Overprotected by her parents who discouraged her from telling of the attack, Aspen was confused and ashamed. On her second night of college, Aspen was raped by a fellow student. It amazed me how quickly I'd gotten used to snakes and I didn't know if I was brave or reckless.Įxcerpted from Girl in the Woods by Aspen Matis (HarperCollins), due out September 8.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. I now stepped over basking snakes as if they were only sticks.I walked briskly without stopping. Lonely blue mountains so pale they were almost ghosts against the sky spread at the western horizon. The walking itself was shockingly easy, the trail gradually descending, ascending, a smooth dusty path through fields of brittle grasses, hard chaparral shrubs and greying cacti. And each year-every single year-some hikers die.Īnd each year-every single year-some hikers die. In all of history, fewer people on the planet have walked along the Pacific Crest Trail the whole way from Mexico to Canada than have summited Mt. Only about five hundred people arrive each spring at this trail from Mexico to attempt to hike the whole way to Canada, and fewer than half of those-some odd 200-will make it all the way. In retrospect, it's stunning to think how the most damaging threats were also the most common and how easy it was to die. Yet looking up that dusty path into desolation, basking snakes weren't threats I actively considered. Which meant, for me, a bite would be fatal. In cities, fatality is uncommon-anti-venom is effective-but the untreated bite of a Mojave Green is fatal. Skeletal muscle weakness leads to difficulty breathing: respiratory failure. But after that serious symptoms rapidly develop: vision abnormalities and difficulty swallowing and speaking. Chance of survival is good if medical attention is sought within minutes of a bite – fair if within an hour.
The Mojave Green rattlesnake, a pit viper native to the deserts of the southwestern United States, is infamous for its potent, debilitating neurotoxic venom. The snakes were endless, the venom of their bite deadly. I already regretted eating the fruit so soon. I stood and breathed a minute, then walked back north, kept walking, watched my feet quickly move.Īgain I bit my apple, breathed, chewed-my last piece of fresh food everything else was processed or salted or junk. I ran back south a hundred yards I was fine. It rushed over the bone-colored dirt with impossible speed and into a hard-leafed creosote bush, its rattling fast and hollow, more menacing than any human sound.
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