I'm disappointed, but I learned a lot for the next hike. I have lots of great pics and some stories to share. This will put off my sequel AT hike until 2027, but there will be new hikes next year.

Note: I'm finally starting to work on my hiking blog for my aborted August hike. I'll have a link soon. A hard fall on the steep descent from Jug End did some damage to my right shoulder. I'll be fine eventually, but it did cut short my plans for a 6-week hike after 1 great week.

🧵6/6
I will be climbing them tomorrow.

More of My 1983 Appalachian Trail Hike in Photos at www.georgesteffanos.com/places-i-ve-...

🧵5/6
From this relatively low altitude, the masses of Smarts Mountain and Mount Cube shut out my view of the loftier peaks of the White Mountains to the northeast, but they were impressive features in themselves.

🧵4/6
Suddenly, the sky was clearer than it had been in days. I sat down to drink in the sunshine and the views. I was so far ahead of schedule I was able to linger for about an hour. I had a 180-degree view of miles of lowland lake country to the south and mountains to the east and north.

🧵3/6
It kept turning onto one woods road after another, and each was a bit steeper than the preceding one. It passed just to the left of the wooded summit and began very gradually to descend along the ridgeline.

The sun broke out just as I was breaking out onto the open ledges.

🧵2/6
The AT begin a rather taxing climb up to Holts Ledge, the first real mountain it had thus far traversed in New Hampshire. It kept turning onto one woods road after another, and each was a bit steeper than the preceding one.

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

🧵4/4
All in all, this is not a bad way to live, and Pearisburg, Virginia is only 155 AT miles away.

From my book Then the Hail Came (A Humorous and Truthful Account of a 1983 Appalachian Trail Thru-hike). Available in paperback, audiobook and eBook: www.amazon.com/dp/B09QFG4ZR6

🧵3/4
I pitched my tent in a quiet little pine grove alongside the gravel bank of the creek and lay back beside the rushing waters. Damascus slowly faded to a pleasant memory, and the Appalachian Trail again became my sole reality.

🧵2/4
I accomplished my two modest objectives today: dragging myself away from Damascus and placing myself well within range of the next shelter, now about twenty miles away.

I have read that their biggest predator is a common woodland mouse. Until I read that I had not known that mice preyed on anything, even insects. Other than backpackers' food sacks. For some reason birds don't seem to be into them. Guess that accounts for their fast spread.

I'm disappointed, but I learned a lot for the next hike. I have lots of great pics and some stories to share. This will put off my sequel AT hike until 2027, but there will be new hikes next year.

Note: I'm finally starting to work on my hiking blog for my aborted August hike. I'll have a link soon. A hard fall on the steep descent from Jug End did some damage to my right shoulder. I'll be fine eventually, but it did cut short my plans for a 6-week hike after 1 great week.

🧵7/7
I spent a great deal of time at each spot, feeling lucky to be there on one of the rare relatively haze-free days this summer.

More of My 1983 Appalachian Trail Hike in Photos at www.georgesteffanos.com/places-i-ve-...

🧵6/7
Above each of these massive cliffs, hawks turned lazy circles in the afternoon sun, while below me others soared over a vast, green farming valley stretched out towards the blurry gray line of the Alleghenies in the misty distance.

🧵5/7
The views from Annapolis Rock and Black Rock along the western rim were the best in Maryland and blew away everything since Hogback Mountain and Mount Marshall in Shenandoah National Park.

🧵4/7
Past the shelter, the arduous ascent continued, now on a badly eroded old woods road covered with rocks.

Once I had reached the ridge crest the footway became much easier, following wide old grassy roads across a broad, flat plateau.