I came across this book while on vacation with my girlfriend and couldn't put it down! Since her and I talk about adventures like this, we passed the book back and forth until it was done.

The book is very well written, many twists and turns and not predictable at all. If you like adventure, you will love this book. If you like reading about adventure, you will definitely love this book. Most importantly, if you want a book to keep your interest and challenge your sense of adventure, you will love this book.

Enjoy!

I was hoping for an engaging story akin to "A Walk in the Woods". Instead I found myself disgusted with Dan's behavior toward his hiking companion and annoyed that the story didn't talk more about the adventure of the trail. This story should have remained a diary.

I gave it three stars because I did read all 400 pages hoping to see Dan "almost find himself" and become less of a jerk. No luck.

So as not to be spoiler, I won't explain my quibble with book's title, except to say it is symptomatic of the author's attitude. He spreads the blame to include his hiking companion, Allison, when things go wrong. I noticed in the book's Author's Notes that Dan thanks everyone on the planet except Allison, which seems very petty. I give him credit for frankly admitting his many mistakes and stupidities along the trail, which gives the book its humor and spice. It is obvious he was very immature when he hiked the trail, but Dan the author seems to have not grown up much.

The writing is medocre. However the subject is fascinating and there are several poignant moments so I can recommend it as a light read.

I did not think it was possible to write a book about hiking the PCT without conveying the joy, beauty and spirituality of the experience, but Dan White has managed to do it.

If you are looking to understand what it is like to hike the PCT, this is not the book. This book about two inexperienced, unprepared hikers portrays the worst of the experience and almost completely misses explaining the hike itself. Instead of descriptions of the terrain, we get long reminisces about the authors past experiences [generally not very interesting] and long descriptions of tedious conversations with other PCT hikers---all which crowd out the PCT itself. For example, on the top of Mt. Whitney, which commands one of the greatest 360 degree views in America, White writes nothing about the joy of being there, but instead repeats a desultory conversation with another hiker. He walks through the southern Sierras without mentioning Rae Lakes, passes through the Yosemite High Country with few comments, then provides a detailed description of his visit to souvenir shops at Lake Tahoe!

I congratulate the author and his girlfriend for undertaking this adventure and only wish he could have captured the joy of the experience,

After finishing Cactus Eaters, I walked over to the next room where my wife was in bed, hugged her hard, and repeated that I loved her at least six times. She winced a little: "Please. I'm trying to relax and go to sleep."

She had no idea that I was overcome with emotion by this allegory of trail and the outdoors as a search for love and life's meaning.

While I won't give the details away, I had been breezing through Dan White's frequently lighthearted and often self-deprecating quest to hike the Pacific Crest Trail with his hot girlfriend (Dan, post pix of her on your web site) only to be thrown for a huge reality check at the end. I suddenly felt a burning hatred for our shallow protagonist.

But it was a good thing. It helped me to crystallize a nagging realization that one must make huge choices and big sacrifices in pursuit of what you may only have one shot at achieving.

We don't really learn whether White regrets the choice he made, whether he truly did find himself. You have to assume that he did. (Then again, the title only promises that he "almost" finds himself on the trail).

While not as laugh-out-loud funny as Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, Cactus Eaters is peppered with a lot of amusing stories and people.

Like Bryson, White seems a little self-absorbed, even while deprecating himself at every bend. Unlike Bryson, give Dan White credit for walking the whole trail at all costs.

As colorful as most of the supporting characters are, I see only occasional glimpses of White trying to truly understand and appreciate the people he meets along the way. An exception is the lonely trail-keeper near trail's -- and book's -- end.

I guess I have no major problem with this, since many hikers hit the trail to "discover" what's inside themselves. It's just that I read this right after Peter Jenkins' Walk Across America, which is not written with as much flare but takes the reader on a much deeper journey into the lives of the people Jenkins meets and even lives with.

The comparison just gets me to thinking that there is a world of discovery to be had by taking the time to know people -- not in dumping your vital water supply in the desert to hasten your flight from them.

OK, I love books about long distance hiking. I collect all books concerning the Appalachian Trail. I hike whenever I can. I work for a major outdoor retailer. That said I really disliked this book because I found Dan White to be a very dislikable person. Oh sure there are a few chuckles in the book but not enough. His humor is High School and sophmoric at best and the way he treats his girlfriend it's a wonder she did not leave him sooner. I had high hopes for this book based on the publishers blurb but my dislike for White grew so much that I could barely finish the book. His lady friend deserved better.

rmw

The Pacific Crest Trail reaches from Mexico to Canada: a grueling stretch with many physical demands. When the author and his girlfriend decided to hike it, Dan's parents thought they were crazy; especially since the two hadn't even lived together and were contemplating a grueling six-month journey. But the trip tested them on many levels, and THE CACTUS EATERS: HOW I LOST MY MIND AND ALMOST FOUND MYSELF ON THE PACIFIC COAST TRAIL documents these changes.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

My husband brought this home and I was nonplussed about reading it. Thankfully, I did open it and was hooked after the first few pages. Dan White's humor was terrific and addictive, and the narrative was very compelling. As a backpacker and also as an avid fiction reader, I wholeheartedly recommend this book!

this book got me going immediately. Even if you dont love the author (I dont) he is still hilarious at times and the story is also very moving. If you have never thought of hiking the PCT, it doesn't matter, this is a great tale and well told. I wish I had another one just like it (by which I mean as good).

As a university librarian, I've found that walking through the exhibit hall of the American Library Assn annual convention is a bit like strolling through downtown Tijuana. Hawkers of library-related software, library shelving, computer systems, you-name-it -- and hundreds of publisher's representatives -- are doing everything they can to get your attention.

So, last month, during the most recent convention in Anaheim, California, when some publisher's rep shoved a copy of The Cactus Eaters in my hands with a 20-second "elevator speech," about it being "a wonderful new book about a couple's hike of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada," I'm thinking -- "Well, how interesting could that be?" They're trying to "get a buzz going," on the book, while I'm more interested in getting to the next programming session on Copyright Law or Use of Social Networking Software at the CIA, DIA, Dept of State and Library of Congress, etc.

At the end of the day, however, I rely on my tested methodology regarding which books to keep and which to quickly get rid of (typically by leaving them on end-tables in the hotel lobby). I skim the blurb on the back cover and read a few paragraphs on three or four random pages. My reaction to this one? "Wow, this is really good narrative writing!"

There are a lot of books out there that promise a good story, but -- more often than not -- the writing usually doesn't convey the content well-enough to allow the reader to develop and maintain a mental picture clear enough to carry it through to completion. But, Dan White's account of his part of the "Lois and Clark Expedition" is *very* well-written. I, like a lot of readers, was quickly hooked and found myself absorbed by the details, personal reflections and pace of the story he tells. Soon, I found myself looking forward to time to slowly read it -- at night at the hotel, on the cross-country flight home, and for a few weeks of couple-of-pages-a-night reading at home just before turning out the nightlight.

It's clear that White wrote a first draft based on his trail journal, then wrote multiple other drafts, adding details as they came to memory. Then, later went back and added a *lot* of research content regarding the political, natural and geographic history of various segments of the trail. Finally, judging by the smoothness of the flow of the text, I would guess he went through the manuscript a few dozen times to get the timing, narrative voice and underlying themes just right. This isn't easy to do, as works like this tend to read more like a Botany student's master's thesis; it usually takes years to get a book "just right," like White did.

The book has multiple themes: on the surface, it's the tale of two young, naive journalists who enjoy each other's company, and -- on a bit of a whim -- decide to drop-out of the work-world to take-on the self-imposed challenge of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Another theme is that of the reliance that loving partners have on each other, whether acknowledged or not, and how such relationships are sometimes flexible and forgiving, and at other times, tenuous and easily broken.

Dan White writes of his relationship with his trail-partner and lover, "Allison," with a brutal honesty. He writes of his own verbal abuse, his fear of being found-out (by her) to be an inept, incompetent and unworthy human being, of her strength versus his own weaknesses and fearfulness. He portrays her as a beautiful, ideal friend, lover and partner; a companion with a joyful personality, and a deep emotional reserve and fearlessness that got them both through some really tough spots. Time and again he refers, in amazement, at how she powered her way through her own physical pain and his whining and complaints to move them along.

There's something about the challenge of the open-road or the open-trail that is -- at one time or another in our lives -- attractive to some of us. We don't know why we have to do it, but we do -- and are forever changed by the doing. When I was eighteen, right out of high school, I left my high school sweetheart and the life that staying home and marrying her would have entailed, and hitch-hiked from my hometown in Florida, up the east coast to North Bay, Ontario, then across Canada to Vancouver, British Columbia and back across the border, down to Portland, across to Salt lake City, St. Louis, down to Nashville and Atlanta and finally back home. Like "Allison" and Dan White, the hundreds of people I met and the experiences of that journey changed me -- in ways that I wouldn't understand until many years later. So, without giving away the ending, I'll simply say that how their relationship ends-up is typical of the post-trail let-down one feels after such an adventure.

I enjoyed how White doesn't so much as "write," as he paints with words, images of the physical and emotional journey he took with "Allison." I wish that he had included many of the photographs that he alluded to in the text, and I would love to have read an Afterword of some 30-40 pages by "Allison" regarding her thoughts and views of Dan White, the journey and what the experience came to mean in her life. It's obvious that she gave so much to Dan and to the journey; it is also obvious that Dan could never have made the trip without her -- and, thus I hope she's getting half the royalties. (smile)

Bottom line -- an honest, well-written, well-crafted book that details the hardships endured by those who take on the challenge to one's endurance and sanity to hike the Pacific Coast Trail.

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University

I got this book from the library; after the first pages I knew I had to buy it, it was the best backpacking book I ever read. Dan White describes exactly how it is on the trail, getting lost, loosing stuff, wondering where the next water is and is it really worth the ordeal. I loved his desciption of the scenery and the other hikers. During my backpacking days I too met really odd ones.
This book wanted me dust off my old Kelty pack and hit the trail.
I would have liked to see some photos in the book, but I guess that would have made it more expensive.

Although the book has a few funny sections, the author spends WAY too much time talking about his own problems, obsessions, etc. Many of the mishaps in this book could have been avoided with a little hiking experience before tackling such an enormous trail. The author didn't even know how to use a compass to find North when he started, and he took untried equipment along.

Also, there is some cosmic rule about this kind of book that descriptions of various bodily functions have to be included; if that doesn't sound funny to you, you might not like this book.

Dan White is a funny dude and I enjoyed The Cactus Eaters - especially in the early-going when White's humor was fresh. The pacing of the story is excellent and he explores the challenges of couple-hiking in an effective (if one-sided way). Several aspects of this book aggravated me:
1) White never tells us when exactly he hiked the trail although his references to popular culture would date the hike in the early to mid 1990s.
2) Some of the drama and dialog seems contrived - which given the likely time lapse between the hike and the manuscript, would not be surprising
3) White's self-flagellation becomes a little repetitive and there were 2-3 too many references to cosmic payback
4) The timing of his two-season hike (he starts in June) leads him to miss much of the culture of the trail. His contact with other thru-hikers is minimal. I can't help but think that if he and Allison had done a traditional thru-hike that he would have had much richer inter-personal material
5) The specific content of this book is eerily similar to A Blistered Kind of Love - which tells the story of a couple hiking the PCT from a dual voice standpoint. This might just be coincidence or maybe not or maybe I am biased.


Overall, I would recommend The Cactus Eaters as a well-written and humorous narrative, but if you are looking for an authentic PCT book, there are better options out there.

This is a wonderful book! I read it straight through.

A rather inexperienced young couple begins walking north into the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) from near Los Angeles. Granted, she seems to know how to hold a compass.

This is a great read for newbie hikers and old pros.... or anybody who ever had an obsession with a mission.

An autobiographical account, the author intersperses interesting and well-researched information on the history of the PCT, along with some natural history and general history of California. I learned a lot.

I also identified with many of the emotions ... having done something awkward ... or having achieved greatness in surroundings where nobody really cares. In describing his internal world and personal foibles, the author displays an internal courage that I could never hope to match. But they hit home with me, because many times I have been that person.

I hope to see more writing from this author.

p.s. Curiously there is a 1937 book by Julian Weston having the same title. It describes the Goajira Indians in Colombia.

Sincerely: rayo http://www.sfbaywalk.com/

I have mixed feelings about "The Cactus Eaters." There were parts of it I thought were exceptional but I struggled with others. I have a policy of not wasting my time on a book as soon as I discover that I don't care for it and Dan White, the author, had me fidgeting at times. But I made it through (and the book survived several feints at the discard pile). I thought the story got a little tedious.

I had some problems with the author's attitude. Choosing to hike the Pacific Crest Trail is a brave decision but White's account of the journey never convinced me that he accepted the hardships that were present. Quite the opposite. His narrative is full of whining, self-flogging, and attempts at convincing himself he made the right decision in the first place. But, having said that, I still found enough humor and beauty in his writing to keep me on the trail (so to speak), eating his dust. Now, as I think back, I have to wonder where White's tongue was when he wrote the book -- firmly in his cheek, perhaps?

So here's my advice to potential readers. If you like good descriptive writing about both desolate and beautiful places, you'll find some. If you like a lot of inside information on physical ailments, you'll find even more. If you like self-deprecating humor, sprinkled with self abuse and loathing, you'll find that also - in abundance. As I write this, I find myself remembering parts of the book that still make me laugh, although I really don't understand why. You should read the book simply because it's different enough to be intriguing. The writing might stir up feelings that will make you long for the trail, but you might not want White as a companion. Somehow I doubt that he would care.

I read all the reviews of this book, and I find it interesting that a couple of the critiques say there's not enough "trail" in the book. Clearly people read for different reasons. Personally, I found a lot of trail in the book. I loved all this book's descriptions of the realities of the beauty and dreariness of the 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. 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.

This is about someone facing adversity, boredom, beauty and physical pain--all shaped by good writing into one riotous scene after another. It's not just about exploring a trail but about exploring one's coming-of-age existential questions about what to do with one's life.

That said, the humor of this book cannot be overstated. The book often reads like David Sedaris meets the Three Stooges. I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud so much while reading.

I heard Dan on a local radio show describe his adventures/misadventures, telling how he set off to hike the PCT with very little experience and lots of ideals. Based on that, I had to get the book.

I really enjoyed the book - a believable narrative of someone who may have bitten off more than he could chew. The characters he meets on his travels ring true; they run the gamut of helpful, to weird to downright bizarre. I had to keep reading until the end so I could see how everything turned out.

When I was younger, I often wanted to through hike the Appalachian Trail, but I have a feeling that this is how it would have turned out if I did!

Dan White seems to have found the same narrative style as Bill Bryson (In a Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail), a mix of laughter, adventure and "Oh my God!".

This book is certainly not a guide book for the PCT, but it is a very enjoyable read for adventurers and for couch potatoes. I had initially purchased an electronic version of this book for me, but I liked it so much, I went back an purchased a print copy for my husband.

I'll read anything pertaining to the Pacific Crest Trail. Though this is as much an autobiographical of the main character/author, it is so funny that it makes up for it's lack of reference to the PCT.

I read Dan White's "The Cactus Eaters" while driving over miles of gravel and frost heaves on the way to Alaska. And even though I was once bounced so high off the back seat of my van that I smacked my head on the ceiling, I couldn't stop reading this book. It was a complete guilty pleasure: the account of a clueless-but-determined couple's hike into the wilderness of the Pacific Crest Trail. Dan's White's witty and self-deprecating style, combined with plenty of western history and trail lore, made this a great read -- even for somebody who has never put hiking boot to trail. If someone wants a serious guide to hiking the PTC with mind-numbing detail of every plodding step, they should look somewhere else. But if they want a funny, insightful and smart recounting of what happens when human nature meets Mother Nature, then this book is just the ticket

I loved reading The Cactus Eaters because Dan White has written it using vivid, luscious and sometimes strange details. For the price of a few lattes, I traveled with White as he came upon one moment of truth after another, and got to see the consequences of his choices. Along with being a great travel narrative, White has crafted a funny, sad and beautiful true story - well told and timed. I particularly enjoyed the realness of this book - White did not sugar-coat things, even when his actions ended up being wrong or ill-thought through.

While Dan White's first book might be called, "The Cactus Eaters," it's no prickly read. Rather, it's a smooth page-turner, leaving the reader `thirsty' for more. Simply put: You can't put it down.

It's a beautifully written story about White and his girlfriend at the time who take on the daunting task of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. "The Cactus Eaters" reads like a novel, only it's not. It's pure non-fiction, which is what makes "The Cactus Eaters" quite hilarious and delightful at the same time. In addition, the writing is superb. White has a masterful way with crafting a story. From the first paragraph you're hooked.

This isn't just some travel or woodsy memoir. It's a story about love and the great outdoors, all mashed into one. It's like a romantic comedy and a documentary, thrown in the blender together.

I highly recommend it. Awesome read.

This book is a great read! Funny and fun, honest and insightful . . . it transcends "travel book," while having all that genre has to offer, a wonderfully descriptive sense of the Pacific Crest Trail, the flora and fauna lovingly described (and, in the case of the cacus, eaten!), a true and shimmering sense of the landscape, that is both barren and beautiful, always haunting . . . But it's also a story of one man's personal journey, into his own occasionally deranged mind and overheated soul, that is so frank and engaging and so very human, as it also explores the nature of relationships as well as the nature of nature itself.
This is a terrific book, and it would make a really good movie!

Dan White has a way with words. In the first three lines of this book, he draws the reader in with his uncanny descriptions ("I suck my tongue. I lick my hot teeth") his metaphors, his ability to all at once keep the reader laughing and keep the reader sympathetic. Reading this book is like watching a completely engrossing movie. You are taken out of your life and into the hot, dry, crackling desert. When something draws you out, you long to get back in, back to the PCT, back to Dan and Allison and the cast of bizarre characters they meet along the way in this story. Dan is a perfect guide: sensitive, funny, smart, and not a little self-deprecating. In a word: awesome. This book begs to be read out loud to friends.

If you're looking for a guide to the Pacific Crest Trail - this isn't that kind of book. BUT, if you're looking for an extremely well-written, hard-to-put-down, hysterically funny account of a very personal 2,650 mile journey - Cactus Eaters is for you!

I strongly disagree with the reviewer who tagged this book a yawn-inducing personal narrative with too little emphasis on The Trail itself. I've done a long distance hike (Appalachian Trail) and, to be honest, a description of the *actual* trail experience has HUGE potential to be quite tedious. You walk a lot. Body parts hurt. Your gear fails you. If you're inexperienced, you make stupid mistakes. If you're experienced, you make well-educated ones. There lots of trees and the occasional animal. Other hikers can either entertain or irritate you.

It's what happens to a person in the face of all these things that transforms the experience into a real journey and Dan White does an amazing job of bringing the reader along on his.

I was so taken by Cactus Eaters that I dusted off my backpack and hit the trail for a few days after reading it. Can't recommend it enough :)

While I've never been on the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail (I'm an accomplished hiker but mostly back east), the trail is surely so tremendous that it deserves to be highlighted in many more books. But this particular book would be better for readers looking for a slightly funny take on a guy's personal travails and hardships, rather than readers hoping to learn about all that the PCT has to offer. White did indeed complete the massive 2,650 miles of the PCT over two seasons, and in some areas he includes great descriptions of the scenery and hardships of the trail itself.

But much of the book is a rather tiresome "nonfiction narrative" (in White's description) of his own soul searching and quest to [...yawn...] find himself. Such self-aggrandizement via nature reflection is a played-out epidemic in the mainstream book trade. Even though White's origin as an ordinary non-hiker who decided to tackle the PCT in earnest is rather unusual, there is little to be learned from his personal travails. Much of White's journey is described via embarrassing personal details about himself and his girlfriend (who hiked most of the trail as well and later dumped him, with good reason), and his post-trek ennui and confusion are described with an annoying vibe of self-obsession, rather than the existential insight that other outdoorsy folks have articulated in more successful nature journals.

Another problem is that White describes fellow hikers and friendly trail assistants in largely unflattering ways, creating thin caricatures of fellow souls who at least added variety to his trek and may have even saved his life on several occasions. Granted, White is a fairly funny writer and he gains some occasional insights into the relations between regular pampered folks and the hardest realities of nature. But successful books of this type should healthily combine personal reflections with the amazing discoveries found on the trail to which the writer is trying to pay homage. This book just has too much writer and not enough trail. [~doomsdayer520~]

I received my copy of "The Cactus Eaters" Saturday and finished it Sunday afternoon, laughing all the way through to the rather sobering finish. This guy is exceptionally talented. His tale shows what a personal experience a long distance hike is, how intense it can be when shared with another person, and how weird it is when the sharing ends before the trail does. I loved it.
Palomino
San Juan Bautista, CA