What do you think?
Rate this book
The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail
“In the well-written, laugh-out-loud, self-deprecating spirit of Bill Bryson’s A Walk In the Woods and Nora Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally , Dan White takes us along for a walk on the wild side of adventure and love. I couldn’t put it down.” —Eric Blehm, National Outdoor Book Award-winning author of The Last Season When Dan White and his girlfriend Melissa 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.
400 pages, Paperback
First published May 20, 2008
46 people are currently reading
1409 people want to read
About the author
Dan White
48 books35 followersDan White is the author of The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail, a NCIBA bestseller and Los Angeles Times "Discovery" selection. and Under The Stars: How America Fell In Love With Camping, which Wild author Cheryl Strayed described as "the definitive book on camping in America." He has taught composition at Columbia University and San Jose State, and currently teaches a Zoom-based memoir and personal essay workshop and writing class. He is a former contributing editor of Catamaran Literary Reader and received his MFA from Columbia University. He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and daughter. Visit his website at danwhitebooks.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 223 reviews
June 13, 2023
10 star readWhata Trip
Dan White is an excellent travel writer, and I wish that he would continue to travel and write about his adventures. He does not have to take long hikes; instead, he could take a car, a bus, or even a cab and then tell us about it. It is just that I am so impressed by his writing, which oozes with his charm and wit. His writing is also eloquent, and his exaggerations are funny.
Now for the story: He and his new girlfriend, Allison, decide to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, but they are unprepared. First, they over pack, and a man they know, helps them repack. “Why the kite?” he asks. Well, they get on the trail, and they get lost, but he does not know how to use a compass, and he does not wish Allison to give it a try. Finally, he reluctantly gives it to her, and she figures it out. Then their new water filter will not filter the water out of mud. Next, he realized that the amount of water that he is carrying is too heavy, so behind Allison’s back, he pours out about a third of their water, and then they find themselves without water, he confesses. Allison is upset with him, feels she can no longer trust him. I am sure that what had happened next would have made him very trustworthY: She finds a prickly pear cactus and tells him that they can get water from it. Only he does not realize its dangers and pops its fruit into his mouth. Now, he is suffering from the small hairy spines that are on the cacti, or, were on it. . My friend Julie and I had traveled in Mexico, and when she learned that you could eat the fruit of the prickly pear cacti, she picked one with her fingers, and they became full of spines. The guide at the ruins that we were visiting, told her to run her fingers through her hair several times. The spines were gone. Maybe Allison should have run her hair over his tongue.
As for the water, I have a solution, but it has yet to be invented. It would be called DeH Water for dehydrated water. You would put the DEH water in a sealed bag, and when you needed it you pour it into a container, and it would then collect water out of the atmosphere. Mark my word, I have thought of things in the past that someone finally invented. This, too, will be invented. The hard part is getting the DeH water into a bag. Also, remember, man invents things out of need, and mankind is carrying too heavy of a load.
As time goes, they get tired, and Dan gets sarcastic or snarky, whichever.
It can happen to the best of us. I am surprised that I am still friends with Julie after our travels. So, I did not hold this against Dan, after all, they had gotten along for months.
I thought it funny that she called him Fish Body, and he called her Rat Face. When I was a kid, maybe eleven years old, my brother Bill and I called each other names. My clue here is, “when I was eleven.” Bill or Billy, as he was called then, named me Platypus, and I called him a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. That lasted a few hours.
They met crazy people on the trail, well, maybe they were not so crazy, but he made them out to be colorful. Gingerbread Man was one of them. He walked the trail at record speed, and when he left them, he began leaving notes for them, giving them directions to water, and he also marked the trail with rocks if the markers were gone. Then there was Dr. John who was not Dan’s cup of tea. He did not like his potty talk. If Dr. John had to go to the bathroom, he would tell them about it, “I am going to go into the woods now, and I will be sitting for a very long time.” For this reason, he would not allow him to travel with them. Yet, Dan’s book contains potty talk for all the world to see. He even talked about Allison tampons. Speaking of which, when I was seven years old my father drove us from our home in Shandon, California to Paso Robles in order to get groceries. Then they left Billy and I in the car while they went into Wilcox’s Appliance Store. I found a box of Kotex, and began spelling out loud, K-o-t-e-x. Billy told me to be quiet, so I spelled it again but louder. And again. Come to think of it, Bill is still a very proper person. Several years ago, my sister Karen and I were at a restaurant in Paso Robles with him and other family members. He was embarrassed by Karen and I because we were giggling. We just ignored him. Sometimes that is all you can do.
Dan White is an excellent travel writer, and I wish that he would continue to travel and write about his adventures. He does not have to take long hikes; instead, he could take a car, a bus, or even a cab and then tell us about it. It is just that I am so impressed by his writing, which oozes with his charm and wit. His writing is also eloquent, and his exaggerations are funny.
Now for the story: He and his new girlfriend, Allison, decide to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, but they are unprepared. First, they over pack, and a man they know, helps them repack. “Why the kite?” he asks. Well, they get on the trail, and they get lost, but he does not know how to use a compass, and he does not wish Allison to give it a try. Finally, he reluctantly gives it to her, and she figures it out. Then their new water filter will not filter the water out of mud. Next, he realized that the amount of water that he is carrying is too heavy, so behind Allison’s back, he pours out about a third of their water, and then they find themselves without water, he confesses. Allison is upset with him, feels she can no longer trust him. I am sure that what had happened next would have made him very trustworthY: She finds a prickly pear cactus and tells him that they can get water from it. Only he does not realize its dangers and pops its fruit into his mouth. Now, he is suffering from the small hairy spines that are on the cacti, or, were on it. . My friend Julie and I had traveled in Mexico, and when she learned that you could eat the fruit of the prickly pear cacti, she picked one with her fingers, and they became full of spines. The guide at the ruins that we were visiting, told her to run her fingers through her hair several times. The spines were gone. Maybe Allison should have run her hair over his tongue.
As for the water, I have a solution, but it has yet to be invented. It would be called DeH Water for dehydrated water. You would put the DEH water in a sealed bag, and when you needed it you pour it into a container, and it would then collect water out of the atmosphere. Mark my word, I have thought of things in the past that someone finally invented. This, too, will be invented. The hard part is getting the DeH water into a bag. Also, remember, man invents things out of need, and mankind is carrying too heavy of a load.
As time goes, they get tired, and Dan gets sarcastic or snarky, whichever.
It can happen to the best of us. I am surprised that I am still friends with Julie after our travels. So, I did not hold this against Dan, after all, they had gotten along for months.
I thought it funny that she called him Fish Body, and he called her Rat Face. When I was a kid, maybe eleven years old, my brother Bill and I called each other names. My clue here is, “when I was eleven.” Bill or Billy, as he was called then, named me Platypus, and I called him a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. That lasted a few hours.
They met crazy people on the trail, well, maybe they were not so crazy, but he made them out to be colorful. Gingerbread Man was one of them. He walked the trail at record speed, and when he left them, he began leaving notes for them, giving them directions to water, and he also marked the trail with rocks if the markers were gone. Then there was Dr. John who was not Dan’s cup of tea. He did not like his potty talk. If Dr. John had to go to the bathroom, he would tell them about it, “I am going to go into the woods now, and I will be sitting for a very long time.” For this reason, he would not allow him to travel with them. Yet, Dan’s book contains potty talk for all the world to see. He even talked about Allison tampons. Speaking of which, when I was seven years old my father drove us from our home in Shandon, California to Paso Robles in order to get groceries. Then they left Billy and I in the car while they went into Wilcox’s Appliance Store. I found a box of Kotex, and began spelling out loud, K-o-t-e-x. Billy told me to be quiet, so I spelled it again but louder. And again. Come to think of it, Bill is still a very proper person. Several years ago, my sister Karen and I were at a restaurant in Paso Robles with him and other family members. He was embarrassed by Karen and I because we were giggling. We just ignored him. Sometimes that is all you can do.
September 30, 2013
This is a decent hiking memoir, but the writer is such a selfish, whiny, inconsiderate jerk that I had to dock a star because I almost gave up on it a few times.
During a lull in his journalism career, Dan White became obsessed with hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile trek that starts at the southern tip of California and runs north all the way to the Canadian border. (This is the same trail that Cheryl Strayed wrote about in her bestselling book, Wild.) Dan is thrilled that his girlfriend, Allison, will hike the trail with him. The two quit their newspaper jobs in Connecticut and head west.
Problems soon arise because neither of them had any long-distance hiking experience. They are always facing water shortages. Allison has pain in her knee. Dan -- who is an obnoxious oaf -- bites into a cactus plant and gets about 50 needles in his mouth, which Allison has to extract with tweezers. Dan deliberately dumps out some of their water in the desert in an attempt to lighten the load and hike faster. You just can't help stupid, I guess.
Meanwhile, Dan is being a brat, picking fights with Allison -- even though she saves his life a few times -- making selfish demands, even getting angry at her when she can't walk as fast as him because of her knee. (When they're off the trail, Allison learns she's developed rheumatoid arthritis, and Dan is so inconsiderate that he can't be bothered to comfort her.)
While the pair did have some good outdoor stories, the writer is so off-putting that this is one of my least favorite of all the hiking memoirs I've read.
Update September 2013:
When Goodreads announced its new censorship policy last week, I was irritated and angry -- not just for my friends who had reviews and shelves removed, but because now that code will hang over us, an oppressive dark cloud that will cause us to self-censor as we write. The truth is that I rarely write harsh, negative reviews because I rarely finish books I don't like. I usually just abandon them, and I typically don't write reviews of books I abandon. "The Cactus Eaters" is one of the more negative reviews I've written, and if the new policy had been announced before I wrote this, I might not have called the author a whiny, inconsiderate jerk -- WHICH HE IS -- and that angers me.
Going forward, maybe I should write more harsh reviews. Goodreads is turning me into a crank.
During a lull in his journalism career, Dan White became obsessed with hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile trek that starts at the southern tip of California and runs north all the way to the Canadian border. (This is the same trail that Cheryl Strayed wrote about in her bestselling book, Wild.) Dan is thrilled that his girlfriend, Allison, will hike the trail with him. The two quit their newspaper jobs in Connecticut and head west.
Problems soon arise because neither of them had any long-distance hiking experience. They are always facing water shortages. Allison has pain in her knee. Dan -- who is an obnoxious oaf -- bites into a cactus plant and gets about 50 needles in his mouth, which Allison has to extract with tweezers. Dan deliberately dumps out some of their water in the desert in an attempt to lighten the load and hike faster. You just can't help stupid, I guess.
Meanwhile, Dan is being a brat, picking fights with Allison -- even though she saves his life a few times -- making selfish demands, even getting angry at her when she can't walk as fast as him because of her knee. (When they're off the trail, Allison learns she's developed rheumatoid arthritis, and Dan is so inconsiderate that he can't be bothered to comfort her.)
While the pair did have some good outdoor stories, the writer is so off-putting that this is one of my least favorite of all the hiking memoirs I've read.
Update September 2013:
When Goodreads announced its new censorship policy last week, I was irritated and angry -- not just for my friends who had reviews and shelves removed, but because now that code will hang over us, an oppressive dark cloud that will cause us to self-censor as we write. The truth is that I rarely write harsh, negative reviews because I rarely finish books I don't like. I usually just abandon them, and I typically don't write reviews of books I abandon. "The Cactus Eaters" is one of the more negative reviews I've written, and if the new policy had been announced before I wrote this, I might not have called the author a whiny, inconsiderate jerk -- WHICH HE IS -- and that angers me.
Going forward, maybe I should write more harsh reviews. Goodreads is turning me into a crank.
January 29, 2009
Aiieeeee, the author of this book comes off as totally unbearable. He is, by his own admission, colossally self-absorbed and woefully ignorant of even the basics of backpacking. There were some choices he made along the trail that really raised my eyebrows, but the one that took the cake was dumping out HALF HIS WATER SUPPLY on the morning of a dry desert crossing WITHOUT TELLING HIS HIKING PARTNER. Oh. My. God.
So if you could handle reading about that little caper without flinging your computer across the room, you might have what it takes to read this book. Despite all the narcissism and personal weirdness, I loved hearing about all the characters encountered along the trail (what I wish this book could have been is a PCT version of Word Freak) and of course I liked the descriptions of the High Sierras and the peaks and passes I have sweated over myself. The mountains are so beautiful and lonely and simple and yet also contain this funny little community of hikers. Despite the totally intolerable narrator, my love of the wilderness he describes bumps this up to two stars. But I am pretty much just being nice with that second star.
EDIT: **Spoilers** I just had to add this one more thing because it perfectly encapsulates my issues with the author. The book is called The Cactus EATERS (plural) but it SHOULD be called The Cactus EATER. Why? Because after that ridiculous water-dumping stunt described above, the author became so thirsty that he (and he alone) chomped into a prickly pear cactus without taking the thorns off. For the umpteenth million time, she comes to his rescue and he doesn't so much as thank her.
So if you could handle reading about that little caper without flinging your computer across the room, you might have what it takes to read this book. Despite all the narcissism and personal weirdness, I loved hearing about all the characters encountered along the trail (what I wish this book could have been is a PCT version of Word Freak) and of course I liked the descriptions of the High Sierras and the peaks and passes I have sweated over myself. The mountains are so beautiful and lonely and simple and yet also contain this funny little community of hikers. Despite the totally intolerable narrator, my love of the wilderness he describes bumps this up to two stars. But I am pretty much just being nice with that second star.
EDIT: **Spoilers** I just had to add this one more thing because it perfectly encapsulates my issues with the author. The book is called The Cactus EATERS (plural) but it SHOULD be called The Cactus EATER. Why? Because after that ridiculous water-dumping stunt described above, the author became so thirsty that he (and he alone) chomped into a prickly pear cactus without taking the thorns off. For the umpteenth million time, she comes to his rescue and he doesn't so much as thank her.
August 17, 2013
I wish Allison had written the book.
January 31, 2012
A very poor cousin of Bill Bryson's far superior A Walk in the Woods, Dan White's memoir of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is just more irritating and hollow than interesting or fun to read. White comes across like a douchebag with nearly everyone he encounters, and his anecdotes ring completely false. He's also not nearly as funny or endearing as he seems to think he is. But mainly I just can't get over the feeling that White is a liar.
He claims to have grown up in California and had a guidebook for the PCT yet somehow was shocked, UTTERLY SHOCKED that it was snowing on him in the desert. How could he not know this? He claims to have just shown up at Mt. Whitney and decided to go up and hike it that very day. There's no indication he had any issues getting a permit to do this which is a definite problem there, as I can personally attest to. He also claims to have made Donald Duck disgusted at Disneyland when he was a kid, by having his friend spit in his hand and then shake hands with Mr. Duck. (Seriously, this is the type of thing White finds interesting in his own life and then feels that he should share it with the reader.) The entire incident just stinks of something that never happened.
At other times during the book, he is constantly threatening the reader with his own sexual impulses and I kept being afraid he would decide to throw his girlfriend down in a meadow and write all about it. He also has Embarrassing White Man Syndrome, where he finds it the height of hilarity to sign along to gangsta rap, and does this several times to very annoying effect. I had a great deal of animosity towards the writer from the very beginning. This feeling is only amplified as the book goes on, and especially at the end of the book, when he's inexplicably left his girlfriend and had some kind of nervous breakdown in Santa Cruz.
The only reason I'm giving him that second star is because hiking the PCT is an impressive accomplishment, and there's probably a really great book to be written about it, and I'd love to read *that* book some day.
He claims to have grown up in California and had a guidebook for the PCT yet somehow was shocked, UTTERLY SHOCKED that it was snowing on him in the desert. How could he not know this? He claims to have just shown up at Mt. Whitney and decided to go up and hike it that very day. There's no indication he had any issues getting a permit to do this which is a definite problem there, as I can personally attest to. He also claims to have made Donald Duck disgusted at Disneyland when he was a kid, by having his friend spit in his hand and then shake hands with Mr. Duck. (Seriously, this is the type of thing White finds interesting in his own life and then feels that he should share it with the reader.) The entire incident just stinks of something that never happened.
At other times during the book, he is constantly threatening the reader with his own sexual impulses and I kept being afraid he would decide to throw his girlfriend down in a meadow and write all about it. He also has Embarrassing White Man Syndrome, where he finds it the height of hilarity to sign along to gangsta rap, and does this several times to very annoying effect. I had a great deal of animosity towards the writer from the very beginning. This feeling is only amplified as the book goes on, and especially at the end of the book, when he's inexplicably left his girlfriend and had some kind of nervous breakdown in Santa Cruz.
The only reason I'm giving him that second star is because hiking the PCT is an impressive accomplishment, and there's probably a really great book to be written about it, and I'd love to read *that* book some day.
September 17, 2008
This book blows hot and cold for me. I love descriptions of this sort of lonely struggle. I really have trouble getting behind folk who are foolishly and dangerously unprepared. I grew to like the Lois and Clark Expedition, but as the book wore on I lost patience with the author who just can't seem to get his sh*t together.
The part that rings the most true is the ambiguity when it is all over. There are books out there that, after the Great Feat is complete, the scales fall from one's eyes and the secrets to happiness are revealed. The world doesn't work that way, and Dan White owns up to that. In fact, in his case, almost the exact opposite happens.
Glad I read it, but I definitely can't recommend it wholeheartedly.
The part that rings the most true is the ambiguity when it is all over. There are books out there that, after the Great Feat is complete, the scales fall from one's eyes and the secrets to happiness are revealed. The world doesn't work that way, and Dan White owns up to that. In fact, in his case, almost the exact opposite happens.
Glad I read it, but I definitely can't recommend it wholeheartedly.
September 29, 2015
What is it with these long distance PCT hikers who go on to write a book? Are all of them such noxious personalities? I disliked Cheryl Strayed's book Wild for the same reason I disliked the Cactus Eaters--the author is a jerk (although Cheryl Strayed was not nearly as annoying as this guy). I will admit, I finished this book, but I really detest when I am not rooting for the author in a book like this.
I wanted that trail to smack this guy down hard, and satisfyingly it does, many times. The ticks, the cactus, the bout of giardia, the whole shebang, but most of all I wanted Allison to leave this whining, self-important asshole in the dust. I wanted her to leave him there to die, (which at many point he would have done without her there) and this does not happen. In fact, as I continued to read I wanted so badly for her not to stay with him I flipped to the end to read the author bio and see that he was married to some poor individual named Amy.
Most obnoxious and annoying of all was that Allison is not named or thanked in the acknowledgements in the end of the book. Really? After she pulled hundreds of cactus glochids out of your mouth; pulled ticks out of your groin; nursed you through GIARDIA even though she was suffering through it herself? REALLY???
Ugh. I would say stay away from this book if you have any human decency in you; this author will annoy you to no end.
I wanted that trail to smack this guy down hard, and satisfyingly it does, many times. The ticks, the cactus, the bout of giardia, the whole shebang, but most of all I wanted Allison to leave this whining, self-important asshole in the dust. I wanted her to leave him there to die, (which at many point he would have done without her there) and this does not happen. In fact, as I continued to read I wanted so badly for her not to stay with him I flipped to the end to read the author bio and see that he was married to some poor individual named Amy.
Most obnoxious and annoying of all was that Allison is not named or thanked in the acknowledgements in the end of the book. Really? After she pulled hundreds of cactus glochids out of your mouth; pulled ticks out of your groin; nursed you through GIARDIA even though she was suffering through it herself? REALLY???
Ugh. I would say stay away from this book if you have any human decency in you; this author will annoy you to no end.
August 7, 2012
I found this book extremely hard to read. The author comes across as an arrogant jerk, without the wit, charm, or good writing skills to make it bearable. He finds fault in every person adn situation he comes across.. would not recommend.
April 17, 2014
Although the book had a few funny sections, the author spent way too much time whining, complaining, and blaming everyone else for his troubles - including John Muir! Unprepared and just plain stupid! While I appreciated the historical facts woven into this retelling of his hiking adventure, this really had nothing to do with the PCT. I found the author to be single-minded, whiny, and self-absorbed. (Apparently still is as I didn’t even see a thank you to his trail companion in the epilogue). I didn't even want to see him succeed! Isn't that sad?
October 5, 2008
While I really like reading backpacking narrative, this book made me want to bang my head against the wall. I mean, after walking up to a bear that roars at you, you really go off and chase it? Really? That seems like a good idea? The author spends a lot of time proving that he thinks he is one special snowflake.
September 25, 2015
Ugh, what a dick.
June 7, 2008
This is one of the best (and most well-written) PCT books Ive read. While my two main criticisms of PCT trail log books apply here, too, I can understand why. 1. The authors, a la Bill Bryson, head out into the wilderness woefully unprepared. OK, a big part of the reason it's an interesting read is that it's a voyage of discovery for him; if this were an ultra-experienced hiker setting out, there wouldn't be as much to write about. 2. The California section of the trail is covered in depth, and Oregon and Washington are skipped over very quickly. The first part of the trip is where hikers learn all their lessons, and settle into a trail rhythm. By the time they get to the northern part of the trail, they're just making miles to get to Canada. In Dan White's case, he has a bit of trail-craziness factor on the second part of the trail, and doesn't cover it as in-depth. Good book.
July 31, 2009
I did like reading this book for the most part(2.5 Stars), even though the author/main character comes off as a complete idiot. If I were put in his girlfriends shoes he wouldn't have made it off that trail...I would have left him with a mouth full of cactus. Maybe that's why I continued to read this book, I wanted to see what idiotic thing he would do next.
August 7, 2014
A few problems with this book, the writing could seem forced at times and the main character is unlikable. He is not quite self deprecating enough to laugh along with and so self absorbed that it's hard to be on his side. Some good adventures and characters along the trail, but not enough to make it a good read .
July 21, 2009
A less funny, less informative West Coast version of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. Dan White is an inexperienced, casual hiker who decides to hike the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail (which runs from the Mexican Border, through the San Gabriel mountains, Mojave desert, Tehachapi mountains, Sierra Nevadas, Shasta, Lassen, Cascades on up to Canada). His girlfriend comes along for most of the ride. What he lacks in know-how, he makes up for in arrogance. Did I mention he's kind of an ass? What's amazing to me about this book is that anyone as clueless as White would have enough self-awareness to so fully document his many failures.
For example. In order to beat the heat of the Mojave and the snow in the Cascades most folks leave from the border in late spring. White leaves in July and tries to start at a trailhead that's still snowed in. He has no snow gear. So he jumps north 50 miles, gets dropped off at a new trailhead but then realizes that his partner is (and has been) vomitously sick all day and can't start. They have to phone-a-friend before they even start.
It'd be almost funny if White was the least bit of sympathetic character. He's not. The gf is and you'll want to root for her to make the miles and drop the chump. She's the real hero of this book. On the upside, I've been dissuaded from ever wanting to attempt the trip myself. I'd like to hike portions of it, but I don't feel any need to bag the whole thing.
For example. In order to beat the heat of the Mojave and the snow in the Cascades most folks leave from the border in late spring. White leaves in July and tries to start at a trailhead that's still snowed in. He has no snow gear. So he jumps north 50 miles, gets dropped off at a new trailhead but then realizes that his partner is (and has been) vomitously sick all day and can't start. They have to phone-a-friend before they even start.
It'd be almost funny if White was the least bit of sympathetic character. He's not. The gf is and you'll want to root for her to make the miles and drop the chump. She's the real hero of this book. On the upside, I've been dissuaded from ever wanting to attempt the trip myself. I'd like to hike portions of it, but I don't feel any need to bag the whole thing.
November 21, 2009
Since I am unlikely to ever hike the Pacific Crest Trail myself, I have to live vicariously through others. Hence my strange appetite for poorly written, boring tales of people walking dusty miles for months on end. And I’ve read every such account I can get my hands on.
Enter Dan White’s book “The Cactus Eaters.” Without a doubt this is one of the best-written, funniest, and most thought-provoking accounts of a long-distance hike I’ve ever read. It outpaces and outclasses other dry accounts of PCT hikes by a ridiculous margin. At least Part I does. It is often laugh-out-loud funny, and you actually have to pay attention to catch all the nuances, allusions, and sarcasms.
Unfortunately, Part II is a comparatively lifeless slog through year two of the hike. As usual, there are disturbing clear cuts in Oregon. As usual, there is rain in the North Cascades. As usual, the trip by this time is so full of routine, the miles so uninteresting, and the protagonist so anti-social and self-absorbed, that it’s hard to sustain the momentum. Success is not as interesting as failure.
Thankfully, Part II only comprises a third of the book. The tale of the author’s break-down after finishing the trail almost reads like an epilogue – scant on details, and told from a strange distance. It’s mercifully short.
Nevertheless, if you, too, are a consumer of long-distance hiking stories, don’t miss this one.
Enter Dan White’s book “The Cactus Eaters.” Without a doubt this is one of the best-written, funniest, and most thought-provoking accounts of a long-distance hike I’ve ever read. It outpaces and outclasses other dry accounts of PCT hikes by a ridiculous margin. At least Part I does. It is often laugh-out-loud funny, and you actually have to pay attention to catch all the nuances, allusions, and sarcasms.
Unfortunately, Part II is a comparatively lifeless slog through year two of the hike. As usual, there are disturbing clear cuts in Oregon. As usual, there is rain in the North Cascades. As usual, the trip by this time is so full of routine, the miles so uninteresting, and the protagonist so anti-social and self-absorbed, that it’s hard to sustain the momentum. Success is not as interesting as failure.
Thankfully, Part II only comprises a third of the book. The tale of the author’s break-down after finishing the trail almost reads like an epilogue – scant on details, and told from a strange distance. It’s mercifully short.
Nevertheless, if you, too, are a consumer of long-distance hiking stories, don’t miss this one.
May 8, 2011
The Pacific Crest Trail runs 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada. Dan White has penned this brutally honest and highly entertaining tale to describe how he & his girlfriend hike the PCT. It would be hard to find two less-prepared backpackers which is what made the story so interesting for me! Without giving too much away, let me just say that the title is quite accurate. I enjoyed experiencing the transformation that takes place within Dan & Allison on all levels during the hike. Whether you plan to hike the trail physically or from your armchair, it's a great read.
February 14, 2015
I was looking for a well-written memoir to use as a point of comparison to Cheryl Strayed's Wild and Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. Sadly, The Cactus Eaters did not fit the bill. Or maybe it did. Reading this account of the author's journey on the Pacific Crest Trail reminded me of how important it is for the narrator of a travel memoir to grow and/or change.
abandoned
November 7, 2020This guy describes his girlfriend as though she is literally an object and I just can't. Here is the last straw from page 15: "At the golf course that night, she wore a short dress revealing a small waist, strong hips, and long legs. She was shapely and sexy, but there was something different about her. For one thing she was loose-limbed and goofy. She had a pretty face but could mold it into crazy expressions."
It goes on, but that was where I quit. There's little in the first few pages to establish the value of his GF besides as an adornment. In 2020 this guy is definitely a sex pest to younger women.
Too bad because I think it was probably a lot harder to hike the PCT when they did it than when I did and I was looking forward to hearing about it.
It goes on, but that was where I quit. There's little in the first few pages to establish the value of his GF besides as an adornment. In 2020 this guy is definitely a sex pest to younger women.
Too bad because I think it was probably a lot harder to hike the PCT when they did it than when I did and I was looking forward to hearing about it.
September 5, 2016
One star. To make it through their physically and mentally demanding PCT thru-hike, author Dan White and his girlfriend Allison shared a soundtrack of songs. I too found myself with a mental soundtrack while reading The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail: "I can change, I can change!" "What if you remain a sandy little butthole?" from South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, in honor of Dan's overbearing selfishness, total lack of decency to his trail companion, and utter refusal to display a modicum of common sense on the trail.
First, to hit the good points: White's descriptions of trail life are intriguing. His account of the walk from Mexico to Canada is lucid and readable. He neither romanticizes nor overstates the total challenge of his thru-hike. Nor does he shy away from painting himself in a negative light as he makes repeated mistakes and ignores pretty much every bit of rational advice--in fact, I went so far as to wonder why on earth anyone would ever pen such an unflattering picture of themselves.
Unfortunately, the author is an utter and complete nimrod when it comes to how he treats other people, most especially Allison. He consistently values his satisfaction, goals, and judgment over hers, to the detriment of their hike and relationship. For example, in the Mojave Desert stretch, he unilaterally decides to lighten his pack of some of the water load, dumping quite a bit without telling her, and then concealing as long as he can before fessing up that they face a long, dry march towards questionable water sources. Overrun with thirst, he takes a bite out of a prickly pear cactus, and then whines while Allison tweezes thorns out of his tongue. He pushes her over and over to perform beyond her knee pain. Later, when both of them get sick, any concern for her well-being is merely an afterthought.
Even worse, when a real-world commitment requires Allison to be off the trail for a week, he whines and moans the whole time about how it's going to cost them their goal of reaching Canada. The one non-text item reproduced in the book is an image of the churlish and petulant screed he scrawled about how the time off trail was interfering with his obsession with reaching the Canadian border that looked and sounded like it was written by a foul-mouthed thirteen year old with poor impulse control whining that he wasn't getting his way. (Perhaps he wanted the reader to see the string of sad faces he drew on the right side of the text?)
Allison discovers that her knee pain is due to rheumatoid arthritis. Despite her begging, he can't be bothered to even read a brief pamphlet about her condition, much less muster any kindness or sympathy--it's all about how her arthritis interferes with his dream.
When his hike is finished, he calls an ex-girlfriend in front of Allison to set up a lunch date...
The only real description we get of Allison is that she's blonde, a feminist, and he lusts after her more and more as she gets more tanned and toned from the rigors of trail life. We find out very little more about her; I posit that the author himself never bothered to find out any further detail about her.
All I can say is that Allison must be a saint to endure what she did... to paraphrase Silent Bob, there's a million fine looking women in the world, but they don't all tweeze cactus thorns out of your fool tongue when you're stupid. Seriously, not only can I cheer for Allison's decision to leave him at the end of the hike, but I wouldn't have blamed his wife Amy (mentioned in the author biography) for leaving him after she read this, too!
It's not just Allison either. He treats the other hikers he encounters with derision, such as referring to them as unflattering names. In one extreme case, he forces them to make a 5 AM start to avoid hiking with someone that he doesn't like because he thought the guy was boring and downcast when they met while eating dinner the night before. When he gets off the trail, he recounts a pathetic string of neurotic dead-ends that quashed any trace of sympathy I might have had for him.
The writing is good, and the story itself is interesting. What makes this book grossly obnoxious is the insipid behavior of the author. Dan White proves in The Cactus Eaters that an accomplishment like completing the Pacific Crest Trail is not enough to keep one from being a sandy little butthole.
First, to hit the good points: White's descriptions of trail life are intriguing. His account of the walk from Mexico to Canada is lucid and readable. He neither romanticizes nor overstates the total challenge of his thru-hike. Nor does he shy away from painting himself in a negative light as he makes repeated mistakes and ignores pretty much every bit of rational advice--in fact, I went so far as to wonder why on earth anyone would ever pen such an unflattering picture of themselves.
Unfortunately, the author is an utter and complete nimrod when it comes to how he treats other people, most especially Allison. He consistently values his satisfaction, goals, and judgment over hers, to the detriment of their hike and relationship. For example, in the Mojave Desert stretch, he unilaterally decides to lighten his pack of some of the water load, dumping quite a bit without telling her, and then concealing as long as he can before fessing up that they face a long, dry march towards questionable water sources. Overrun with thirst, he takes a bite out of a prickly pear cactus, and then whines while Allison tweezes thorns out of his tongue. He pushes her over and over to perform beyond her knee pain. Later, when both of them get sick, any concern for her well-being is merely an afterthought.
Even worse, when a real-world commitment requires Allison to be off the trail for a week, he whines and moans the whole time about how it's going to cost them their goal of reaching Canada. The one non-text item reproduced in the book is an image of the churlish and petulant screed he scrawled about how the time off trail was interfering with his obsession with reaching the Canadian border that looked and sounded like it was written by a foul-mouthed thirteen year old with poor impulse control whining that he wasn't getting his way. (Perhaps he wanted the reader to see the string of sad faces he drew on the right side of the text?)
Allison discovers that her knee pain is due to rheumatoid arthritis. Despite her begging, he can't be bothered to even read a brief pamphlet about her condition, much less muster any kindness or sympathy--it's all about how her arthritis interferes with his dream.
When his hike is finished, he calls an ex-girlfriend in front of Allison to set up a lunch date...
The only real description we get of Allison is that she's blonde, a feminist, and he lusts after her more and more as she gets more tanned and toned from the rigors of trail life. We find out very little more about her; I posit that the author himself never bothered to find out any further detail about her.
All I can say is that Allison must be a saint to endure what she did... to paraphrase Silent Bob, there's a million fine looking women in the world, but they don't all tweeze cactus thorns out of your fool tongue when you're stupid. Seriously, not only can I cheer for Allison's decision to leave him at the end of the hike, but I wouldn't have blamed his wife Amy (mentioned in the author biography) for leaving him after she read this, too!
It's not just Allison either. He treats the other hikers he encounters with derision, such as referring to them as unflattering names. In one extreme case, he forces them to make a 5 AM start to avoid hiking with someone that he doesn't like because he thought the guy was boring and downcast when they met while eating dinner the night before. When he gets off the trail, he recounts a pathetic string of neurotic dead-ends that quashed any trace of sympathy I might have had for him.
The writing is good, and the story itself is interesting. What makes this book grossly obnoxious is the insipid behavior of the author. Dan White proves in The Cactus Eaters that an accomplishment like completing the Pacific Crest Trail is not enough to keep one from being a sandy little butthole.
April 20, 2015
I REALLY wanted to like this book. And in some ways, it WAS a good book. But god, the author was a major douche.
Growing up in the NW I knew about the PCT a little bit and when I read "Wild" a few years ago I was struck with how amazing the book was, how emotional the experience of the PCT was and I was just enthralled. I got "The Cactus Eaters" and it started out good, pulled me in, and I wanted them to be successful in their quest. But chapter after chapter I just got annoyed.
First: the biggest pet peeve was that neither Dan nor Allison had any hiking/camping experience and didn't prepare for any of this. I think he mentioned they went on a few hikes to practice but really they had no experience. If you are going to take on something like this, maybe condition for it. Practice backpacking. Workout at the gym with your gear on. At the VERY LEAST take some survival classes, first aid classes, something. They basically got a book and a bunch of expensive gear and just went for it. So much fail.
Second: Dan, the author and storyteller, is a major ass. Throughout the book he portrayed himself in the least flattering light. He was arrogant, inflexible, rude and just not likeable in any way. I kept thinking "maybe this is a transformation story" and in some ways it was, but by the end of the book, he was even MORE of an ass and I just hated him and was getting to the point where I didn't care what the outcome of the story was.
Lastly: the last few chapters talk a little bit about the "aftermath" of the PCT. I wanted more from this. He brushed over it, clogged the last few chapters with a bunch of garbage that didn't matter and didn't really go into how he was effected by it. Other than losing his mind, essentially. But what about after that? Did he "find" his mind? Did he come out a better person? There needed to be an epilogue with a follow-up or something.
In parts of this book he was a good writer. Sometimes he bogged the story down with historical tidbits and facts which fell short. Sometimes they were interesting, but most it felt like filler. I just wanted more. More substance. More growth. More something.
Growing up in the NW I knew about the PCT a little bit and when I read "Wild" a few years ago I was struck with how amazing the book was, how emotional the experience of the PCT was and I was just enthralled. I got "The Cactus Eaters" and it started out good, pulled me in, and I wanted them to be successful in their quest. But chapter after chapter I just got annoyed.
First: the biggest pet peeve was that neither Dan nor Allison had any hiking/camping experience and didn't prepare for any of this. I think he mentioned they went on a few hikes to practice but really they had no experience. If you are going to take on something like this, maybe condition for it. Practice backpacking. Workout at the gym with your gear on. At the VERY LEAST take some survival classes, first aid classes, something. They basically got a book and a bunch of expensive gear and just went for it. So much fail.
Second: Dan, the author and storyteller, is a major ass. Throughout the book he portrayed himself in the least flattering light. He was arrogant, inflexible, rude and just not likeable in any way. I kept thinking "maybe this is a transformation story" and in some ways it was, but by the end of the book, he was even MORE of an ass and I just hated him and was getting to the point where I didn't care what the outcome of the story was.
Lastly: the last few chapters talk a little bit about the "aftermath" of the PCT. I wanted more from this. He brushed over it, clogged the last few chapters with a bunch of garbage that didn't matter and didn't really go into how he was effected by it. Other than losing his mind, essentially. But what about after that? Did he "find" his mind? Did he come out a better person? There needed to be an epilogue with a follow-up or something.
In parts of this book he was a good writer. Sometimes he bogged the story down with historical tidbits and facts which fell short. Sometimes they were interesting, but most it felt like filler. I just wanted more. More substance. More growth. More something.
November 10, 2014
The Cactus Eaters by Dan White, is a narrative of sorts, a memoir of his time spent hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. It delves into the drudgery of through hiking a national scenic trail and the struggle of man and nature. The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, often abbreviated as PCT, connects Mexico to Canada by stretching through California, Oregon, and Washington.
In The Cactus Eaters, Dan White chronicles his often anything but smooth, unlucky trip. On a whim he and his then girlfriend decided to hike the PCT starting in 360 miles North of the Mexican border to make up time lost by starting partially through the season. There was only one problem, Allison, Dan’s girlfriend, was sick. They had both grossly underestimated the endurance, experience, luck, and mental and emotional strength long distance hiking required, but they learned quickly. After finishing the majority of the trail, White has no ambition and no clue what to do with his life and moving to Santa Cruz sent him into a tailspin.
I personally found White’s chronicles of his trail experiences surprising and motivating. It was amazing, and at times annoying, how inept Dan and Allison were, yet somehow they managed to scrape by and survive, even succeed. If two people who are out of endurance shape can up and hike from Mexico to Canada, it makes you question what you can do and what you want to do.
In The Cactus Eaters, Dan White chronicles his often anything but smooth, unlucky trip. On a whim he and his then girlfriend decided to hike the PCT starting in 360 miles North of the Mexican border to make up time lost by starting partially through the season. There was only one problem, Allison, Dan’s girlfriend, was sick. They had both grossly underestimated the endurance, experience, luck, and mental and emotional strength long distance hiking required, but they learned quickly. After finishing the majority of the trail, White has no ambition and no clue what to do with his life and moving to Santa Cruz sent him into a tailspin.
I personally found White’s chronicles of his trail experiences surprising and motivating. It was amazing, and at times annoying, how inept Dan and Allison were, yet somehow they managed to scrape by and survive, even succeed. If two people who are out of endurance shape can up and hike from Mexico to Canada, it makes you question what you can do and what you want to do.
September 27, 2012
I really enjoyed this account of the author's experience on the Pacific Crest Trail. He captured the desolation, the hardship, and the beauty of nature experienced during a hike of this type, as well as the obsession that sets in when a journey of this magnitude is embarked upon.
Life 'on the trail' becomes about finding water and avoiding bear attacks, blister minimisation and ignoring personal hygiene. The world becomes the trees and the birds, and the 'thud, thud' of your boots on the dusty track. And the harsh simplicity of that is addictive.
His mistakes and lack of experience make for a more interesting read than, "seasoned hiker takes on blah blah," and I enjoyed the fact that he and his girlfriend were underprepared and yet did it anyway.
White's writing is amusing and engaging, he created the drama between the characters well, setting up the narrative so that I was quite surprised with how it ended.
Unpredictable and funny, I recommend this memoir to anyone interested in adventure, travel and the great outdoors, or just stories about normal people who do things that no-one thought they could .
Life 'on the trail' becomes about finding water and avoiding bear attacks, blister minimisation and ignoring personal hygiene. The world becomes the trees and the birds, and the 'thud, thud' of your boots on the dusty track. And the harsh simplicity of that is addictive.
His mistakes and lack of experience make for a more interesting read than, "seasoned hiker takes on blah blah," and I enjoyed the fact that he and his girlfriend were underprepared and yet did it anyway.
White's writing is amusing and engaging, he created the drama between the characters well, setting up the narrative so that I was quite surprised with how it ended.
Unpredictable and funny, I recommend this memoir to anyone interested in adventure, travel and the great outdoors, or just stories about normal people who do things that no-one thought they could .
October 6, 2012
I had really high hopes for this, especially since I loved "Wild." However, I had a hard time understanding WHY "Cactus Eaters" needed to be written. There wasn't anything especially compelling or awe-inspiring about this author's PCT trek, aside from the fact that he has a very rough time adjusting to regular life after leaving the trail. Also, the author weaves in a LOT of historical information, which is helpful at first but then just becomes an annoying interruption to what one could call a semblance of a narrative. If you're looking for a book that's non-fiction but reads like fiction, this is not your book.
October 6, 2017
White is an amazing story teller who gracefully transitions between memoir, and historical and ecological details of the Pacific Crest Trail. His personal tale is inspiring, riveting, depressing, cathartic, sobering, and hopeful. The academic details of the book arm the reader with enough history and earth science to make them cocktail-party-smart. This is a truly not-put-downable read for anyone that dreams of thru-hiking, is feeling lost, or feels that feeling lost will help them find something they are missing.
July 13, 2008
Another ALA book; oh man, I seriously can't decide how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I'm always a sucker for a long distance hike story (loved both A Walk in the Woods & A Blistered Kind of Love), but on the other, I hate when characters do stupid things on purpose. And this books was filled with both. I'm kind of amazed the author is still alive what with some of the choices he made on the journey.
December 4, 2008
I loved all this book's descriptions of the realities of the beauty and dreariness of the Pacific Crest Trail--and I found myself looking forward to relishing Dan White's hilarious (and often deceptively poignant) riffs on what all of this means to him. FYI, this is a memoir, not a travel guide, which the subtitle ("How I lost my mind and almost found myself on the PCT") makes clear.
March 17, 2018
87 pages into this trek and already a page turner. His wit, and that 'what did I get myself into' honesty gives his journey through the insanity of hiking the PCT a sense of relativity to me. I get it after kayaking the Yukon River Quest marathon 2 years ago. A book in the works... Dan White speaks my language. Great read and each page makes my knees hurt.
May 9, 2019
Entitled douchy white guy hikes the PCT. Treats his girlfriend like crap without remorse, is jerky in other ways, and doesn’t express that he’s learned from the experience. It was funny in spots and I was interested enough to read to the end, but this dude needs some charm.
June 4, 2008
Although annoyed by the narrator's selfishness and unfortunate references to his sexuality, I couldn't put this book down. A great attempt to capture an experience that few readers will ever share.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 223 reviews