"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."-- Provided by publisher.

Prologue -- Part I: Terrible Seeds -- Chapter 1: The Garden City -- Chapter 2: Terrible Seeds -- Chapter 3: Blood on the Tracks -- Chapter 4: The Things I Carried -- Chapter 5: The Dangers of the Desert -- Chapter 6: Unbound Ghosts -- Chapter 7: Mirages -- Chapter 8: Hollow Words -- Chapter 9: Wild Dreams -- Chapter 10: Trail Magic -- Part II: The Range of Light -- Chapter 11: Love in the Woods -- Chapter 12: Distance to Paradise -- Chapter 13: No Harm Will Befall You -- Chapter 14: The Range of Light -- Part III: The Way Through -- Chapter 15: A Thousand Miles of Solitude -- Chapter 16: The Director of My Life -- Chapter 17: Inside Fire -- Chapter 18: Love Notes Under Rocks -- Chapter 19: A Hiker's Guide to Healing -- Chapter 20: A Girl in the Woods -- Epilogue -- International Resources -- Acknowledgments.