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Eurotrip (2004) dir. Jeff Schaffer

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Eurotrip

"This isn't where I parked my car."

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EuroTrip by Jeff Schaffer.

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An Unintended Legacy

Jeff Schaffer authored or co-authored the Wilderness Press PCT guidebooks that served as ‘bibles’ for most PCT hikers from 1973 until apps increasingly superseded these resources some 40 years later. Jeff contributed a story in The Pacific Crest Trailside Reader: Oregon/Washington (2011) where he recounted his serendipitous entry into the PCT guidebook business decades earlier. He went into the Wilderness Press offices hoping to write the definitive work on the Owens Valley and the Eastern Sierra only to discover that it had already been written. Instead Tom Winnett recruited Jeff to join the team he had organized to write the first PCT guidebooks. The first California edition came out in 1973 and the Oregon/ Washington edition was published in 1974. I, and many others, appreciated the more detailed descriptions of the flora, fauna, geology, and history provided by the Wilderness Press guides. They sold over 100,000 copies.

Jeff Schaffer recently shared a little more background regarding the Wilderness Press guides. Tom Winnett was in charge of the first edition of the first California edition, first available in 1973. Jeff noted that “virtually all guidebooks used a 4.75" by 7.625" format, which would barely fit in men's pockets. Sexist, but very few women were backpacking back then. 15' topo maps were shot at 1:104,000 scale. To print them at 1:62,500 would have made the book much longer, and heavier (but then, in those days, everyone wore heavy packs; what's an extra few ounces? The maps are virtually useless at this scale, but at least they show a lateral extent of about 7 miles. We caught a lot of flack about the map quality (and about the poor binding - not our fault (OK, it was; Tom went with a very cheap printer).

For the first edition of PCT: Oregon & Washington, we used the same book size, for continuity, and both 15' and 7.5' were shot at a 1:50,000 scale. The downside is that the lateral extent was about 3 miles. Bummer.

Back in 1975 my first edition of The Tahoe-Sierra Trail was published, and it was 6" by 9" and 320 pages. Had it been the old size, it would have been 400+ pages. No one screamed (maybe some cursed) at not being able to fit the book in their pants pockets. It set the new standard for guidebooks.

I took over for the next major editions, 1977 for PCT: California and 1979 for PCT: Oregon/Washington and what I introduced in this 6" by 9" format were sections, essentially from one major road crossing to another one, Sections A-R in PCT: California and A-L in PCT: Oregon/Washington. Also, each section had a section map (this not until 1995 in PCT: California, for economic reasons - damn expensive book!). The Forest Service eventually adopted my sections, and then the PCTA followed, and as they say, the rest is history.”

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