Girl in the Woods

Girl in the Woods

by Aspen Matis
Girl in the Woods

Girl in the Woods

by Aspen Matis

eBook

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Overview

Girl in the Woods is Aspen Matis's exhilarating true-life adventure of hiking from Mexico to Canada—a coming of age story, a survival story, and a triumphant story of overcoming emotional devastation. On her second night of college, Aspen was raped by a fellow student. Overprotected by her parents who discouraged her from telling of the attack, Aspen was confused and ashamed. Dealing with a problem that has sadly become all too common on college campuses around the country, she stumbled through her first semester—a challenging time made even harder by the coldness of her college's "conflict mediation" process. Her desperation growing, she made a bold decision: She would seek healing in the freedom of the wild, on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail leading from Mexico to Canada.

In this inspiring memoir, Aspen chronicles her journey, a five-month trek that was ambitious, dangerous, and transformative. A nineteen-year-old girl alone and lost, she conquered desolate mountain passes and met rattlesnakes, bears, and fellow desert pilgrims. Exhausted after each thirty-mile day, at times on the verge of starvation, Aspen was forced to confront her numbness, coming to terms with the sexual assault and her parents' disappointing reaction. On the trail and on her own, she found that survival is predicated on persistent self-reliance. She found her strength. After a thousand miles of solitude, she found a man who helped her learn to love and trust again—and heal.

Told with elegance and suspense, Girl in the Woods is a beautifully rendered story of eroding emotional and physical boundaries to reveal the truths that lie beyond the edges of the map.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062291080
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 09/08/2015
Sold by: HARPERCOLLINS
Format: eBook
Pages: 416
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

About The Author

Aspen Matis is a writer living in Greenwich Village, where she's finishing her degree at The New School and working on a novel.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Part I Terrible Seeds

Chapter 1 The Garden City 7

Chapter 2 Terrible Seeds 16

Chapter 3 Blood on the Tracks 31

Chapter 4 The Things I Carried 43

Chapter 5 The Dangers of the Desert 60

Chapter 6 Unbound Ghosts 69

Chapter 7 Mirages 91

Chapter 8 Hollow Words 105

Chapter 9 Wild Dreams 122

Chapter 10 Trail Magic 141

Part II The Range of Light

Chapter 11 Love in the Woods 159

Chapter 12 Distance to Paradise 173

Chapter 13 No Harm Will Befall You 187

Chapter 14 The Range of Light 207

Part III The Way Through

Chapter 15 A Thousand Miles of Solitude 227

Chapter 16 The Director of My Life 261

Chapter 17 Inside Fire 278

Chapter 18 Love Notes Under Rocks 302

Chapter 19 A Hiker's Guide to Healing 322

Chapter 20 A Girl in the Woods 349

Epilogue 358

International Resources 364

Acknowledgments 365

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