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2/9
Dusky fir and spruce rose above black, spongy earth cluttered with masses of dark gray boulders. Moss and ferns in vivid greens brightened the perspectives.

Cloud Pond lay on a small plateau tucked below the narrow ridge crest just past Barren’s summit. A quarter-mile side trail led to a tiny, dirt-floored shelter perched upon its shore. The first glimpse of the pond was a shallow pocket cove at the eastern tip. Tall strands of water grasses rose above the surface of the water.

3/9
Sunlight on the rippling waves was reflecting shifting curvy lines onto the grasses — a gentle strobe effect which was rather hypnotic. Lily pads bobbed in the shallows, while rocks and driftwood lined the shoreline. The dark spruce and fir surrounding the lake were gnarled and shaggy, their trunks covered with a grayish, scaly fungus. More than a few of the tree trunks closest to the shore were lifeless light gray husks stripped of their bark by voracious beavers.

4/9
Several had fallen and floated in the shallows. A hummingbird hovered briefly in the sunlight beside me, and a weasel skulking through the shadows stood on its hind legs to check me out.

A string of lovely little bogs between Barren and Fourth Mountains, vividly green among the darker, more somber spruce and fir forests, struck me as some kind of alien landscape. Old log walkways weathered a pale gray traversed carpets of peat and quiet brown pools.

5/9
Marsh grasses, ferns, and at least a dozen species of moss grew among gnarled dwarf spruce. Shaggy, stringy mosses hung from dead trees like long gray beards. The last bog was the largest — channels of brown water twisting through stunted spruce and full-sized cedar, tall ferns turning autumn browns and golds, innocuous-looking carnivorous flowers.

6/9
The silence was broken only by the drone of a few flies and occasional bird calls. Hints of mist above the pools loomed eerily in the deepening twilight.

Fourth Mountain was a mother climb, and the summit ridge a series of rugged knobs, but there were some nice views to the north and east.

7/9
Third Mountain was scenic, but a five-star pain in the butt for a backpacker. Its entire ragged length was a series of abrupt knobs separated by strip bogs nestled in otherwise dry ravines, pocket rock-garden meadows and open rock ledges with views back west toward Fourth and Barren Mountains.

8/9
When I finally staggered up to its main summit beside an impressive line of cliffs, I saw some great views of the entire range from Barren's fire tower to Columbus Mountain and East Chairback Pond with Whitecap Mountain beyond, but traversing that mountain chewed up all kinds of time — the one commodity I could least spare.

9/9
The overcast finally cleared as I climbed the day’s final mountain. From the top of Columbus, I had haunting visions of the deepening colors of the post-sunset above the trees to the west and a good view of twilight settling over the ponds and mountains north and east. I needed my flashlight along the short drop into Chairback Gap, which made for slow, hazardous going on the rough footway.

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

Note: I planned to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of my hike with a sequel Appalachian Trail hike in 2025 and a new book, but Hurricane Helene had other plans. March 2026 now seems much more likely as my start date. The new plan for 2025 is a two-part hike from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia to the Vermont-Canada border along the Appalachian Trail and Vermont's Long Trail. Part 1 begins mid-April in Harpers Ferry.

@GSteffanos Nice hike! Have fun.