When Emily Halnon lost her beloved mother to a rare uterine cancer at just sixty-six years old, she wanted to do something monumental to honor the person her mother had been. Emily's mom had taken up running in her late forties; she ran her first marathon at fifty. She even went skydiving to celebrate her sixtieth birthday.
Emily, already an accomplished ultrarunner, decided to try to break the record for the Fastest Known Time by a woman on the Pacific Crest Trail's 460 miles across Oregon.
To the Gorge takes the listener through her seven days, nineteen hours, and twenty-three minutes on the trail, covering nearly sixty miles a day on foot over rugged terrain, and battling all the issues that could arise during such a monstrous undertaking. All the while, she simultaneously struggles with how to get through the profound grief of losing her mom.
Interwoven with Halnon's eight-day effort are her remembrances from her mother's life and death, exploring the complicated experience of grief—and what shines through it.
Filled with adventure and heart, To the Gorge invites listeners to consider what our greatest losses can teach us about how to live the one life we get.