[pct-l] An incredible story, and an important addition to the PCT bookshelf

[David Plotnikoff]

Hello from a longtime list-lurker.

Just wanted to bring your attention to Barbara Egbert's new book, 
published by Wilderness Press. This is a very readable account of 
Barbara's thru-hike with her husband and Scrambler, the youngest 
person to ever through-hike the PCT -- at age 10. I think anyone 
who's ever had even incidental contact with Scrambler will attest to 
the fact that she's an extraordinary one-in-a-million kid. Below is a 
review of from the San Jose Mercury News.

Disclaimer: Barbara Egbert, the reviewer Tom Mangan, and yours truly 
all worked together at this local newspaper for a good long spell 
.... They're friends. But that won't stop me from strongly 
recommending this book as a new perspective on the thru-hike 
experience.

Best,

DP
www.emeraldlake.com/pctguide

>A family trek of 2,650 miles
>Book follows 10-year-old girl on her adventure
>By Tom Mangan
>Mercury News
>Article Launched: 11/08/2007 01:47:20 AM PST
>
>What kind of mom takes her 10-year-old daughter trekking across the 
>wilderness for months on end, and what kind of 10-year-old daughter 
>puts up with having such a mom?
>
>The answers that unfold in Barbara Egbert's "Zero Days" make the 
>East Bay family's adventure seem plausible - even inevitable.
>
>Egbert spent half of 2004 walking northward with her husband, Gary 
>Chambers, and their daughter, Mary, along the Pacific Crest Trail. 
>Mary was the youngest ever to hike the entire PCT in one season.
>
>Egbert and Chambers, who live in Sunol, started taking their 
>daughter on backpacking trips before she was old enough to walk. By 
>the time Mary started out on the 2,650-mile PCT trek, she had 
>already hiked all 165 miles of the Tahoe Rim Trail. Chambers also is 
>a veteran rock climber and mountaineer.
>
>Egbert's first-person prose is plain-spoken and unpretentious. It's 
>not the equal of, say, Bill Bryson's, whose "A Walk in the Woods" is 
>a classic, antic tale of failing to through-hike the Appalachian 
>Trail. But Egbert, a Mercury News copy editor, has success on her 
>side, having hiked all but a couple hundred miles of the PCT 
>(medical issues forced her off the trail for a few weeks) and 
>finishing the trek in Canada with husband and child.
>
>Between 200 and 300 hardy backpackers try to through-hike the PCT 
>every year. Most start in April or early May at Campo, on the 
>U.S-Mexico border, and head north toward Manning Provincial Park in 
>British
>Advertisement
>Columbia (they rest on "zero" days, when they log no miles). Around 
>50 to 60 finish.
>
>Along the way they, usually adopt descriptive trail names: Chambers 
>became "Captain Bligh," leader and navigator; Egbert was "Nelly 
>Bly," the famed 19th-century true-life storyteller; and Mary was 
>"Scrambler," adept at crawling over rocks and other trail-side 
>attractions.
>
>The literature of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is primarily guide 
>books on how to do it, and narratives of people who've done it. 
>Dozens of online journals - most of them at www.trailjournals.com - 
>provide day-to-day details and descriptions. The world doesn't much 
>need another linear account of starting out in April under the 
>scalding Southern California sun, heading up into the craggy High 
>Sierra for the summer months and finishing in the rainy Cascades in 
>the fall.
>
>"Zero Days" does begin in Southern California and end at the 
>Canadian border, but the middle is more descriptive than linear. 
>Egbert divides the book into chapters on the people, the wildlife, 
>the aches and pains of months on the trail. It's about walking on 
>blisters for 20 miles, chasing bears away from food supplies, 
>finding privacy in a three-person tent.
>
>With the family's travels told in vignettes, it's up to the reader 
>to weave a narrative thread. Hiking junkies who are hooked reading 
>through-hikers' online ramblings should warm to the story; others 
>unfamiliar with the rigors of the trail might have a rougher go of 
>it.
>
>Then again, if you've ever taken kids camping for a weekend, you may 
>want to pick up "Zero Days" just to marvel at how a mom, dad and 
>daughter avoid driving themselves batty after week upon week in the 
>outdoors.
>
>Among the book's parenting lessons: Never forget your child is a 
>child, but never let her think you're treating her like one. Don't 
>hand her more than she can handle, but let her prove she can handle 
>even more.
>
>Once Egbert and Chambers became confident about Mary's backwoods 
>abilities, there was never any question about taking her along on 
>the PCT hike. They did make allowances for an inquisitive 
>10-year-old, resolving from the beginning to never let her hike 
>alone.
>
>Mother and father took extra care to keep her safe, but they also 
>insisted Mary was a full partner in the team, pulling her weight 
>with camp chores and even carrying extra weight when Barbara needed 
>to lighten her load because of foot and leg pain.
>
>By the time they got to Washington state, Mary was a seasoned trail 
>veteran, joining the debates over which trail to take and which 
>water supply to avoid. And, finally, her stern determination to 
>finish the hike propelled her dad to find a safe route to the 
>Canadian border when the high trails were snowed in.
>
>"Zero Days" is a straightforward account full of outdoorsy details 
>most relevant to those captivated by the idea of trekking the PCT, 
>but there is a moral for the non-hiking masses: If you give your 
>kids the opportunity to amaze you, generally they will.
>
>ZERO DAYS
>
>The Real-Life Adventure of Captain Bligh,
>
>Nellie Bly and 10-year-old Scrambler on the Pacific Crest Trail
>
>By Barbara Egbert
>
>Wilderness Press, 288 pp., $15.95
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