I feel kind of bad for the guy. He certainly is taking great pride in being associated with Strayed and her book and is enjoying a certain level of notoriety because of it. I think he honestly likes Cheryl a lot and is eager to help her in any way he can. Sadly, he seems to have unwittingly given us the smoking gun that proves a good part of Strayed's story was at minimum, embellished and at most, fabricated.
Read his story on the PCTA website. Carpenter talks about coming across Strayed on the trail near Spanish Needle Creek. He states "Cheryl had a huge, heavy backpack, the now famous “Monster,” and was taking down a spacious dome tent." Now he didn't have to say anything about the tent, but he was very clear as it must have made an impression on him.
Go and Google "spacious dome tent," "dome tent," and "north face dome tent."
Now compare those images with the photo of the tent Strayed says she used:
Cheryl asserts this is the tent she used and that this is a photo of her on the trail. She has the Bob Marley t-shirt she supposedly received and lost while on the trail. She says she still has the tent. So why isnt this a "spacious dome tent?" Does that look like a "spacious dome tent?" Would anyone describe that as a "spacious dome tent?" The answer is "no" in case you weren't sure.
BTW, who took this photo? She could not have gotten framing like this if she had used her "tiny tripod" and set her camera's timer, you would be able to see more ground. This was handheld by someone. To me it appears that the bottom half may have even been cropped out. Why? was someone else's gear lying there? Why are some of her photos from the trail in color and some in black & white? Why is she wearing sandals and not flip-flops like she described? Does that backpack look like a Monster to you? Why are there so few photos from her trip? Why are there so many questions about something so simple?
The reason?
Because the photo above was not taken during the brief period Strayed was actually on the trail. I think Strayed did hike and backpack for awhile and did indeed meet Greg where she says she did, but this photo was NOT taken during that time. It's my belief this was taken by a boyfriend, or maybe even Paul, while Strayed was camping sometime either before or after the period she claims to have been hiking. This was one of the only photos she has of her at a campsite, so she had to weave it into the story and of course that shirt had to disappear while she was on the trail, as it belonged to whoever she was camping with.
In fact, I will go so far as to say I think EVERY photo of Strayed posted by her of her, was taken by either Paul or another beau on camping trips BEFORE she set out on the PCT. This also explains why she's continues to contradict herself in how much backpacking experience she had before the PCT hike. I think she and Paul DID go backpacking and camping, but she couldn't say that in the book, because that would contravene her narrative of being hapless and helpless when she started. She needed to "overcome" her weaknesses and grow stronger on the trail. She couldn't do that if she was already out there running around with a backpack on. Real-life Cheryl had a rough idea of what she was doing, fictional Cheryl did not. Strayed is now confusing the two and doesn't understand why everyone else is just as confused.
Were these photos "selfies" taken with a tiny tripod? FYI, all color photos seem to show the "Starved" necklace while none of the B&Ws do.
Well, to me almost nothing more needs to be said. Someone isn't telling the truth. Oh don't worry, I'll continue to document these little slip-ups and inconsistencies and soon I'll start making my way back through the book.
See you soon!
-Mercer
