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July 22, 1983: I hit the trail this morning at 7:00, determined to hike the eighteen miles to Port Clinton in nine hours. You never know at what time the post offices in these small towns will close, but 4:00 seemed reasonably safe. The weather was cooler and drier today, with a welcome breeze and the deepest blue skies I have seen in weeks.
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Three pints of water lasted me eighteen miles.
The trail was uneventful for the first eleven, a long wooded ridge walk. The closest thing to a point of interest I passed was a historical sign several miles from last night's campsite. It marked the location of Fort Dietrich Snyder, a lookout post for one of a chain of forts built during the French and Indian Wars of the middle 1700’s.
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No traces of the fort remained — just the sign on a lonely woods road marking the spot where it had once stood. About a half-mile later I crossed a paved state road. Everything else was forest.
More of My 1983 Appalachian Trail Hike in Photos at https://www.georgesteffanos.com/places-i-ve-been
Note: I now plan to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of my hike with a sequel Appalachian Trail hike in 2026 and a new book. 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. Part 2, The Long Trail, begins in September and should end in another new book.