(Photo above: Mary Moynihan)
Mary Moynihan grew up in Warwick, New York, just a short distance from the Appalachian Trial (AT), the first of many threw hikes she would be destined to complete including the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and Te Araroa, New Zealand. She decided to move to Bend in 2011 “swayed by the promise of a backyard filled with mountains, lakes, trails and rivers.”
Having lived in Portland and Mt. Shasta, Moynihan delightfully refers to Bend as “the mountain town in the middle.”
When asked about her newly published book, Married to the Trail, which was written in Bend, she explains it’s a “travel narrative that tells the story of my 133-day solo hike along the CDT in 2011. It blends the scenic beauty of nature with an honest narrative about being a woman out there on the trail.
“The route leaves the Mexico border and threads its way north through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. It walks through some of the most exceptional land of our country, and yet few wander its entirety. At twenty-seven and as a solo female, I yearned to be one of those few. It’s a demanding trail, one marked by weather extremes like heavy snowpack, flooded rivers, and thirty-mile waterless gaps, as well as prolonged solitude and navigational challenges that require adept map and compass skills, or sheer luck.”
Describing the publishing process Moynihan notes she did much research in the Writer’s Market Guide. After only one rejection her book was accepted by Big Earth Publishing, located in Colorado, near the heart of the path the memoir depicts. Moynihan says they commented on the story’s originality and honesty and asked “why haven’t you written more?”
Moynihan advises aspiring authors that, “writing a good story needs to be your full-time job, even if you have a full-time job. Make sure, first and foremost, that you have a good place to write that it’s comfortable and encouraging of your writing. Drink lots of tea, and come evening, retire with your words with a glass of wine.”
Currently, Moynihan is gearing up for her next adventure. She says, “Some may describe my passion for backpacking long-distance trails as an obsession, or an addiction… I absolutely thrive on hiking long trails, and come January 2016, I will be setting foot on the longest adventure thus far… to backpack the lengths of America’s three renown long distance trails… all in the course of one calendar year, an almost incomprehensible idea called the Calendar Triple Crown. Only a small handful of strong, sturdy men have completed it. No woman has accomplished such an endeavor and I strive to be the first. More importantly, I just want to see them again. I just want to hike again.”
To purchase Married to the Trail, or to follow Moynihan on her journey as she attempts the Calendar Tipple Crown, contact directly at www.marriedtothetrail.com. Her book can also be found at Patagonia@Bend on NW 1000 Wall, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Big Earth Publishing and other book distributors in Oregon.
