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George Steffanos

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July 4, 1983: The first half-mile from the hut this morning climbed along the crest of the ridge forming the western rim of the ravine. This led to an interesting summit called Blackrock. It rose above the wooded ridge crest, a huge, barren mound of gray boulders smeared liberally with streaks of green paint.

It is very early in the morning. The clear sky has little color yet and is almost white. There is a lot of mist in the valleys below and mist and haze in the air. We are looking out from atop a mountain over the treetops on the mountainside below us into a maze of deep green mountains and hills and hollows below. With increasing distance, they take on a bluish tint from the haze and mist. The more distant mountains we can see are light blue gray ghosts.
#backpacking#hiking#outdoors
Mar 16, 2025, 12:28 PM·Public·Web
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George Steffanos

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The “paint streaks” were patches of green lichen, a tiny alpine plant which grows in colonies on the face of rocks. The rocks were jagged and jumbled, resembling the aftermath of a tremendous explosion.

Blackrock was the center of a magnificent panorama of mountains with a couple of narrow glimpses of the Shenandoah Valley. South-by-southwest, Skyline Drive wound around the lower knobs along that portion of the Blue Ridge crest I hiked yesterday afternoon.

Standing on a rocky ledge looking through an opening in the trees on an otherwise wooded mountainside. A couple hundred feet down the slope, a short stretch of the two-lane park road Skyline Drive is visible winding around the mountain we are on. Far below the road, the mountainside ends in a narrow valley. Beyond that valley are rugged, wooded mountains. One of them has a number of open grassy stretches on the side facing us, possibly ski runs.
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George Steffanos

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Westward, Trayfoot Mountain bulked massively across a small sag, denuded lines of large rockslides running down its east flank. Northwest, a wide arc of ridges coiled around a rolling, wooded valley called Dundo Hollow, with wisps of morning fog still clinging to the lowest points. Hawks and turkey vultures effortlessly soared below me, ranging for miles above the hollow as I watched.

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

www.georgesteffanos.comPlaces I've Been | Then The Hail Came George SteffanosMy 1983 Appalachian Trail Hike in Photos. There are around 750-800 photos here scanned from my 1983 slides. I believe this to be one of the oldest thru-hikes on the Internet to be documented in photos and words to this extent.
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George Steffanos

Note: 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, with a new book coming about the Long Trail hike in September. I plan to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of my hike with a sequel Appalachian Trail hike in 2026 and another new book.

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