Gail Storey poetically describes how the wilderness sanded her down to stillness, “Even as my body wore down, my heart opened. Like the snow plant, bursting red through the forest floor. Because of the mountains, the blue space of sky, the softness of green on gray rocks splashed with lichens? Or back in the desert, when colors took the place of thoughts: blue-purple lupines, creamy white yucca, prickly poppy yellow? Now, pearlescent cool air soothed my forehead and my mind settled down.” As a couple, they headed off on a 2663-mile trek from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. Even though she was eating more than 6000 calories a day, at 5’7” she became a skeleton of barely 100 pounds, which deeply concerned her medical doctor husband. She was a talker, he, the silent type. How did they bridge their differences in temperaments and skills as they thirsted through deserts, forded icy rapids, stumbled through snow, and met up with a mountain lion? This lively dialogue reveals amazing highs and intense lows as every part of their physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual bodies were challenged by this grueling endeavor.
