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

[Bob Bankhead]

An incredible story, and an important addition to the PCTAccording to the Amazon.com website, the book has not been released yet, but is available for pre-order for $10.85.
http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Days-Adventure-10-year-old-Scrambler/dp/0899974384/ref=sr_1_3/104-3969117-5818343?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194580682&sr=1-3
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Plotnikoff 
  To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
  Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 6:21 PM
  Subject: [pct-l] An incredible story, and an important addition to the PCT bookshelf


  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
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    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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