I Promise Not to Suffer

National Outdoor Book Award • Forward Indie Fab Book of the Year • Nautilus Silver Award • Barbara Savage Award • Boulder Writers' Workshop Ink Award

"Witty, wise, and full of heart, Gail Storey’s winning memoir of her hike on the Pacific Crest Trail at the age of fifty-six is as inspiring as it is hilarious, as poignant as it is smart. It’s one of those oh-please-don’t-let-it-end books. I’d carry it in my backpack anywhere." -- Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

Gail Storey is not a hiker. But when her husband, Porter, quits his job to hike the 2,663-mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, she refuses to let him go alone--even though the prospect of leaving their comfortable Houston home, hiking up to 20 miles a day while popping anti-depressants and hormones, and sleeping outside for six months terrifies her.

Carrying Porter’s handmade ultralight equipment, they sizzle in the Mojave Desert, nearly drown fording a swollen river, wade through High Sierra snows, and stumble through the lava fields of Oregon. With every step and switchback, as the trials of the trail test and deepen their relationship, Gail and Porter each walk into the question Who am I? Gail, confronting dangerous weight loss and her mother’s prolonged illness back home, feels herself irrevocably changed by life on the trail. She faces down a mountain lion and fierce alpine storms, alternately frightened by nature’s power and inspired by its profound force--finding a wisdom that three master’s degrees and a life in the city never taught her.

In this lighthearted yet heartfelt memoir, Gail shares the harrowing hilarity and reluctant revelations of miles on the trail.