🧵 1/5
October 2, 1983: My first three-and-a-half miles took me through the end of the wilderness. The Appalachian Trail wound through an attractive forest, and it was gentle walking.
#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #Maine #forest #mountains #adventure #trails #AppalachianTrail
2/5
When I came out onto the paved Greenville-Millinocket Road at 9:25, only fourteen-and-a-half miles of white blazes remained before me. The road paralleled a stretch of the West Branch of the Penobscot River that ran eastward.
3/5
Across the river on the north side, I caught my first glimpse of an immense area which had been burned over in a 1977 forest fire. I turned and began the final roadwalk on the Appalachian Trail.
...
I passed through the outskirts of that immense burned-over area I had seen from across the river.
4/5
Six years later, the surroundings were far from desolate. Occasional blackened shells of partially-consumed tree trunks still stood their mournful watches, but a dense mass of scrubby second growth was springing up all around them.
5/5
Its saplings were far ahead of most of the older forests around here in attaining their autumn foliage, and the area was a riot of reds, yellows, oranges, golds, and innumerable shades of green. It was one of the most unique and schizophrenic sections of the entire Appalachian Trail.
From my book Then the Hail Came (A Humorous and Truthful Account of a 1983 #AppalachianTrail Thru-hike). Available in paperback, audiobook and eBook: https://amazon.com/dp/B09QFG4ZR6
