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George Steffanos

🧵1/4
May 10, 1983: We had already covered almost ten miles when we stopped for lunch in a clearing at Beech Gap, three miles past the summit.

The next portion of the hike was every bit as scenic as the morning’s had been. It was mostly sidehill trail, well down from the ridge crest.

A small stream in a rocky bed has created a shallow ravine that slopes down the mountainside. The stream creates cascades and flumes as it runs down the ravine over and around the many boulders, tree trunks and branches that have fallen into the ravine. To our right, a large tree with a massive web of exposed roots grows directly on the stream bank. Around the stream is a dense thicket of rhododendron trees not flowering yet growing about twice as tall as a man. Some vines and leafy shrubs grow along the forest floor. A hiker is filling a water bottle from a rock in the middle of the stream.
#backpacking#hiking#landscapephotography
Feb 08, 2025, 04:51 PM·Public·Web
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George Steffanos

🧵2/4
The Appalachian Trail journeyed through a landscape of twisted masses of rhododendron jungles breached by small, rocky streams bordered by profusions of growth, even wilder and more densely entangled. At times, the trail was a tunnel, completely encircled by rhododendron, their thickly interwoven branches forming walls and a roof.

The trail is following a wide path through a thicket of rhododendron trees on both sides. At the top their branches grow over the trail and intertwine, creating a rounded tunnel with 10 or 12 feet clearance.
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George Steffanos

🧵3/4
After a while, I was making my way across a slope halfway up a ridge which formed part of an encirclement around a remote mountain valley filled with thickets of dense rhododendron and other lush vegetation. I came around to the head of the valley and encountered the stream whose roar had been audible across the valley floor the whole time, although the stream itself had remained invisible behind the riot of foliage.

Beneath a hazy soft blue sky with a few clouds, high up a mountain looking out above the bright green leafy tops of rhododendron shrubs and the top branches of leafless trees. A series of rugged ridges cascade into the distance. Their lower slopes are green, their tops are mostly not, similar to our location. The valley beyond these ridges is barely visible through the haze.
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George Steffanos

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The headwall was a neat little spot, where a small but lively stream cascaded through and around a jumble of mossy rocks. Large trees draped with thick vines and covered with moss rose beside the banks amid the rhododendron thickets, supported by thickly-entangled masses of tree roots.

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: 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.

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