In this true story, Donn Fendler is a twelve-year-old boy in 1939. He is on an expedition to climb Mt. Katahdin, at 5268 feet the highest peak in the state of Maine. Donn gets cold and decides to find his own way back to camp rather than wait for the rest. Henry cautions him against doing so and remains with Mr. Austin, but Donn leaves anyway. Unfortunately, a thick, fast-moving fog obscures the path. Donn falls down an embankment that hides him from sight. Then he takes a wrong turn that leaves him alone to wander aimlessly for nine days in the empty mountain wilderness. Will he make it to his camp or be found by the others?
This book is Donn's own description of his struggles to survive after being separated from his companions, as told to Joseph B. Egan. With no food and no shelter, Donn survives by remembering his Boy Scout skills and by drawing on his faith in himself, his family, and God. His shoes and then his feet were cut to shreds on the rough stone outcroppings. He was tormented by insects, encountered a bear, and tumbled in an icy river. His “dungarees” were impossible to walk in, once wet, and he lost them. He suffered from cold, hunger, loneliness, and hallucinations. Toward the end of his ordeal Donn followed telephone wires and a stream, hoping that both would eventually lead him to what civilization there was in the great woods of Maine.
