To the Gorge

A riveting narrative of love and loss, grief and joy, as one woman embarks on a quest for a fastest known time on the Pacific Crest Trail.

When Emily Halnon lost her beloved mother to a rare uterine cancer at just 66 years old, she wanted to do something epic to honor the person her mother had been: adventurous, courageous, inspiring. Emily’s mom had taken up running in her late 40s; she ran her first marathon at 50. She learned to swim at 60 so she could do triathlons, and she did long bike rides even after she was diagnosed, still going for walks as she could in the short months from diagnosis to her death. Emily’s mom had even once jumped out of a plane. It was going to take something special to pay tribute to such a remarkable, life-loving spirit. Emily, an already accomplished ultrarunner (inspired to start running by her mother), decided to try to break the record for the Fastest Known Time by a woman, running the Pacific Crest Trail’s 460 miles across Oregon. As she laid out plans for her run she began to wonder: Could she also break the men’s record?

To the Gorge takes the reader through those 7 days, 19 hours, and 23 minutes, covering nearly 60 miles a day on foot over mountainous terrain, and battling all the issues that could arise during such a monstrous undertaking: hammered muscles, golf ball-sized blisters, sleep deprivation, hallucinations, cougar encounters. The hardest run of her life while she simultaneously battled through the profound grief of losing her living inspiration and best friend. 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.

To the Gorge resonates with anyone whom life has hit with a hardball and has had to dig deep as they wonder how they will get through it. Filled with adventure and heart, To the Gorge invites readers to consider what our greatest losses have to teach us about how to live the one life we get.