Gal 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 tale of overcoming emotional devastation. On her second night of college, Aspen was raped with a fellow student. Overprotected by her parents who discouraged her from informing of the assault, Aspen was confused and ashamed. Coping with a issue that has unfortunately become all as well common on university campuses around the country, she stumbled through about Lady in the Woods: A Memoir her initial semester-a challenging period made also harder with the coldness of her college’s ‘discord mediation’ process. Her desperation growing, she produced a vibrant decision: She would seek healing in the freedom of the outrageous, on the two 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 woman alone and dropped, she conquered desolate mountain passes and met rattlesnakes, bears, and fellow desert pilgrims. Tired after every thirty-mile day, sometimes for the verge of starvation, Aspen was compelled to confront her numbness, arriving at terms using the intimate assault and her parents’ unsatisfactory reaction. For the path and on her behalf own, she found that survival is predicated on persistent self-reliance. She found her power. After one thousand miles of solitude, she discovered a guy who helped her learn to love and trust again-and heal.

Informed with elegance and suspense, Woman in the Woods is a beautifully rendered tale of eroding psychological and physical boundaries to reveal the truths that lie beyond the edges from the map.