George Steffanos
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George Steffanos
@gsteffanos.bsky.social
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Author of Then the Hail Came, a book about my 1983 Appalachian Trail thru-hike, available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle.

https://www.georgesteffanos.com
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George Steffanos @gsteffanos.bsky.social · Nov 9
November 8, 2025: This is an update and correction to my August post on the status of my planned long distance hikes.

On August 18 my friend Dave and I headed north along the Appalachian Trail from Falls Village, Connecticut towards Massachusetts.

#hiking #forest #nature #mountains
We are on a mountain standing atop a rock outcrop of light gray rock marbled with darker gray. There is a pine tree to our right. Some hardwoods to our left are already showing signs of autumn, several have leaves of gold and orange. We are looking across a broad valley hundreds of feet below filled with the greens of late summer. Most of it is covered with deep green forests broken by emerald green pastures and farm fields. A small pond is not far away near the middle of our view. A line of blue green hills and mountains runs along the far horizon. A morning of clouds is just giving way to bright sunshine. The sky is a soft blue filled with lines of clouds.
First blush of spring sunset, Lost Ponds, Mattatuck State Forest, Plymouth, Connecticut. April 20, 2021, 7:11 PM.

#sunset #hiking #lake #wildflowers
Standing on a gray rock outcrop on the shore of a pond. A small shrub covered with bright red buds is growing through a crevice just in front of us. The sky is filled with dark gray clouds, with a small break along the horizon across the pond. The sun is peeking through this break as it sets over a low ridge on the wooded far shore, tinting the sky around it bright yellow, mirrored on the pond below.
December 15, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Spring runoff, Buttermilk Falls, Plymouth, Connecticut. April 8, 2019, 5:13 PM.

#hiking #forest #waterfall #stream
A gray spring evening with wisps of fog as the air warms the cooler ground. In a lush hemlock forest a stream swollen by spring rains cascades over near vertical rocks for about 50 or 60 feet into a pool formed n a bowl shaped depression at their base. The dark gray rocks are covered with patches of lighter gray lichen and green moss.
December 14, 2025 at 4:46 PM
🧵1/4
June 8, 1983: The Appalachian Trail joined an old railroad grade known as the Virginia Creeper and followed Whitetop Laurel Creek through the mountains.

#backpacking #hiking #AppalachianTrail
We are walking a wide path of gravel and dirt - an old railroad grade - in a densely wooded ravine through the mountains. A patch of yellow wildflowers is growing next to a gravel and rock covered embankment on our left. In front of us a wooden footbridge crosses the wide creek that has formed the ravine. Beyond that, the far wall of the ravine rises steeply. It is a very humid day, a mountainside glimpsed in the background is ghostly in the haze.
December 14, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by George Steffanos
joegarrity.bsky.social
Good morning, Bluesky! 🌞
A long-exposure image at sunrise portrays the weathering of the Hualien coastline near the Tropic of Cancer.

#landscapephotography #landscape #seascapephotography #seascape #naturephotography #nature #longexposure #sunrise #taiwan #asia #photography
December 13, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Very big rock and dead stump. Mad River ravine, Wolcott, Connecticut. August 2, 2020, 7:15 PM.

#hiking #forest
We are standing on the floor of a hemlock forest. It has been raining, everything is damp. The ground is coated with hemlock needles, there are a few mossy rocks poking out. Little else is growing here beneath the shade of the hemlocks, just a very few tiny green leafy shoots. In the foreground a fallen tree is rotting away and falling apart into wood slivers. About 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 meters) away a younger forest begins with a mix of smaller hemlocks and hardwoods and more underbrush. A giant, irregularly-shaped dark gray boulder sits alone at the edge of that forest, next to a boulder that appears to be a smaller piece of that giant rock.
December 13, 2025 at 4:43 PM
🧵1/7
July 13, 1983: On the other side of I-70, the stiff climb up Pine Knob was a harbinger of things to come. I had been told that the AT becomes much more rugged in the northern half of Maryland.

#backpacking #hiking #AppalachianTrail
We are standing atop a jagged, irregularly-shaped very light gray rock outcrop atop a mountain. A couple of leafy green shrub are growing out of the rock. We see a series of green, forested ridges sloping down from the crest of the mountain to our left towards the unseen valley floor to our right. A small lake is cradled between the bottoms of two of the ridges on the right of the screen. On the far horizon is a misty farming valley with another ridge rising behind it. The summertime sky is clear, but very light blue and hazy.
December 13, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Pink azalea sunset, Scoville Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut. May 17, 2021, 8:12 PM.

#sunset #hiking #lake #wildflowers
In a forest we are looking at a close-up of two branches of a shrub with clusters of pink blossoms with long, pointed petals and long stamens projecting from their centers. In the out-of-focus background through the trees we can see a lake. The sun has set behind the wooded far shore tinting the horizon orange. The remainder of the sky is a soft gray blue with a few clouds.
December 12, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Bridge over autumn waters, Scoville Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut. October 19, 2019, 8:50 AM.

#hiking #autumn #forest #lake
A beautiful morning with a deep blue October sky mirrored on the waters below. We are following a dirt and gravel footpath to a wooden footbridge across the mouth of a small cove on a large lake. A cluster of aquatic plants along both sides of the bridge have turned bright oranges and golds, as have most of the trees surrounding the lake. A grove of stately pines just across the bridge add deep green tones.
December 12, 2025 at 4:45 PM
🧵1/5
May 10, 1983: The trail up to the top of Standing Indian was so well graded I was able to cover the entire two-mile climb in less than an hour, without stopping for breaks.

#AppalachianTrail #hiking #backpacking
Beneath a hazy soft blue sky with a few clouds, a trail starts down the mountain between two rhododendron shrubs. The hills below us are mostly covered with leafless trees, but there are a few patches of evergreen forest. The valley beyond them is barely visible through the haze.
December 12, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Leafless November deep blue twilight sunset, Hidden Lake, Fall Mountain, Plymouth, Connecticut. November 7, 2020, 4:55 PM.

#sunset #hiking #lake
A late post sunset shot looking down from a ridge crest. The low hills and forest surrounding a small lake below are almost completely silhouetted. The calm lake surface mirrors the shy above it, in which streaky clouds are being tinted pink, orange and gold shades by the recently set sun. The clouds' shadows are a deep purple. Above it all, a deep blue twilight descends upon the scene.
December 12, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Perfect summer evening at the lake. The ground hugging green plants that, when seen from a distance, slightly resemble grass are throwing out thousands of tiny yellow flowers. New Britain Reservoir, Southington, Connecticut. August 3, 2020, 6:52 PM.

#hiking #sunset #lake
Summer evening beside a large lake. A blue sky, still visible on the right side, is becoming filled with streaky white high clouds with some small dark and dramatic clouds below. The unseen sun is getting low in the sky, adding a golden color to the streaky clouds along the horizon. Below that, a low wooded ridge rises above the far shore of the lake. The near shore of the lake and a very low, narrow peninsula about 100 feet out create a small cove in front of us. There are a few small ripples on the surface of the lake, which reflects the sky and far shore. Both lake shores and the peninsula are covered with a carpet of ground hugging plants with very small green leaves that resembles grass from a distance once you are far away enough to not be able to pick out the leaves. Thousands of tiny yellow flowers are sprouting from that ground cover. A few gray boulders and small flowering shrubs also poke through in spots.
December 11, 2025 at 4:41 PM
🧵1/10
September 9, 1983: I made my way to Thunderstorm Junction, a spot where several trails intersect in a high saddle between three of the five peaks of Mount Adams.

#backpacking #hiking #AppalachianTrail
The views from the open alpine summit of Mount Adams. Beneath a soft blue, partly cloudy sky we can see every inch of the trail ahead from the pass below to the granite summit of Madison. Some low stunted trees, barely shrubs, clung to a few partially sheltered spots in and near the pass. The rest of the trail is across bare rock with patches of gold, grass-like plants about the height of a suburban lawn. Between the naked rocks there are green patches of small stunted shrubs or trees far down the sides of the mountain, nowhere near the ridge crest. Smaller wooded mountains are visible in the distance beyond Madison to our left.
December 11, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Footpath through the pines, Giant's Left Knee, Sleeping Giant State Park, Hamden, Connecticut. August 21, 2024, 3:01 PM.

#hiking #forest
A patchwork of cool shade and splashes of bright sunshine beneath a deep green forest of pines with a sprinkling of hardwoods. A few leafy shrubs grow beside the trail. The forest floor has many rocks and tree roots, softened by a thick golden brown carpet of fallen pine needles.
December 10, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Autumn sunset through the forest canopy, Mattatuck state Forest near Lost Ponds. September 27, 2019, 6:17 PM.

#sunset #hiking #forest
Looking up from a partial clearing in a forest. The sky is a soft but deep blue with thin hazy clouds. The setting sun is shining directly towards us through the trees, silhouetting the trunks and branches while giving many of the leaves a rich golden backlighting.
December 10, 2025 at 4:48 PM
🧵1/5
August 17, 1983: Three miles later, I was at Finerty Pond. The next good water on the trail was more than eight miles ahead, so I settled for bad water and pitched my tent for the night.

#backpacking #hiking #AppalachianTrail
Standing in the shade beside a small pond surrounded by forest. A thin patch of cattails, tall water grasses and leafy plants lines the shore just in front of us. The wooded far shore is in sunshine to our left and in shade to our right. A strip of marsh with cattails and water grasses is adjacent to that far shore. The rest of the pond is open water. Rippled by a summer evening breeze, the surface mirrors a soft blue sky with puffy white clouds.
December 10, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by George Steffanos
jellytim24.bsky.social
#sunrise #landscape #clouds
December 5, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Descending a dry gulch between rock formations, Little Painted Desert County Park near Winslow, Arizona. April 1984.

#hiking #Southwest #desert
Beneath a deep blue desert sky with streaky white clouds we are walking down a dry ravine between two very light beige rock formations. We are descending into a landscape of narrow shallow canyons and rock formations. There are striations of color throughout: chalky white, blue gray, reddish brown. A scattering of olive green shrubs along the floor of the ravine are the only signs of life in an otherwise barren landscape.
December 10, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Little Painted Desert and the San Francisco Mountains, Little Painted Desert County Park near Winslow, Arizona. April 1984.

#hiking #Southwest #desert #mountains
Beneath a deep blue desert sky with streaky white clouds we are standing atop cracked pinkish violet rocks looking down several hundred feet into a landscape of narrow shallow canyons and rock formations below. There are striations of color throughout: chalky white, blue gray, pinkish violet. A scattering of olive green shrubs are the only signs of life in an otherwise barren landscape. Beyond the colorful hills is a sprawling flat grassland. Many miles away on the horizon, a lofty mountain range with several snowcapped peaks rises above that plain.
December 9, 2025 at 4:53 PM
🧵1/8
June 9, 1983: I eased the puppy off my pack and lifted it onto my shoulders. The Appalachian Trail crossed Virginia Highway 601, a narrow, rural road, and went through an open field for a short distance before disappearing into the trees.

#backpacking #hiking #AppalachianTrail
A summery evening beneath a clear but very hazy white sky. We are on a mountainside covered with tall grass sloping gently downward to our left. The ridge crest ahead curves left and then back to the right climbing over a couple of knobs. Everything is covered with grass and low shrubs except a large patch of trees on the left slope. Some more distant mountains beyond are barely visible through the haze.
December 9, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Feathery plumes of early morning mist rise above Tirrell Pond, Tirrell Mountain in the background. Northville-Placid Trail, Blue Mountain Wild Forest, Adirondack Preserve, New York. September 11, 2024, 7:47 AM.

#hiking #autumn #forest #mountains #lake
Looking across a very calm lake on a sunny morning. A soft blue sky with a few thin, gauzy clouds. The sun is a bright yellow oval with amorphous edges, mirrored on the still lake surface. A gossamer early morning mist hovers above much of the far end of the pond, catching the early morning sunshine. A small peninsula coming in from the left is covered with tall grass and low shrubs. Many tall, stalky water plants are just offshore around it. A mountain rises in the background with steep, wooded slopes facing us. A beautiful forest of spruce, fit and northern hardwoods surround the lake and covers the mountain. Some of those hardwoods are starting to show fall colors.
December 9, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Classic pastel summer sunrise, Scoville Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut. June 28, 2020, 8:08 PM.

#sunset #hiking #lake
A soft blue gray evening sky with billowing white clouds. Standing near the shore of a lake looking out over a thicket of leafy shrubs. A weather-beaten tree with broken limbs slants into the frame from our right. The sun is just dipping below the forest on the far shore, tinting the sky long the horizon pale orange and gold. All this is mirrored on the very slightly rippled waters of the lake.
December 8, 2025 at 4:34 PM
🧵1/7
July 28, 1983: The Appalachian Trail followed paved roads out of Delaware Water Gap into New Jersey. I passed a coke machine along the way. I soon reached the I-80 bridge over the Delaware River, which had a pedestrian walkway the AT followed across.

#AppalachianTrail #backpacking #hiking
Beneath a pale blue sky with hazy clouds, a wide river forks around several large wooded islands. A wooded mountainside rises steeply from the far riverbank. A long multi-span beam bridge supported by concrete piers carries a 4-lane interstate from the far riverbank on our right to one of the islands. Traffic is light, only 2 trucks and 1 car are visible.
December 8, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Dandelions sunset, Mattatuck State Forest, Plymouth, Connecticut, May 24, 2020, 7:13 PM.

#sunset #hiking #meadow #wildflowers
Part of a huge field of tall, bright green spring grass. A pale blue gray sky with streaks of hazy thin clouds. The sun is setting behind the hardwood forest at the far edge of the field, streaming golden rays of sunlight towards us and casting long shadows across the field. Dozens of dandelions are scattered throughout the grass, the sunset backlighting their bright white floss attached to tiny seeds ready to be dispersed by the winds.
December 8, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Pink and gray January sunset, Scoville Reservoir, Wolcott, Connecticut. January 4, 2021, 4:39 PM.

#sunset #hiking #winter #lake
Banks of gray clouds are retreating eastward, leaving a swath of clear sky along the western horizon. The recently set sun is tinting that clear sky pale gold, while tinting the bottoms of many of the clouds a bright pink. We are standing beside a big lake, on a wooded rocky shoreline. A think skim of ice with dozens of melted patches covers much of the lake, a wide swath near our shore is completely thawed, mirroring the colorful sky. A forest of leafless hardwoods with a few evergreens encircles the lake.
December 7, 2025 at 4:39 PM
🧵1/5
May 16, 1983: The rain continued to slacken, finally tapering off by mid-morning. We had a late start to Fontana, but it was only a seven-mile hike. The sun began to break out as we climbed the Yellow Creek Range.

#backpacking #hiking #AppalachianTrail
We are standing high atop a mountain. The sun is shining brightly. We are standing beside a flowering tree looking out at other trees covered with small bright green sprouting leaves or white buds. Below us is a valley with a large hydroelectric dam and its lake. The trees below us are intensely green, it is late spring down there. Although we cannot see the sky in this photo, the shadows below tell us it is mostly sunny in and around the valley. Beyond the lake the forested slopes of a towering mountain range rise from the lake, eventually disappearing into a deck of clouds sitting over the mountaintops.
December 7, 2025 at 2:41 PM