Tales From the Appalachian Trail

The stories of ten hikers who have traveled the 2,000-mile-path through the eastern United States tell the history of the trail

By Megan Gambino
Smithsonian.com, July 14, 2009, Subscribe

The Appalachian Trail crosses 14 states, six national parks and eight national forests. (Marc Muench / Corbis)

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At 2,178 miles, the Appalachian Trail is the nation’s longest marked footpath. Starting at Springer Mountain in Georgia, it crosses 14 states, six national parks and eight national forests on its way north to Maine’s Mount Katahdin. But despite the trail’s daunting length, more than 10,000 people—called “2,000-milers”—walked it in its entirety, in sections over time or as a whole. In light of “Earl Shaffer and the Appalachian Trail,” an exhibition honoring the first person to hike the trail in one continuous trip (at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History through October 11), we take a moment to reflect on the trail’s groundbreakers, record holders and legendary characters.

1. The Founder

The Appalachian Trail was the brainchild of Benton Mackaye a land-use planner. Mackaye, who grew up about 30 miles west of Boston in Shirley Center, Massachusetts, was no stranger to mountains. The first peak he “bagged,” as climbers say, was Mount Monadnock, just a few miles away in New Hampshire. And after graduating from Harvard in 1900, he and a classmate hiked what would later become Vermont’s Long Trail through the Green Mountains. As the story goes, Mackaye was sitting in a tree atop Stratton Mountain in Vermont when the notion came to him of a trail following the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to Georgia. The editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Architects convinced Mackaye to write an article about his idea. Published in October 1921, “An Appalachian Trail, A Project in Regional Planning” fleshed out Mackaye’s vision. More than just a walking path, his Appalachian Trail was to be a destination where East Coast city dwellers could go to get back to nature—a place for recreation, recuperation and as he ever so transcendentally put it, “to walk, to see and to see what you see.”

2. The Trail Blazer

Benton Mackaye may have been a thinker, but it took a doer to turn his vision into a reality. Myron Avery, a maritime lawyer and avid hiker from Washington D.C., took lead of the project in 1930, mapping the trail’s route and organizing crews of volunteers to build it. If his reputation serves him right, he wasn’t the most amiable of men. Bill Bryson wrote in his book A Walk in the Woods that someone had once claimed Avery blazed two trails between Georgia and Maine: “One was of hurt feelings and bruised egos. The other was the A.T.” But Avery did manage to complete the trail in a mere seven years; the last swath on the south side of Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine was cleared in 1937. Having rolled a measuring wheel over most of it, taking notes for future guidebooks, Avery was the first person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. He did it over the course of 16 years, from 1920 to 1936.

3. The First Thru-Hiker

Essentially, there are two breeds of Appalachian Trail hikers: section hikers and “thru” hikers. Section hikers, like Myron Avery, hike the Appalachian Trail in pieces, often over the course of years, whereas thru hikers take on all 2,178 miles in one trip. In 1948, when people had their doubts that such a feat was possible, Earl Shaffer from York County, Pennsylvania, completed the first known thru hike. Having read about the trail in an outdoor magazine, Shaffer, a World War II veteran fresh out of the service, decided that it would be a good way to “walk the army out of [his] system.” Without guidebooks, only road maps and a compass, he left for his “Long Cruise,” as he called it, on April 4, from Mount Oglethorpe, the A.T.’s original southernmost point in Georgia. Averaging 16.5 miles a day, he reached Mount Katahdin 124 days later. The moment, for him, was bittersweet. “I almost wished that the Trail really was endless, that no one could ever hike its length,” wrote Shaffer in his book Walking with Spring. He caught the bug. In 1965, he would hike the trail again, this time from Maine to Georgia, becoming the first person to walk the trail in both directions. And, then, in 1998, at age 79, he hiked it yet again.

4. The First Female Thru-Hiker

When Emma Gatewood set out to hike the Appalachian Trail in 1954, no women—and only five men—had ever hiked it continuously. The farmer, mother of 11 children and grandmother of 23 was in her mid-60s at the time, earning herself the trail name “Grandma Gatewood.” She had never hiked a mountain in her life, but that July, she started in Maine, with the formidable 4,292-foot tall Mount Katahdin, and every intention of going “a ways” down the A.T. In two days, she was lost. After running out of food, she turned up days later back on the trail at Rainbow Lake, where she had made her wrong turn. Reportedly, she told a Maine Forest Service ranger that she wasn’t lost, just misplaced. The incident spooked her though, and she went home to Ohio. The following spring, however, she was back at it, this time starting in Georgia. Five months later, on September 25, 1955, the 67-year-old finished the entire trek. “I would never have started this trip if I had known how tough it was, but I couldn’t, and wouldn’t quit,” she told Sports Illustrated. Grandma Gatewood would thru-hike the A.T. a second time in 1957 and a third in 1964.

5. Trail Celebrations

The Appalachian Trail has its dangers: poisonous snakes, bears, lightning storms, diseases like giardia and Lyme’s, even murder. But the trail certainly celebrates life. In 1978, thru hikers Richard and Donna Satterlie found out while hiking through Hot Springs, North Carolina, that Donna was carrying a child. She was seven and a half months pregnant by the time she hiked Mount Katahdin. In honor of their accomplishment, they named their baby girl Georgia Maine. And it was in Cathedral Pines, a stand of white pines in Cornwall, Connecticut, once part of the Appalachian Trail, that avid hikers Mike Jacubouis and Cara Perkins got married. About 60 guests were in attendance, wearing “comfortable hiking clothes,” as the invitation suggested, and the bride and bridegroom wore denim and hiking boots. The Rev. Bill Kittredge of Lewiston, Maine, read an excerpt of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, including his words, “We can never have enough nature.”

6. Hikers, Young and Old

Believe it or not, there have been older 2,000-milers than Grandma Gatewood. Ernie Morris started section hiking the A.T. when he was 82 years old and finished in 1975 at age 86, becoming the oldest man to have hiked the trail. The oldest thru hiker is Lee Barry, who completed his fifth hike (three were section and two were thru hikes) in 2004 at the age of 81. Nancy Gowler, the oldest female thru-hiker, completed her second in 2007, at age 71. As for the youngest, 6-year-old Michael Cogswell hiked the entire trail with his parents in 1980. Another 6-year old boy tied his age record in 2002. And an 8-year-old girl became the youngest female A.T. hiker in 2002.

7. The Good Samaritan

In her lifetime, Genevieve Hutchinson only walked a bit of the Appalachian Trail, picking wild flowers one day on Bald Mountain in Massachusetts. Nevertheless, she was a legend on the trail, and her house in the A.T. town of Washington, Massachusetts, a welcoming watering hole. Guidebooks often directed hikers to Hutchinson’s home from a lean-to about a half-mile away. She’d have visitors sign a register, marking thru hikers with a red star, and she kept a scrapbook of photographs, postcards and letters from hikers she met. She cherished her relationships with them and even wrote a memoir called “Home on the Trail,” not for publication, but, as she put it, “for my family, so they’ll know what it has meant to me to live here on the Trail.” Hutchinson lived to be 90 years old, passing away in 1974.

8. The Record Breakers

It might go against the spirit of Benton Mackaye’s “stop and smell the roses” philosophy, but for some, just walking the trail isn’t enough. They need to be the fastest one to thru-hike it. The trend really took off when two hikers, David Horton and Scott Grierson, hiked the trail neck and neck, vying for a speed record in 1991. Grierson, a hiker from Bar Harbor, Maine, had a two-day head start on Horton, an ultramarathoner. But the two had different strategies, and Horton, who walk-ran 10-11 hours per day eventually gained on Grierson, who walked 16-17 hours per day. Ultimately, Horton finished in 52 days 9 hours and Grierson in 55 days 20 hours 34 minutes. Horton held the record until 1999, when ultrarunner Pete Palmer smashed it, hiking the trail in 48 days 20 hours and 11 minutes. Palmer held it for six years, but speed hiker Andrew Thompson broke it in 2005, completing his thru hike in 47 days 13 hours 31 minutes. In 2008, 25-year-old Jennifer Pharr Davis set the female record: 57 days 8 hours 35 minutes.

9. The First Blind Thru-Hiker

“For most hikers, the rewards of the Appalachian Trail were primarily visual,” writes Bill Irwin in his book Blind Courage. But Irwin had an entirely different experience. He lost his sight in his mid-30s from a degenerative disease, and in 1990, at age 49, became the first blind person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. With the help of his Seeing Eye dog, Orient, Irwin hiked it over the course of eight and a half months, falling an estimated 5,000 times along the way. “I never enjoyed the hiking part,” writes Irwin. “It was something I felt compelled to do. It wasn’t my choice.” He had struggled with troubled relationships and alcoholism, and with blindness came a loss of independence and deep depression. But for Irwin, the miraculous feat of doing it was a life-changing event.

10. A Writer in the Woods

When travel writer Bill Bryson moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1995, after living in Britain for 20 years, he experienced culture shock. Happening upon a nearby trailhead to the Appalachian Trail one day, he got the idea to hike it and reacquaint himself with America. After telling his family, friends and publisher (he would later write A Walk in the Woods, a New York Times bestseller recounting his trip) about his plan, he got a call from Stephen Katz, a childhood friend from Iowa, who wanted to join him. An overweight, Little-Debbie-loving guy, Katz was an unlikely hiker, but Bryson agreed to his coming along. After all, his company, as well as that of the characters they would meet along the way, provided fodder for Bryson’s signature humor. The two set out on March 9, 1996, traveling south to north. But by Gatlinburg, Tennessee, they came to terms with the fact that they were never going to walk the entire way to Maine. They revised their plan and decided that they would walk the Appalachian Trail, just not all of it (joining the nearly 90 percent of thru hikers who never make it). They’d hike sections in between stints at home, nights in motels or occasional pit stops. In the end, Bryson trekked 870 miles, or 39.5 percent of the A.T. He regrets never making it to Mount Katahdin or looking real danger in the eye. But he gained an admiration for those who have, a respect for the beauty of the wilderness and a good deal of patience, strength and perspective.

Editor's Note: This article erroneously placed Mt. Monadnock in the White Mountains. It is not a part of any mountain range, according to the New Hampshire State Park Service. The article has been modified to fix the error.

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Comments (30)

For Steve Lemonakis-I am not an AT thru hiker but have been on parts of it while hiking the New England 4000 Footers. A handy source of reference besides the many books and guides one can purchase is www.trailjournals.com which hikers can post to as they hike various trails, the AT included. One thing I would advise from what I have read...don't start your hike thinking you will hike 20 miles or more each day. Weather, sickness, injury, so many factors can defeat that. Take each day as it comes and enjoy it...hike your own hike as the saying goes. I am sure you will need to take nero and zero days for resupply, getting laundry done, sleeping in a real bed. Be thankful for every day you are out there. Check out rules, etc. for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Shenandoah, Baxter State Park. (I know the latter has a group area reserved for thru hikers.) Stay well and safe and Live Your Dream.

Posted by Loretta L. Lavoie on October 17,2011 | 08:57 AM

As I approach my 65th birthday a high school friend and I have agreed to walk the Trail beginning in March 2013. I began researching the trek and am astounded and a bit leary now. I've never camped out. Currently I am working on conditioning myself to walk 20 miles a day and making day by day plans for the hike,, I have a book about Thru Walking which offers good suggestions. What I'd like to know is how far in advance does one need to book camp sites, cabins and such. Is a year and a half enough. How many miles a day should one consider sufficient.. Is 20 enough? Also, have others had friends or spouses drive along as supply and even shelter providers? My wife isn't thrilled about this but I am suggesting she drive an RV as a support convoy. It appears there are enough wonderful sights for a person to experience while driving. OF course while we're plodding away at 20+ miles a day what can my wife be doing?

Posted by Steve Lemonakis on October 1,2011 | 12:46 PM

His name is actually michael williams and I know him, he is one of my moms best friends and I know him really well.......

Posted by taylor cohen on June 1,2011 | 06:30 PM

Earl Shaffer was a good friend of my father. They went to auctions together and bought and resold antiques. Earl was an early "American Picker" and one of the most interesting people I ever met. When I was a young boy he would come to visit and spent hours talking about war stories. He only ever briefly mentioned walking the trail, he was much too humble for high praise for the accomplishment. I didn't realize the importance of the feat until long after Earl's death, and I was an older man myself. I know he would say something like " A lot of hubbub about a long walk" if he knew how many people revered his efforts. He was a great guy.

Posted by Daniel Foltz on April 5,2011 | 09:47 AM

For those who are confused about whether Grandma Gatewood or Mildrid Norman Ryder (Peace Pilgrim) was the first woman to complete a thru-hike, Mrs. Ryder did complete it first with a companion.

Grandma Gatewood was the first woman to complete a SOLO thru-hike.

Just saying..

Posted by Tina on February 7,2011 | 03:11 AM

I have always been interested in the story about the Appalachian Trail. In 2009 my son gave me a book about Earl Shaffer for Christmas---I nealy fell over when I saw the picture of Earl Shaffer.He was the man that arrived in the town of Onawa,Maine where I was born. He said he had walked the Appachian Trail. He had one candy bar left. My parents gave him food and a place to sleep and he left the next day. I was very young when that happened. I just had to post my comment

Posted by Lucille Gagnon Duhaime on January 9,2011 | 04:31 PM

The Appalachian Trail is only the beginning. There are now ten other national scenic trails. All are beautiful and intriguing. Plus there is also the transcontinental Sea-To-Sea Route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. [See ronstrickland dot com] The best is still ahead!

Posted by Ron Strickland on August 29,2010 | 03:52 PM

I hiked the first 300 miles (South to North) in 2000. I plan to return, to benefit my faith-based hospital employer, perhaps in 2010. When I arrived at Hot Springs, N.C. in 2000, soaked off the sweat and grime, then thought to myself, "now THIS is what I should be doing, not looking for ticks on my head." (grin) THANK YOU to all the volunteers who made my experience immeasurably splendid. Trail name: The Phone Lady. New trail name to be announced.

Posted by Catherine Palmer on November 23,2009 | 12:29 PM

FYI: Mount Katahdin stands more like 5,200 feet, not the 4,292 stated in an otherwise informative story.

Posted by David Corriveau on November 10,2009 | 03:19 PM

I just discovered this when I was doing a search for a new blog of mine that should be on everyday health. Glad I found it. And Dog Bone, I didn't meet you but my first hike was in 1999 and it changed my life. For the much much better.

Posted by Nancy Gowler (Magellan) on August 27,2009 | 07:31 PM

I met my wife in Virginia. Both of us were thru hiking in 1999, we walked 1,700 miles together and decided we wanted to continue for the rest of our lives. That was just one of the reasons it was the best challenge and journey in my life.

Posted by Kenny (Wadi) Evans on August 8,2009 | 11:47 AM

Interesting article overall, though I'd call attention to two mistaken details. I believe the Pacific Crest Trail between the borders of Mexico and Canada runs at least 2,600 miles, making it the longer. And Mount Katahdin stands 5,200-feet-and-change above sea level, not 4,292.
Oh, and Earl Shaffer did go by a trail name -- Crazy One. He took it on after meeting a family in Tennessee during his first trip. When he told them what he was doing, the matriarch declared him crazy.
While writing for my local paper on the New Hampshire/Vermont state line, I covered the passing-through of Earl Shaffer and the Orient Express (Bill Irwin and seeing-eye dog Orient). They're still my favorites in 21 years. So far have hiked most of the AT in New Hampshire (except for Glencliff to Lonesome Lake and parts of the Mahoosucs) and about 50 miles in Vermont and 10 in Maine. Someday ...

Posted by David Corriveau on August 3,2009 | 04:42 PM

Great article Bought back so many fabulous memories of the trail that I thru hiked in 1999 .The best part of the trail experience was meeting all the different people who became instant friends once you knew them to be thru hikers..... a breed unto ourselves.

Posted by Al ( Dog Bone) Wilson on July 31,2009 | 09:40 PM

^ Lee Starkey!

I hiked the AT in 1999 and it has remained one of the most valuable experiences of my entire life. Not only did I meet a lot of great people, but I developed an appreciation of the wilderness and a sense of self-reliance that I could not have attained otherwise.

The AT is enshrined in American history, but it should be noted that it is just one trail on the larger Eastern Continental Trail which stretches from Key West, Florida to the Cliffs of Forillon, Cap Gaspé, Québec, spanning sixteen states and three Canadian provinces. Regional hiking groups are cutting and maintaining trails all along the ECT's route, and more hikers are taking it on every year. One day the ECT will hopefully become as important as the AT has been for the past 50 years.

Posted by McDowell Crook on July 30,2009 | 03:56 PM

Having a trail name has absolutely nothing to do with whether a person is a "real" AT hiker. If that were the case, Earl Shaffer wouod not be a real AT hiker. And we all know that's not true. Other "real" AT hikers do not have trail names either.

Posted by Sally "Vcat" Wilson on July 30,2009 | 09:34 AM

Thank you Leslie for answering my questions about the trail.
I can't wait to give it a try.

Posted by Rocco Brac on July 28,2009 | 08:06 PM

Mildred Norman Ryder aka "Peace Pilgrim" was the first woman to hike the entire AT in one year. I don't think that the fact that she and Dick Lamb did a 'flip-flop' hike should disqualify Peace from that honor, since every other hiker who completes the Trail in one year is considered to be a 'thru-hiker' regardless of sequence/direction of travel

Posted by The 88th Through-Hiker on July 27,2009 | 07:24 PM

Yes, Rocco, the AT is a linear national park protected by law. There are only a handful of miles left that aren't on the protected right-of-way, either because they are road walks still, or they're still on private land. Every year, the AT Conservancy works to complete the purchases. Much of the trail is through other national parks, national forests, or state parks, places that bring protection with them. Some areas, like Hot Springs, NC, or Damascus, VA, it will always run through town. Those are the Trail Towns we live for. anklebear

Posted by Leslie on July 27,2009 | 01:58 PM

Hiking the AT is like kissing your mother-in-law. It's something you gotta do, but it's best to work up to it slowly.

Posted by Lee Starkey on July 26,2009 | 06:00 PM

Interesting article.
The only thing I find that disturbs me.

My brother Earl always considered Dorthy Laker as the first woman to Thur-Hike.

While Grandma Moses was a great hiker, Earl found several incidents that qustions here claims to complete her first hike.

John Shaffer

Posted by John Shaffer on July 25,2009 | 12:37 AM

June 6, 1948 Paul Yambert and I climbed Katahdin and started an 80 day, 1252 mile trip on the Appalachian trail. We left the trail at Rockfish Gap, Va on August 25, to return to college. With the peace time draft in effect, we were afraid to not be enrolled in school. We met Earl Shaffer in New Hampshire on the trail when he was about 400 miles from the end of his "maiden voyage". Earl recorded our meeting in his book, "Walking With Spring". Although Yambert and I did not conmplete the through hike, this was a life changing experience for both of us, and we still remember it as being one of the pivotal points in our lives. College, Med school, Navy time, surgical residency, marriage and a family, and 31 years of busy private practice filled my days, but, witha series of section hikes, I finally did completed the remainder of the trail, In November, 1995. I continue to hike regularly in the nearby Smoky Mt.National Park, and enjoy vivid memories of that magical trip in '48. Jim Callaway

Posted by James Callaway on July 25,2009 | 11:29 AM

Wonderful article. My husband (Jimmy1Note) hiked the AT between 1997-2000 (2,160 miles at that time) and that was the highlight of his life. Can't help commenting on Bill Bryson--amusing book, but he was not a "real" AT hiker. He didn't even have a trail name. Yes, thanks a million to all the volunteers--good work, everyone who loves the trail, maintains it, and preserves the golden memories.

Posted by Jean Tygum on July 24,2009 | 03:01 PM

How does the trail stay "open"? Does it run across private property? I'm suprised "developers" haven't taken it over, and closed sections. Is there a "legal" basis for this trail, that is, by law it's part of the national parks system, etc.... If anyone knows answers I appreciate their comments.
Thanks.

Posted by Rocco Brac on July 24,2009 | 02:13 PM

I enjoyed this article immensly. Having hiked a section a few years ago with my then 7year old son. It makes me want to return quickly!

Posted by Patty Wessner on July 24,2009 | 08:42 AM

It certainly was difficult to choose 10 hikers amoung thousands to feature their stories here. You mentioned the founders, the oldest, the youngest, the first female and male thru-hikers, and others. To those, I would like to add "the Dreamer". Though I only walked about 200 miles of the trail, and that in sections, I always dreamed of hiking the whole trail. It was a goal I never reached. But as they say, it is not the end that counts, it's the path to that goal that really counts. So, I am glad that the 2000+ trail exits for us dreamers. Thanks to all the volunteers that make that dream possible.

Posted by Bob Kramp of VA on July 24,2009 | 08:10 AM

my great nephew is currently on this trail....I found this article to be very personal and special to me; i'm beginning to understand why people want this amazing challenge in the wilderness. I hope "stink" will share some of his time on the trail with you.

Posted by Lynn Goldberg on July 24,2009 | 06:37 AM

Thanks for putting these interesting events and personalities together. I've scratched at the A.T. Seems trekkers and denizens give the trail some character and the A.T. returns the favor.

Posted by D.T. Remund on July 23,2009 | 08:04 PM

bill bryson book is worth reading, or better yet listening to it from books on tapes on a drive across county. katz is very entertaining.............

Posted by cy wheeler on July 23,2009 | 07:15 PM

I liked your article. The style and the structure were balanced, and thanks for sparing us the lurid details of any of the murder and mayhem. We can get that nowadays on Nat'l Geo or Discovery under the guise of science.

Posted by James(Seamus) Casey on July 19,2009 | 10:54 PM

A fine story. And with regard to Bill Bryson, I suppose the AT needs a Paper Tiger.

Posted by Wells Huff on July 16,2009 | 01:21 PM

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Tales From the Appalachian Trail

The stories of ten hikers who have traveled the 2,000-mile-path through the eastern United States tell the history of the trail

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