Category Book reviews

Pacific Crest Trail: What Is Your Plan?

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

Whether you are thinking of tackling a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, walking the entire 2,653 miles, or want to glimpse the trail from your armchair, these guidebooks are for you.

In the Pacific Coast Trail: Oregon and Washington, Jordan Summers presents a user-friendly guide that addresses my questions: Could I walk the two states’ sections? Or just one state? Or should I try a short section first?

Summers’ book, updated in 2020, includes PCT history, mile-by-mile points of interest, permitting, and equipment. Topographic maps and elevation charts accompany blue text boxes highlighting all-important water sources. Looking for campsites or resupply information? Summers has you covered.

In Hiking the Pacific Coast Trail: Oregon, Eli Boschetto covers similar basics for the middle state of the PCT.

After walking five famed distance trails in Europe, I wondered if I could enjoy a backpacking trip in the USA, without the perks of hostels, hotels, and places to eat at the end of each day. I read both guidebooks as I prepared to walk California’s John Muir Trail in August 2021. For a month, I filtered water, bathed in streams and lakes, and lived in a tent. I was part of a group of 11 backpackers who were mule-supported, relieving us of the need to carry a heavy pack for 243 miles on the northbound walk through the Sierra Nevada.

The high-elevation trek included summitting Mt. Whitney and conquering 12 passes as high as 13,150 feet. It was the greatest physical challenge of my life, but, as tough as it was, I long for more.

The next logical step would be to tackle another section of the PCT, but without mule support. No doubt, I hear the PCT calling, but I have yet to answer.

At the very least, these books allowed me to appreciate and understand the challenges of one of the world’s great trails. If I decide to answer the call, even if just for a weeklong section, I will return to their pages.

Check out my new book about my adventures on four iconic trails in Europe: Trippin’ Through My Sixties.

My first book is Camino Sunrise: Walking With My Shadows.

For This Kid, the Worst Bullies Are at Home

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

I loved this book so much that I sent a copy to each of my three adult sons. To be honest, I wished they were kids again and I could read it aloud with them, like I did with countless stories when they were growing up with me.

Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay for Now tells the story of Doug Swieteck, 14, who has just moved to Marysville, New York.

“I hate this town,” he says. But maybe he actually detests a father whose abuse made me want to scream, an older brother who stole Doug’s most treasured possession, and an oldest brother who used to beat him up before being sent to war in Vietnam.

Doug Swieteck’s voice is a masterful creation that will tickle your funny bone and touch your heart. This book is funny, very funny, but life for this boy is hardly fun. He finds refuge and the artist inside him at the town library, where a rare book of Audubon bird plates speaks to him like nothing else in his life does.

Except for Lil Spicer, a girl whose words would repel most everyone. Except Doug Swieteck. Doug gets a delivery job at Lil’s dad’s store, leading the boy to more tests and quirky discoveries. His oldest brother returns from Vietnam a changed man in ways that made me wish I had not judged him so harshly. His story enriches a book already full of engrossing characters and experiences in Doug’s life.

Doug Swieteck sees so much more than anyone around him, other than Lil, a librarian, and his dad’s boss. I wanted him to yell out, speak his mind, let it be known he would not stand for how others treated him. But he shows remarkable restraint, making me think he knew it was best. But, in the end, Doug Swieteck is blindsided in a way that I did not see coming.

Newberry Honor winner Gary D. Schmidt writes on a 1953 Royal typewriter and his works are timeless masterpieces, written for kids, young adults, and big kids like me.

Okay for Now is even better than the earlier accompanying book, The Wednesday Wars, which is no small achievement. I read several other Schmidt books and was especially drawn to Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. His stories grab me like no other author has done for years.