Two-Heel Drive

Steve Sergeant interviews Captain Bligh, Nellie Bly and Scrambler, the family who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2004, chronicled in the book “Zero Days” (since trail season is officially under way it’s OK to call ‘em by their trail names).

Mary, AKA Scrambler, was 10 when she hiked the trail with her mom and dad. Though she seems like an obvious role model, listening to the interview makes it plain she’s quite a remarkable individual — bright like the sun and wise far beyond her years — almost too exceptional to make the case “well, anybody can get their kids to do something like this.” She was the star of a presentation her mom and dad gave for folks at the Mercury News in the spring of 2005.

Try to avoid the urge to wish you had such great kids; they hate it when you do that.

Dave and Cindy Peters have already logged their first 100 miles from the wall at Campo on the U.S.-Mexico border. They’re now calling themselves Zelda and Tarzan. How Dave got dubbed:

At Scissors Crossing we stopped to rest and make a decision whether to proceed up a hot dry stretch through the San Felipe Hills or to wait it out until early morning when it is cool.

While here at Scissors Crossing another hiker named Zoner gave David his trail name. David was dubbed Tarzan because of the Cheetah gaiters he wears along with his jungle shirt and hat. I don’t want to be Jane because David would have an excuse to drag me around so we’ll wait to see what comes about for me.

Cindy did the wise thing: chose one before some embarrassing trail faux pas did the deed for her:

Last night we had several hikers congratulate us on our 24 mile day as we came into camp at Barrel Springs. Nomad, who is a two-time AT thru-hiker, suggested that my trail name should be Wonder Woman or Super Woman, but neither one hit the spot for me. The next morning the name Zelda pop into mind, which I thought was consistent with the other names mentioned. My sons both love the game, The Legend of Zelda. I ran it by some other hikers and they thought it was perfect. I love it too!

So, Tarzan and Zelda made it to Warner Springs resort and it is paradise. The soap smells so good. And a thru hiker that lives near here named Warner Springs Monty heard about my blisters through trail talk and brought me some Epsom salts to our room. What a great trail angel!

As long as I’m on the subject of local through-hikers, I’ve been meaning to mention one I found last week: JJ, a Bay Area guy who says he used to weigh 400 pounds (down to 290 at last count, as I recall). A briefing from his first day out:

Knees good. Tired. It is much further from Hauser Creek this year than four years ago. And more bicycles. I counted 12 between Campo and Hauser Creek.

Lots of people already on the trail. I’m off for a shower after a
quart of chocolate milk and a quart of cranberry juice.

More later.

Lots of good stuff at JJ’s web site, Old Man Walking, which won’t have many updates for the next few months while he’s working his way north (the The Trail Journals link above should have them, though).

Jellybean, from Mile 43 of the Pacific Crest trail:

I was sitting on a rock out cropping yesterday to air my feet and eat a snack. I could see down into the valley and interstate 8. I was thinking Wow! Its so much better to be sitting here looking at the trucks go by than it is to be in a truck watching the mountains go by!

Priceless because Jellybean Jean is a long-haul trucker half the year, and a through-hiker the rest. Previous Jellybean journals: 2002 PCT | 2005 AT | 2006 AT | 2007 AT

Barb is the author of Zero Days, her account of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with her husband and 10-year-old daughter.

As of a couple minutes ago, Barb is essentially unemployed — she’s one of the folks getting their walking papers in the Mercury News’ latest round of layoffs (See RIP Mercury News by a former co-worker if you’ve got a morbid curiosity about what’s going on at Ridder Park Drive these days).

It’s not the sexiest memoir out there, admittedly, but it has the fortunate attribute of being true, unlike so many out there. I’ve come across too many who met her PCT family on the trail. Here’s a review at BooksforHikers.com.

So what do you say, folks, how about a little trail angeling for somebody who walked over 2000 miles in a single summer?

The Mercury News has posted my review of Barbara Egbert’s “Zero Days,” which recounts her 2004 Pacific Crest Trail through-hike with her husband and 10-year-old daughter. Excerpt:

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

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.

Wilderness Press page for the book is here. Barb & family have a site here.

So 4WheelBob is not the only chaser-of-remarkable-firsts in my acquaintance. It so happens that a woman I work with hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2004 with her 10-year-old daughter, the youngest ever to hike the whole trail.

Barb Egbert is a copy editor at the Mercury News who has just finished writing “Zero Days,” a Wilderness Press title accounting her six-month sojourn with her daughter, Mary, and her husband, Gary, in the spring/summer/fall of 2004. If you were on the trail that season, you might recall their trail handles: Nelly Bly, Scrambler and Captain Bligh.

Our books editor left a copy of the book on my desk last week, and I spent several days rationalizing why I should blow off reviewing it for the paper. What if I have to say something unkind about a co-worker’s book? It’s like saying something bad about their kids, in print no less.

But the books editor promised to actually pay me for writing the review, which would pay for many pairs of high-tech hiking socks, so I figured, what the heck

The book’s only about 180 pages so it shouldn’t take too long to read, but posting may be light around here in the next few days, because, well, people become authors because it’s easier than becoming book reviewers.

The many-tattooed, multiply-pierced PCT thru-hiker concedes she won’t break the speed record she was shooting for, but she’s still down for the whole 2600 miles:

I talked to Tattoo Joe and we both know we won’t be able to get the speed records that we were trying for. We decided that we will team up in 2009 and give the record another try. I am still going to try for the women’s record of 91 days but it doesn’t matter how long it takes me, I am going to finish. Some hikers were saying that people who try for records usually quit if they can’t get the record. NOT ME, I am out here until the end!

She’s gone over 500 miles in 24 days, which ain’t too shabby, considering the heat and dryness of the So-Cal desert.

(Horny teen-aged boys and the entire staff of GoBlog will appreciate this post in which Catra presses the flesh while a hulking bearded guy leers.)

Sandals recounts what happened before Manynames Tom found her lying alongside the Pacific Crest Trail in the Mojave Desert.

About 7 pm, Manynames Tom came by and called Pete to let him know he was with me. Tom essentially spent the night taking care of me. The plan was that if I were not better by morning and able to hike out, we would call for help.

In the morning I was even weaker, now barely able to move. Tom tried to call 911, but lost service with only a partial message being transmitted. He hiked 2 miles down and back and brought me water…in the meantime, Marmot appeared and stayed with me while Tom THEN hiked down to the road to be certain of getting help.

Rescue was able to get a 4 wheel drive in, and I was taken down the mountain and transferred to an ambulance. The initial treatment was given at Tehachapi hospital. I thought that I just needed fluids and would be fine, but after 5 liters plus high doses of a drug to raise blood pressure, I just kept deteriorating and about 7 pm, I was emergency airlifted to a larger hospital in Bakersfield. At Bakersfield, I spent 5 hours being stabilized in the ER, and then was transferred to the intensive care unit, where I spent a total of 4 days.

It was finally determined that I had septic shock, a severe infection throughout my whole body, that was made worse by the dehydration. The source of the infection was probably a quarter sized blister on my right heel that didn’t look any worse than anyone else’s blisters–in fact, it looked better than most except for a slight red. I HAD lanced it and dressed it, and in the desert, it looked OK, but over the first 5 days of being in the hospital, it blossomed into a 2 x 3 inch lesion with red swollen areas up into my ankle. The cultures came back as a Staph infection and I had to have some areas of dead and dying skin removed. As far as it getting into the bloodstream–I guess I’m just one of those unlucky statistics.

Read the whole post for Sandals’ top 10 reasons for and against being rescued from the trail.
Occurs to me there are times when that whole “I enjoy the solitude of hiking” is less appealing — like when you’re flat on your back in the desert and your entire body is infected.

Her husband posted this on her PCT trail journal:

Those of you following Gesh’s or Manynames Tom’s journals may have learned that Sandals became quite ill on the trail on Sunday evening, and had to be evacuated on Monday morning. She is now currently in the hospital in Bakersfield, is out of danger, is expected to make a full recovery –and has already started talking about how to get back on the trail.

To Manynames Tom –who found Sandals on Sunday evening, stayed with her the entire night, hiked as many as 8 extra miles, first to replenish her water supply, and then to contact 911 and guide the rescue team back to where she was located– words cannot adequately express our gratitude for the assistance rendered –it was, quite literally, a lifesaver. Thanks also to Marmot, who also interrupted her hike for several hours to stay with Sandals while Manynames Tom went for help.

Gesh’s account is here.

The Tehachapi Mountain Range allows a single day crossing, and the
descent leads through a huge windfarm, giant turbines buzzing above. We
couldn’t help but notice other activity in the sky, a rescue helicopter
had circled much of the day. Arriving at the highway, we found a trail
register where Out of Bounds relayed that they were looking for Sandals,
a woman we’ve met off and on. The details were sketchy, and we all grew
very concerned.
The hitch into Mojave was a rough one. Standing beside the blazing
asphalt for over an hour, finally a woman stopped and offered a ride. She
was a trail angel, had actually been going the opposite direction, but
was willing to turn around and take us the twelve miles in to the city
of Mojave. Here, at the Motel 6, we caught up with Out of Bounds and
got the scoop on Sandals. Apparently Many Names had found her the night
before, vomiting and dehydrated. They think she might have had food
poisoning. He stayed with her through the night and went for help this
morning. She is alright now, recovering at a local hospital. That came as
a huge relief, and is a perfect example of how we do look out for each
other out here. Sandals, if you read this, keep your head up and get
better soon. We all hope to see you down the line.

Glad to see all’s going well. After following this year’s desert travails it amazes me anybody gets on the trail south of Kennedy Meadows, much less stays on it for 700 miles.

Scatman, at the approach to Forester Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail.

I was up at 5:15 AM and once again the raisins in my cereal were frozen.

Scatman’s the guy who rode his bike from Canada to Mexico and is hiking all the way back; he’s gone more than 2,600 miles to date.