Wild: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

On her second-to-last night in California, Cheryl wakes to the sound of torrential rain against her tent. The next morning, it is only 37 degrees outside. Cheryl hikes onward in spite of the cold, able to “feel” the state of Oregon looming before her. If she makes it to the Bridge of the Gods, she will have hiked the length of the entire state. She wonders who she will be if she makes it there—and who she will be if she doesn’t.

Cheryl runs into Stacy, who tells Cheryl that she is getting off the trail and taking a bus up to Ashland, Oregon. Rex has already quit the PCT, too. Cheryl hugs Stacy before watching her hike away down a jeep trail—Stacy is soon enveloped in the thick fog all around.

The next day, Cheryl walks her last miles in California and reaches the Oregon border. She is a little underwhelmed by the milestone—nothing about crossing over feels “momentous,” and the PCT marker at the border doesn’t even mention Oregon. It merely reads “WASHINGTON: 498 MILES.” Nevertheless Cheryl excitedly writes her name and a note—“I made it!”—in the trail log and continues forward.

That night, as Cheryl cozies up in her tent, she can hardly focus on reading—she is too excited to get to Ashland. Ashland is not just a trail stop, but a real town with food, music, and regular people. Plus, Cheryl has packed a “real” outfit and 250 dollars in travelers checks in her Ashland box—Ashland was supposed to be her original destination before she decided to bypass the Sierra Nevada and hike all the way to Portland.

Cheryl arrives in Ashland the next day and is greeted with the news that Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead has died. The town is covered in pictures and signs bearing Jerry’s image, and Cheryl takes them in as she walks to the post office to collect her box. Though Cheryl is slightly amused by the many hippies lining the streets in both mourning and celebration, she is forced to realize that she looks (and smells) just like them. At the post office, the clerk is dismissive of Cheryl and hands her only one tiny padded envelope. Cheryl insists she has a box waiting, but the clerk tells her to try again tomorrow. Cheryl is surprised and confused by the woman’s coldness. 

Cheryl opens the package and sees that it contains a necklace from her friend Laura in Minneapolis. The necklace reads “STRAYED,” but from a certain angle, it looks like it says “STARVED.” Cheryl puts the necklace on excitedly—it comforts her, even though she only has $2.29 to get her through the night. Cheryl wanders through town and recognizes some familiar faces from the Rainbow Gathering who have gathered for the Garcia festivities in town. She goes to the food co-op to smell groceries and try on free samples from the health and beauty section. She uses her last dollars to buy herself a lemonade, trying not to think of the huge, delicious dinner she’d hoped to buy on her first night in Ashland.

As Cheryl exits the co-op, she runs into a couple handing out flyers for a Garcia memorial. She gets to talking with them, and when they learn she is a PCT hiker, the woman, Susanna, offers to give Cheryl a free foot massage. Cheryl demurs, but Susanna insists. She goes into the co-op, emerges minutes later with some peppermint oil, and begins taking Cheryl’s boots and socks off. Cheryl tries to explain that her feet are in terrible shape, but when Susanna lays eyes upon them, she insists they are strong like an animal’s. Susanna looks up at Cheryl during the massage and asks if her necklace says “starved.”

Stacy soon arrives in Ashland and meets up with Cheryl. Cheryl tells her about the post office situation, and though Stacy offers to lend Cheryl money, Cheryl decides to try the office one last time. When she goes back, the clerk gives her the package—which was there the whole time. Cheryl and Stacy check into a nearby hostel, and Cheryl luxuriates in her first shower in over two weeks. She dresses up in her good outfit and goes out to dinner with Stacy and another woman, where she orders everything she wants. She buys a pair of sport sandals at a shoe store, returns to the hostel, but goes back out to attend a Garcia celebration, where she dances and sways to “Box of Rain,” her favorite Dead song. 

At the memorial, Cheryl meets a man named Jonathan to whom she has an instant attraction. He asks her to come see his band play the next evening, and Cheryl accepts his invitation. She walks through the streets back to her hostel feeling elated at the prospect of a date—but worried, in the back of her mind, that she might fall into her old habits with men. That night, in bed, Cheryl touches her own body and is humiliated by the rough and raw patches she’s gotten over the months from the hike. She vows that no matter what happens with Jonathan tomorrow, she will keep her pants on in order to disguise her PCT battle scars. 

The next night, Cheryl goes to the club where Jonathan is playing. She orders a drink and makes eye contact with him almost immediately. At intermission, Jonathan comes over to greet Cheryl and ask her what she wants to do afterward. He tells her that he lives on an organic farm about fifteen miles away, and offers to bring her there to walk around under the stars. As Jonathan gets back on stage, Cheryl steps out for some air. On the street outside the club, she begins talking with a hippie-ish man named Clyde who tells her he lives in a teepee off the PCT for four months out of the year—and spends the rest of the year living out of a milk truck. He points out his truck to Cheryl and invites her in for some tea—she accepts.

Inside Clyde’s truck, Clyde and Cheryl drink chamomile tea and discuss reincarnation. Clyde offers Cheryl some chewable opium, which she accepts and begins gnawing on—until she remembers her heroin fixation, and spits the root out. Cheryl continues talking with Clyde until eleven, when Jonathan is done playing, and then goes to meet him at the front of the club.

Jonathan drives Cheryl out to the farm where he lives for free in exchange for work. Though Cheryl doesn’t know where they’re going, she isn’t worried, and surrenders herself to the experience. The two of them take a walk through the fields in the cold mountain air, talking and flirting as they go. Cheryl wants to kiss Jonathan, but she’s nervous to, and she delays the moment as long as possible. When they finally do share a kiss, Cheryl is relieved to find that she hasn’t forgotten how to do it. In the middle of the blissful moment, Cheryl finds herself wondering how far away she is from the PCT. 

Jonathan invites Cheryl into the large tent where he sleeps, and she joins him. It is more of a yurt, warmed by a heater and tall enough to stand in. Jonathan and Cheryl lie down in his bed and begin making out, though they soon realize neither of them has a condom, and decide to refrain from having sex. As Jonathan explores Cheryl’s body with his hands, he comes upon her rough patches—but as Cheryl begins explaining them and apologizing for their ugliness, Jonathan tells Cheryl she has nothing to worry about.

The next morning, Jonathan and Cheryl stop at the grocery store to pick up some picnic supplies and then they drive out to the chilly, rocky beach. Cheryl soon realizes she has been to this beach before, with Paul, many years ago while camping on their long post-New York road trip. As the two of them walk down the beach, Cheryl falls back a little and finds herself wandering alone. She begins thinking about Paul and feeling guilty about how she “wronged him.” Then, suddenly, Cheryl has the thought: “What if I forgave myself?” She begins to wonder if everything she’d done—and everything she’d tried to escape in hiking the PCT—had meant something and taught her something. She wonders if it is all right if she is never redeemed—but also considers the possibility that she already is.

Cheryl and Jonathan have a picnic on the beach, and then hide away in some craggy rocks to have sex—Jonathan purchased condoms earlier at Safeway. Cheryl luxuriates in the experience, and afterward, as they drive back to Ashland, she feels full, happy, and blissed-out. Back in town, Cheryl gives Jonathan the address she’ll be staying at when she reaches Portland before bidding him goodbye with a passionate kiss.

The next morning, Cheryl reluctantly prepares to leave Ashland, mailing back to Lisa the things she doesn’t need and purchasing some food at the co-op. As she is preparing to leave some prepackaged meals she doesn’t want in a free box at the post office, she runs into a man she recognizes from the Rainbow Gathering. She offers him the food, and he thanks her by calling her “baby.” Cheryl yells at him not to call her baby. In response, he presses his hands together and bows his head in her direction, “as if in prayer.”