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…
Media (books, DVDs, etc)
Terrain class rating system
by tom • March 5, 2008 • 0 Comments
Here’s a video describing those “class” ratings you may see on discussion boards like summitpost.com. It’s the Welzenbach System. Class 1 is basic hiking, on trail and off; class 5 is straight up the rock face with ropes, pitons and…
Fear of the wilderness, cont.
by tom • February 28, 2008 • 2 Comments
Steve at the WildeBeat has posted Part II of his “Scared Inside” podcasts. If you listen you’ll get the chance to hear me rambling at a pace roughly equivalent to Martin Scorsese on crack. As long as I’m on the…
Totally off topic, but I reviewed the movie that just won Best Picture
by tom • February 24, 2008 • 0 Comments
It’s over at my home page. (Well, a lot of the movie happens in the outdoors and the central character does a bit of hiking to find a bunch of money that he decides to keep, putting a homicidal lunatic…
Sunday rainy-day read: Outside mag circa 2003
by tom • February 24, 2008 • 1 Comment
Remember Eric Rudolph, that zany abortion clinic bomber who fled into the western Carolina woods and evaded a massive federal manhunt for five years? Well, I went slumming this morning and tracked down and Outside Online article from 2003 that…
Strong reads: 100 greatest adventure books
by tom • February 20, 2008 • 5 Comments
A very old list (2004 was like centuries ago!) from National Geographic Adventure (which exists, near as I can tell, to stick it to Outside) profiles the top 100 adventure books. A few I liked: 7. Desert Solitaire, by Edward…
KQED’s science hikes
by tom • February 8, 2008 • 0 Comments
The San Francisco public TV/Radio station has a bunch of cool outings outlined at its Quest page. Among the highlights: Exploring evidence of earthquake activity along the San Andreas Fault at Los Trancos Open Space Preserve, and checking out the…
“Zero Days” author appearances
by tom • January 29, 2008 • 1 Comment
Barbara Egbert, who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail a few years back with her 10-year-old daughter, has a few store appearances coming up: Barbara will be signing her new book at 2 p.m. March 2 at the Pleasanton Library; at…
Hiking books I have known
by tom • January 23, 2008 • 8 Comments
These are hiking books I own: The Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Book by Tom Taber This books dates to the mid-70s with gazillion updates. It mentions pretty much every dirt path from A to Z from San Francisco to Santa…