Maybe it sounds crazy for us to have
spent years getting me well from cancer, only to go out into
grizzly bear country. But we wanted to be back in the wild country
that I dreamed of when things were at their worst.
Diagnosed with cervical cancer at 30, Katie Gibson of Bozeman,
Mont., craved the outdoors so much that even the recurrence of the
life-threatening disease couldn’t keep her away. So she and
her husband, the writer Scott Bischke, have begun spending summers
hiking the West’s arduous Continental Divide Trail.
It’s a quest that has taken them through several states and
over 14,000-foot peaks, and they aren’t done yet. This book
about their continuing trek — hardly a walk in the park for
people in the pink of health — makes for compelling reading.
There’s never a false note, just useful stubbornness and
devotion to marvel at.
Crossing Divides: A
Couple’s Story of Cancer, Hope, and Hiking Montana’s
Continental Divide. Scott Bischke, published by the
American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Ga. Hardcover, $24.95. 270 pages,
illustrated with photos and maps.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Hiking toward healing.
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