Books for Backpackers: Walking with Spring

I recently spent a couple of evenings re-reading Earl Shaefer’s Walking with Spring. Earl was the first person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail way back in 1948, and he wrote this book based on his journals and photos. I first read this about 15 years ago, and still go back every once in awhile for a fresh look. I love this book, just love it.Clearly, thru-hiking in the late 40’s was a far cry from what we see these days.

Large sections of the trail were still on roads, and the Appalachian Trail was something of an afterthought to many of the locals. His description of spending the night with a Forest Service ranger in a watchtower is something that one would never have these days. You can now go out with maps loaded into a GPS, have scads of info gleaned from books and websites, and spend every night with several companions if you wanted to. Not saying that’s better or worse, but that’s just how it is. Sometimes I wonder if we’re getting overloaded with information about the trail, and how that affects people’s experience.

Each chapter begins with a short poem by Earl, and there are scads of black and white photos scattered throughout. Many of the shelters and buildings in the book have been torn down over the years, so the book serves as an archival snapshot in time of what the Appalachian Trail was like. Earl went on to hike the trail two more times, in 1965 (southbound from Maine to Georgia), and 1998 (northbound again.) Earl lived an extraordinary life, including a tour in the Pacific during WWII, and passed away in 2002 from complications from liver cancer. He regarded his thru-hike as a way to “walk the war out of his system,” and we are richer for having his words still with us. Walking with Spring is a great read for anyone interested in the culture surrounding the Appalachian Trail.

For more selected Books for Backpackers, check out our Amazon AStore at http://astore.amazon.com/sourctoseapad-20. Proceeds from our Amazon links help defer the cost of this website and are used to further the efforts of the Source to Sea Expedition. Thanks again for your support.