Wild: "Greg" outs Cheryl

Roger Carpenter, the real life version of "Greg" from Cheryl Strayed's "Wild," just inadvertently discredited Strayed's own account of her actions.

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

Wild: Three Young Bucks

Today let's take a closer look at this photo and discuss the Three Young Bucks.

A quick note first. I'm not going to bother summarizing every little detail of what occurs in the book here on this blog. If you're reading this, I'm assuming you have read the book and know what I'm talking about.

If you haven't read the book. I encourage you do to so. 

Oh yeah, I said that. I know, I know! Not since the Red Wedding has a series of random words been arranged in such a shocking and unbelievable sequence. It's conceivable I might even lose some friends over this, but yes, I actually think the book is worth reading, but maybe not for the reasons you think. 

Wild is a hysterical train wreck of a book. Dare I say, Wild is a peek into the mind of someone who thinks...differently about things than normal people.  In fact, the experience is not dissimilar to reading Burroughs' Naked Lunch

One of my favorite things to do is recommend Wild to someone, then sit back and wait for the astounded, disbelieving calls, texts, and emails to pour in. (Although they usually start taking an angry tone when they read the way Cheryl behaves during her mother's death) If you have an ounce of common sense though, you can't help but laugh inappropriately at the ridiculousness of the things Cheryl claims to have done. Several of my friends and I now have running jokes based upon some of the more preposterous quotes from the book. Bone-eating, Wilco t-shirts, Michelle Shocked concerts, condom packages. foot rubbing, "cow, cow, cow", nurse penis, taking drugs from strange men in vans, abortion-tuna...cmon! This is a treasure trove of unintentional humor.

"Mercer, your kitten is as soft as a nurse's penis. Meow meow meow!"

Invite some friends over, open a bottle of wine, read your favorite passages out loud. In fact, I challenge you to assume roles and read her dialogue out loud like a play and get through it without crying in hilarity.  Strayed has written a comic masterpiece and it should be celebrated as such. I don't begrudge her remuneration for that.

What I have an issue with is her being treated like a "hero" and that Wild is some sort of "inspirational tale" for others. She is not, it is not. If you behave in the real world like "Strayed" claims to have behaved in her book, then you should find yourself at the center of a behavioral intervention and probably on the receiving end of some powerful pharmaceutics prescribed by a health care professional.

Alright alright, back to this photo. Take a look at it.  I brought it up in a previous post in regards to the lack of a pink strap on the ski-pole Cheryl is carrying. The photo supposedly shows Strayed with "Joshua," one of the "Three Young Bucks" she writes about in Wild. This is the ONLY photograph I know of that shows Strayed doing anything that resembles hiking with another person. Now think about that. She carried a Minolta X-700 with zoom lens and tiny tripod (and a flash for part of the trip) but only has ONE photo of herself with another person? In fact, I'm hard pressed to figure out if any of the photos she's posted were taken by her. More on her photos, the ones we have and the ones which don't exist, in another post. 

It's odd to me that the only photo of her hiking with another person (or starting to hike anyway) doesnt look posed. That is, the two arent standing next to each other, dont have their arms around each other, arent looking in the same direction, anything that indicates there's any sort of friendship between them other than they were standing in the same vicinity when someone took a snap. I know this is my of my subjective doubt being imposed here, but try this: Google "Hiking with my friend" and search images. Compare those with Cheryl's photo. Just sayin'

By the way, which of those two backpacks would you want to carry based upon that photo? See where I'm going with that? "Monster" is looking a little thin to me. I thought big manly-men were impressed by its girth?

Now, hope over to Goodreads and read this. 
I'm afraid this is going to disappear one day so here's the pertinent text written in a comment to a review: 

The Three Young Bucks WERE from Carleton, class of '94! I pieced it together when I read the book because Rick Topinka and Josh O'Brien are listed in Strayed's acknowledgments. The third is Richie Kay. I contacted Josh and Rick recently to see if I could write an article about them for The Voice, but Josh declined on behalf of himself and Rick and said he was pretty sure Richie wouldn't be interested either. Frustrating! But it was exciting to solve the mystery of their identity! 

Two things to note: 1. She only acknowledged two of the three "Young Bucks" at the end of Wild,  and 2. None of them are interested in being interviewed about Cheryl. 

What?!? 

Now I understand people wanting their privacy, but NONE of the three is willing to answer questions about Cheryl's "hike"?  Go search the internet for each of them. Tell me if you find anything. I think one of them occasionally throws a "like" to Cheryl on a few of the thousands of photos she's posted of herself on Facebook.

Now take a look at the wording of her acknowledgement to the Bucks in Wild: "I am particularly indebted to my fellow 1995 PCT alumni...Rich Topinka...and Josh O'Brien, who responded to my inquiries with thoughtful care."

So, no "thanks for friendship" or "thanks for the help on the trail" or "so fortunate to have met such wonderful friends like..." Nope. All they get is: "I acknowledge that I owe a debt to these people who responded to my inquiries." What the hot-pocket does that mean? It means she emailed them years later and peppered them with questions about hiking the PCT along with, I imagine, several desperate pleas for any photographs they might have of her in hiking gear. 

In fact, reading carefully, you'll notice she never thanks a single person she met on the PCT. She thanks the hell out of all the people who helped her write the book, who seem to be legion, but no thanks to any of the people who (supposedly) fed her on the trail, helped her with information on the trail, gave her a ride, helped her with the pack...basically anyone who helped keep her hapless butt alive on the trail (again we are assuming she actually was out there running around in the woods and the whole thing wasn't completely made up). 

Quick note before I leave you for today. I've noticed I've used the word "supposedly" a lot already. I've given it some thought and unfortunately I think you are going to have to get used to if. When I say something like "this photo supposedly shows Cheryl next to a vented white metal box contraption" it's because I feel it's wrong and misleading to say "this photo (definitely) shows Cheryl atop her unicorn shooting heroin into her deltoid." I honestly don't know what to believe from her as there are SO many contradictions and things which just don't make sense. I think some of the events in Wild happened....kinda...but since a good part of the book appears to have been made-up, I can't take anything at its face value. I'll try to use a thesaurus from here on out if I find I'm likely to use the "S" word more than once on any post. 

Peace out
-Mercer