Maybe I'd die. Maybe I'd burn to ash in wind, or blacken like the pines. Charred skeletons, I'd add one to the count. I didn't feel scared. I didn't think to panic. The trail wasn't burning. I was raw, ripe for loving. I wasn't stopping.
Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir
death, hiking, memoir, pacific-crest-trail, willpower