Earl Victor Shaffer
trailblazer.
poet.
conservationist.
The story of how one man's quest to find peace in the mountains led to a lifetime of adventure for himself and others
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An outdoorsman, poet, and hiker, Earl Victor Shaffer was born in 1918 in Pennsylvania. His upbringing near the woods instilled in him a love for nature, and when he returned from serving in the Army during WWII, it was nature that he turned to for healing.
In honor of his friend Walter Winemiller, Earl decided to take on the challenge of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, seeking through his journey to "walk off the war."
In 1948, after 6 months of walking more than 2,000 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, Earl became the first person to ever thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.
To this day, he is remembered for his groundbreaking thru-hikes (as the first, then oldest thru-hiker 50 years later in 1998), as well as for his beautiful Trail-inspired poetry, and advocacy for the Appalachian Trail.
