease” she feels, since Spider, Cheryl, and Dave are tough-looking bikers. She tells them about her journey on the PCT, and Spider and Lou tell her they’re getting married next week. Cheryl spots a picture of a little boy up by the rearview mirror and asks if it’s Lou’s son—she says it is. When Cheryl asks if he’s going to be in the wedding, Lou says he died five years ago after being struck by a truck.

At Cheryl’s junction, Dave and Spider get out of the truck with Cheryl. They take the dog for a quick walk, and Lou stays with Cheryl while she wrangles Monster. They continue talking, and Lou admits that after her son died, she felt like a part of her died too—the loss “took the Lou out of Lou.” Cheryl says she knows what Lou is talking about, and Lou admits that she had a “feeling” that Cheryl was someone who’d known loss. Cheryl says goodbye to the group and gets onto the trail—soon enough, she runs into Stacy and Trina again.

The three women hitch to another tiny village and, inside a tiny café, discuss the section of the trail ahead. A desolate plateau is coming up, and Cheryl is a little frightened by the lack of water sources along the stretch—even though she knows that a water tank has been installed fifteen miles in. The next morning, Trina and Stacy set off, but Cheryl decides to rest her feet at the campsite for another half-day. When it’s time to set out, she spends her last money on a burger rather than a large jug of water, certain that she’ll be at her next stop, forty-two miles away, in just two days. 

Before setting out, Cheryl calls Paul from a pay phone, and the two of them talk for over an hour. Catching up with Paul, Cheryl thinks, feels like talking with a best friend more than an ex-husband. Back at camp, Cheryl struggles with the complex, competing emotions she feels. Part of her misses her old life—but she has realized that she doesn’t want to go back to it. She has been on the PCT for more than a month, but is feeling that she is just now “digging into” what she has come here to do—fix the “hole in her heart.” She feels more alone, lately, than anyone in the whole world—but she is beginning to think that maybe it’s okay.