Non-fiction Review: Cactus Eaters

Another of the books I've found browsing around the library catalog (I love those "similar books" lists!),  this was an interesting companion to Journeys North, which I reviewed last week.

Title: The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind--and Almost Found Myself--On the Pacific Crest Trail

Author: Dan White

Publication Info: Harper-Collins, 2008. 427 pages, Kindle Edition

Source: Library

Publisher's Blurb:
When Dan White and his girlfriend Melissa [note: her name, per the books, is Allison] set out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from Mexico to Canada through boiling desert and snowcapped mountain passes, his parents wondered how two people who had never shared an apartment could survive in a tent in the desert. But when Dan and Melissa, dubbed “The Lois and Clark Expedition” by a fellow hiker, quit their doldrum jobs to set out into the wilderness, the hardships of the trail provided these addled adventurers with a crystalline view of the American wilderness, themselves, and each other.

In his wickedly funny memoir, Dan White also shares the story of Warren Rogers, who risked ruin to chart the trail during the Great Depression. As he walks in Rogers’ footsteps, he starts to wonder if he’s assumed the man’s bravery—or his insanity.

Both hilarious and harrowing, this account of a young couple's hike along the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail is a testament to the power of nature to change us and the power of love to get us through the uphill climbs.

My Review:
I may not be fully in agreement with the blurb regarding this book. In fact, in stark contrast to the recently-reviewed Journeys North, I didn't find a lot to admire about the author, his hike, or his writing style. What's more, it's the first book about the PCT that didn't make me want to hike it. In that, maybe the comparison in some blurbs to Bryson's book is accurate--I was also annoyed by A Walk in the Woods. But this was something else. Dan White sinks deep into his own head during the hike, his youthful self-absorption becoming something above and beyond, and eventually (in my opinion) unbearable. I kept reading, assuming that he'd come out of it and at some point there would be redemption.

Dan White hiked the PCT in 1993 and 94. This was definitely before the explosion of hikers--in those years maybe 250 started each year, and perhaps 75 finished. So the trail was a more lonely place, and there was a lot less info out there. But--and I suppose here's where the Bryson comparison comes in--these two were horrendously unprepared and ignorant of what they were doing. They started far too late, even cutting off the southernmost desert and mountains, and what's worse, Dan didn't learn--when he went back the second year to do that and then finish the trail, he AGAIN waited until summer was on him. 

At first, the idea of this as a record of the couple's hike seemed accurate. But soon it was obvious that this was White's story, and his story was of a callow, self-centered young man with little empathy or understanding. Further, his accounts of things done in his youth made me wonder if he were a psychopath. In the end, White paid dearly for being an a-hole, losing the woman that at one point he was ready to marry (it's less clear if she was ready to marry him). Once or twice he shows signs of maturing, but they never seem to last. And when he goes back to hike alone, he really does lose his mind, and it shows. By his own account it may have taken him a couple of years or more to recover from the experience and start to manage his life again. By then, Allison had (reasonably enough) moved on.

Okay, all that said, was the book horrible? Well, no--I did finish it, though that was in part because I kept assuming there would be some redemption there. There are moments when his depictions of life on the trail are beautiful, or funny. But I wouldn't call any of it hilarious, and I couldn't like him well enough to really feel the harrowing bits (they did make some mistakes that put them at risk, for sure).

My Recommendation:
Give this one a pass. There are lots of good accounts of the trail, including Journeys North, Heather Anish Anderson's Thirst, and, yes, Wild, as well as many others. Read one of them instead.

FTC Disclosure: I checked The Cactus Eaters out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  


 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025
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