Mile 445: Hitched in Her Hiking Boots

Not many people can say they met and married their spouse within thirty days of beginning to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

But that’s exactly what happened to twenty-five-year-old Claire Henley Miller.

Mile 445 is the inspiring—and romantic—true story of how Miller left corporate life behind to embark on a 2,650-mile hike from Mexico to Canada. She is doing it alone, and the only gear she takes to survive the trek in the mountains of California, Oregon, and Washington fits inside her sixty-eight-liter backpack.

At the start of her five-month journey, she meets a handsome young man known on the trail as Big Spoon. Their paths keep crossing. The two quickly see a greater reason for their expedition than to explore the rigorous wilderness. They fall madly in love and get married. But their adventure is just beginning.

Told with rich vitality, Miller’s quest unfolds in mystical ways through deadly desert storms, 14,000-foot ascents, and decisions that will affect the rest of her life. This bold tale of courage and determination brims with humor and suspense as it reveals life, love, and loss in the rawness of the wild.

Claire Henley Miller was born in Tennessee and has since lived in the Loire Valley of France and the Colorado Rockies. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga in creative writing and, in 2016, worked as a journalist for The Chattanoogan.com. She is also the author of a children’s story, The Land of the Living Sunrise, and a book of poetry, The Infinite. She currently lives with her husband in Chattanooga.