Charles Hurst

The Shepherd and the Runningwolf Charles Hurst

In his thirties, Charles Hurst was a successful contract medical practitioner. One looking from the outside would see an ideal existence. A former competitive bodybuilder and long-time martial artist, he was respected in and out of his profession. But behind that illusionary guise was a much darker life. Escaping a turbulent youth, comprised of fear and torment as an early teenager, Charles had been severely scarred, the demons that traveled with him into his adult world-one that had deteriorated into alcoholism and hatred for his own species. At forty years old, he defeated alcoholism. But upon emergence from the inferno, Charles found a terrain he was unfamiliar with, his spirit still lost in the black forest. It was during this time that he rediscovered his old Boy Scout haunt of backpacking in the wilderness. A progression of expeditions eventually led to his attempt on the long odyssey from Mexico to Canada-the Pacific Crest Trail. During that 2,660 miles, his being was reborn. Through the ice storms in the mountains and the heat in the barren deserts, walking twenty-five miles a day, through pain and euphoria, magnificence and monotony, Charles battled the demons from his past and finally sent them to the grave forever. The Shepherd and the Runningwolf isn't just a tale of a trail, it is an epic traverse of the human spirit, traveling through the wastelands of prior abuse to the bright summits of forgiveness and freeing of the soul. A testament that one can overcome darkness from the past-by putting on a backpack and walking away from it.