It was April in Minneapolis and snowing, the flakes coming down in thick swirls enchanting the city

It was my life - like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and scared. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me. How wild it was, to let it be.

Of all the things I'd been skeptical about, I didn't feel skeptical about this: the wilderness had a clarity that included me.

It was my life—like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me.How wild it was, to let it be.

Fear begets fear. Power begets power. I willed myself to beget power.

Basking in the attention of the people who gathered around me, I didn't just feel like a backpacking expert. I felt like a hard-ass motherfucking Amazonian queen.