By Barbara Maat
Press Release 11/15/2011
Book Title: WESTWARD WOMAN: My Two Thousand Mile Trek of Raw Discovery along the DONNER TRAIL (ISBN-13: 978-1463738822, ISBN-10: 146373882X)
Author: Barbara Maat
Available on www.amazon.com
For more details:
Pictures and an early draft are on www.DonnerTrail.Homestead.com
Imagine walking 2,000 miles along the Donner Trail over 100 years after the Donner Party did. How would you carry your supplies in the heat? Would you be able to find food? Where would you sleep? In 1978, 37 year old Barbara Maat did just that. She told her husband and 2 young children she needed to step away from the family for 6 months and walk the Donner Trail. More than thirty years later Barbara Maat has published that story in a book called Westward Woman: My Two Thousand Mile Trek of Raw Discovery along the DONNER TRAIL.
Maat’s trek was in part a tribute to the Donner Party’s suffering and also a need to get a taste of the westward emigrant experience. Beginning in Independence, Missouri and ending in California, Maat confronted unexpected challenges each day. When no camping spots were available in settled areas, she was forced to rely on the kindness of strangers. “I’m walking the Oregon Trail. Would it be possible to unroll my sleeping bag somewhere on your land for tonight?” Sometimes the response was a nervous “NO!”, but more often people were generous and kind, even inviting her in for dinner. One Nebraska family inventively fashioned a golf cart to pull behind her in order to get the 38-pound pack off her back.
In deserts and wilderness areas, Maat unrolled her sleeping bag and spent the night under the stars. Wary of rattlesnakes, shaking off bugs, and scrambling to take cover during rain storms, she quickly applied “mind over matter” in order to sleep soundly through the dangers. One night she was nearly run over by a car in a campground when the driver couldn’t see her sleeping in the tall grass.
Carson City, NV is near the Oregon/Donner Trail and you may want to learn Barbara Maat’s impressions of 1970’s life on the Trail or be entertained by stories of the people she met. There are no other books about 20th century life on the Trail.
You can find more information:
Pictures and an early draft of the book are on www.DonnerTrail.Homestead.com
Book Title: Westward Woman: My Two Thousand Mile Trek of Raw Discovery along the DONNER TRAIL (ISBN-13: 978-1463738822, ISBN-10: 146373882X)
Author: Barbara Maat
Available on www.amazon.com
Pictures and an early draft of the book are on www.DonnerTrail.Homestead.com
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