Note: After celebrating the 40th anniversary of my hike in 2023 with daily posts (including 40 years ago today, May 2 - Oct 3), I am going for it again in 2024: 41 years ago today May 2 - Oct 3. Then the plan would be celebrating the 42nd anniversary of my hike in 2025 with a sequel Appalachian Trail hike in 2025 and a new book, if I can stay healthy. As I've said, it should be an interesting contrast. I was 24 when I made the original hike.

I am celebrating the 40th anniversary of my hike this year with daily posts (40 years ago today, May 2 - Oct 3) and hopefully a sequel Appalachian Trail hike and book within the next two years, if I can get all my ducks in a row for it. It should be an interesting contrast. I was 24 when I made the original hike.

My book Then the Hail Came (A Humorous and Truthful Account of a 1983 Appalachian Trail Thru-hike) is available in paperback and eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QFG4ZR6

#hiking #backpacking

Golden halo sunset at Lost Ponds, Mattatuck State Forest, Plymouth, Connecticut. June 8, 2017, 8:31 PM.

#hiking #photography #outdoors #landscapephotography #hikingadventures #nature #Connecticut #summer #June #forest #sunset #sunsets #sunsetphotography #trails #lake #summertime

4/4
There is an excellent view of the valley far below and the mountains all around. It is a gorgeous afternoon: gauzy fair-weather clouds streaking across a soft blue sky. I am just going to lie in the sunshine and enjoy it for a while. My shoes, socks, tent, sleeping bag, and towel are all spread out on the grass next to me, finally beginning to dry out from all that rain.

More of My 1983 #AppalachianTrail Hike in Photos at https://www.georgesteffanos.com/places-i-ve-been

3/4
In one corner of the meadow a larger tree had been through some things and survived. A significant section of its trunk now ran along the ground where winds must have knocked it down, but the roots held. At the other end several large, gnarled limbs thrust upward towards the sky.

2/4
A large, rather steeply-sloping meadow ran down the side of the ridge from the crest there, bright green grass broken by reddish brown channels where several runoff streams (dry today) exposed the clay soil. A few smallish trees with bright yellow buds or tiny bright green leaves just emerging sprinkled the meadow.

🧵 1/4
May 9, 1983, 41 years ago today: Dave and I had lunch in Bly Gap, just across the state line into North Carolina. One state down and eleven to go.

#backpacking #hiking #nature #NorthCarolina #hikingadventures #landscapephotography #mountains #forest #AppalachianTrail

You can read or listen to my book for free if you are a Kindle Unlimited (eBook) or an Audible Plus (audiobook) subscriber. Both of these options are available from Amazon, where the paperback, eBook or audiobook can also be purchased.

3/3
I was an alien from a far distant country called New England. The cries of strange birds filled the air. I was less than one hundred yards from a road, yet it was an intensely primeval setting.

The sun quickly burned off the fog as I began hiking.

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

2/3
I awoke this morning at first light. The temperature had dropped down to near freezing and the breeze had died. A heavy, gelid mist hung suspended in the still, frosty air. Like most of the forests through which I passed in Georgia’s Blue Ridge, this one was a maze of vines and creepers draping down from gnarled, moss-covered trees.

🧵 1/3
May 9, 1983, 41 years ago today: Dicks Creek Cap in Georgia is the point where the Appalachian Trail crosses a lonely stretch of US 76 less than nine AT miles from the North Carolina border. Our tents were pitched in the woods a short distance from the roadside, a few feet away from a roadside picnic area beside US 76 where we could make and eat dinner and breakfast in style.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #Georgia #nature #forest #mountains #AppalachianTrail

Mountain laurel catches the evening sunlight. Sleeping Giant State Park, Hamden, Connecticut. June 1, 2023, 7:29 PM.

#hiking #photography #outdoors #landscapephotography #hikingadventures #nature #Connecticut #spring #June #forest #flowers #wildflowers #naturephotography #trails #mountains #springtime

Ancient pueblo ruins, Wupatki National Monument, northwest Arizona. April 1984.

#hiking #photography #landscapephotography #hikingadventures #nature #Arizona #grasslands #Southwest #mountains #pueblo #ruins #spring #springtime

5/5
Tomorrow night, barring further catastrophes, I will be in North Carolina. Thank God. Georgia has been rough, and my luck here has not been all that great.

More of My 1983 #AppalachianTrail Hike in Photos at https://www.georgesteffanos.com/places-i-ve-been

4/5
They each compete for attention with the scattered blisters on my soles and heels in the symphony of pain which walking has become. While driving myself beyond exhaustion yesterday trying to catch up to Dave, I took a violent header and came down hard on my left knee; it was swollen and throbbing all day today. I had a faint hope of catching up to Dave, but obviously the 13 miles I eked out were just not enough.

3/5
Fourteen miles remain in Georgia, and I hope to cover five or six more of them this afternoon before I call it a night.

...

Once again, I pushed myself past sunset in an attempt to make decent mileage despite all my physical infirmities. In addition to the chunk missing from my little toe, I have developed huge blisters between the big and second toes on both of my feet.

2/5
I am writing this entry at Addis Gap Shelter, seven-and-a-half miles further up the Appalachian Trail, where I have stopped for lunch. My backpack must be ten pounds heavier than yesterday just from all the water which has soaked into my belongings. My backpack must be ten pounds heavier than yesterday just from all the water which has soaked into my belongings. I feel a desperate need to keep driving myself now. My boots feel like sandpaper against that deep wound.

🧵 1/5
May 8, 1983, 41 years ago today: There is nothing like trying to pack up everything you own in a downpour. My sleeping bag was soaked, my tent was hopeless; everything was drenched. Adding insult to injury, the rain came to a dead stop about five minutes after I had finished packing.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #Georgia #nature #forest #mountains #AppalachianTrail

You can read or listen to my book for free if you are a Kindle Unlimited (eBook) or an Audible Plus (audiobook) subscriber. Both of these options are available from Amazon, where the paperback, eBook or audiobook can also be purchased.

3/3
I turned to the west and watched as the distant sky was briefly lit by a flash of lightning many, many miles away, beyond that horizon. Dead silence. A somewhat eerie beauty, with ominous undercurrents. It appeared that I had picked a bad night to pitch a tent.

I awoke to a deluge of biblical proportions in the morning.

From my book Then the Hail Came (A Humorous and Truthful Account of a 1983 #AppalachianTrail Thru-hike). Available in paperback & eBook: https://amazon.com/dp/B09QFG4ZR6

2/3
Standing in the murky stillness on Tray Mountain, I gazed out over black, lifeless valleys. A tiny cluster of electric lights flickered along the far eastern horizon — the first I have seen thus far from the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.

🧵 May 8, 1983, 41 years ago today: Awakening in my tent just after midnight, I instantly felt a vague sense of uneasiness rippling through the dark forest. Outside, the air seemed leaden and dead. The evening breeze had died, and the gorgeous starry canopy beneath which I had gone to bed had faded to dark grays and black.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #Georgia #nature #forest #mountains #AppalachianTrail