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June 10, 1983: I was about a mile down the Wilburne Ridge Trail when I realized that my exposed roll of film was still sitting on that outcrop in Rhododendron Gap. The trip back and forth to retrieve it added two more unofficial miles to my day.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #virginia #mountains #nature #AppalachianTrail

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July 19, 1983: After about three miles, the trail finally leveled out along the crest of the mountain and the rocks thinned out considerably. It was not bad hiking at all, and I began to make up in large chunks the time I had lost on the ascent.

#backpacking #hiking #landscapephotography #outdoors #nature #pennsylvania #mountains #forest #AppalachianTrail

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October 3, 1983: The beginning was remarkably easy. The path was wide, relatively rock-free, and climbed at a very gentle grade. It followed a bank of Katahdin Stream up to the base of a set of cascades, where it crossed over to the other bank. At this point, the trail became a bit steeper. Short side trails brought me to several overlooks of Katahdin Falls.

#backpacking #hiking #hikingadventures #landscapephotography #maine #forest #mountains #nature #AppalachianTrail

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September 1, 1983: The trail down the far side of Smarts Mountain was in worse shape than the ascent had been, but what did that matter to a man surrounded by that kind of magnificence? The AT lunged downward across more of those dripping, mossy rocks.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #NewHampshire #nature #mountains #forest #AppalachianTrail

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August 8, 1983: I passed park benches also swarming with humanity, most of whom seemed to be staring at me, wondering what the hell I was doing walking through that park with a backpack on. I did not do much to reassure them. I could see that most of them thought I was a psycho, and that had me constantly breaking out in fits of laughter, which no doubt convinced them.

#backpacking #hiking #landscapephotography #nature #NewYork #mountains #forest #AppalachianTrail

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June 2, 1983: After rolling along the ridge crest over Round Bald and Jane Bald, both of which topped out at just over 5800 feet, the Appalachian Trail maintained those lofty heights as it crossed a spur ridge of Grassy Ridge Bald north of the actual summit. The AT descended a few hundred feet.

#backpacking #hiking #landscapephotography #NorthCarolina #nature #mountains #Tennessee #AppalachianTrail

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July 26, 1983: The next two miles or so of trail was one unbroken rock pile. Using mind control techniques which will be described in my next book, The Principles of Psychotic Backpacking, I convinced myself that Blue Mountain was throwing everything it had into one final vain attempt to destroy me, and just kept plugging away, ignoring the beating my feet were taking.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #pennsylvania #nature #forest #mountains #AppalachianTrail

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October 2, 1983: A side trail brought me to Big Niagara Falls (no, the other one). The falls were not enormous (no, that’s the other one), but they were impressive enough, and quite scenic.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #Maine #nature #forest #mountains #autumn #AppalachianTrail

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September 28, 1983: At the bottom of the long descent from the Chairback range was the second-biggest water ford on the Appalachian Trail: the West Branch of the Pleasant River.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #Maine #nature #forest #mountains #AppalachianTrail

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August 31, 1983: The Appalachian Trail followed some dirt roads through a pleasant farm valley encircled by mountains and reentered the forest to begin a rather taxing climb up to Holts Ledge, the first real mountain it had thus far traversed in New Hampshire. It kept turning onto one woods road after another, and each was a bit steeper than the preceding one.

#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #NewHampshire #nature #forest #mountains #AppalachianTrail