I have such a fascination with the Pacific Crest Trail and those who choose to hike it. It is a place where a person can disappear from their everyday life, but it can be brutal and some can disappear unintentionally. I devoured this book in one day. It is fascinating and gripping at the same time.
Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail is an August 2023 release by Hachette Books
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, see disclosures for more detail.
About the Book:
As a park ranger with the National Park Service’s law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, from Yosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the support of the agency, Andrea grew frustrated with the service’s bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, and left the force after twelve years. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left off: three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile trek made famous by Cheryl Strayed’s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail , and no one has been able to find them. It’s bugging the hell out of her.
Andrea’s concern soon leads her to a wild environment unlike any she’s ever encountered: missing person Facebook groups. Andrea launches an investigation, joining forces with an eclectic team of amateurs who are determined to solve the cases by land and by screen: a mother of the missing, a retired pharmacy manager, and a mapmaker who monitors terrorist activity for the government. Together, they track the activities of kidnappers and murderers, investigate a cult, rescue a psychic in peril, cross paths with an unconventional scientist, and reunite an international fugitive with his family. Searching for the missing is a brutal psychological and physical test with the highest stakes, but eventually their hardships begin to bear strange fruits—ones that lead them to places and people they never saw coming.
Beautifully written, heartfelt, and at times harrowing, TRAIL OF THE LOST paints a vivid picture of hiker culture and its complicated relationship with the ever-expanding online realm, all while exploring the power and limits of determination, generosity, and hope. It also offers a deep awe of the natural world, even as it unearths just how vast and treacherous it can be.
On the TRAIL OF THE LOST, you may not find what you are looking for, but you will certainly find more than you seek.
My Review:
I gave this book 5 stars
Touching and insightful non-fiction book about three men (Chris Sylvia, Kris Fowler, and David O’Sullivan) who went missing on the Pacific Crest Trail and the immense efforts that went into (and still continue with) searching for them.
Andrea Lankford worked in law enforcement for the National Park service and was involved with many search and rescue operations. She left that job to become a nurse, but when she learned about these missing people, she decided to discover what she could about where they might be and help to bring closure to the families. What occurred after was a journey of knowledge and investigation, which involved a diverse group of people and immense effort.
I was engrossed in this book from the beginning. I live very near where the PCT crosses through Washington and have known both through hikers (those who travel the entire PCT from Mexico to Canada) and section hikers, and have provided transportation to those who have skipped a portion of the trail for one reason or another. This connection drew me to the book, but Lankford’s writing and the meticulous examination of the cases of the missing hikers, as well as insight into hiker culture and search and rescue operations in general kept me enthralled.
Unfortunately, it is still unknown what happened to the three men, but this book brings enlightening awareness and hopefully will lead to their discovery at some point. I hesitate to call this a “true crime” book because there is no evidence at all that crimes have been committed, but it reads similarly to a true crime story because there is an overall mystery of what happened to these men.
I highly recommend this book to those interested in narrative non-fiction. The Pacific Crest Trail has become more popular (thus more populated) and also more connected via technology in recent years, but it is still a vast wilderness fraught with peril on one hand and incredible beauty and serenity on the other.
