Earl V. Shaffer (November 8, 1918 – May 5, 2002), was an American outdoorsman and author known from 1948 as The Crazy One (and eventually as The Original Crazy One) for attempting what became the first publicized claimed

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A His ...

trip in a single season over the entire length of the

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian ...

(AT). He also worked as a carpenter, a soldier specializing in radar and radio installation, and an antique dealer.

Biography

Shaffer was born in rural York, Pennsylvania, which lies approximately twenty miles from the AT, and which he always made his home. In the late 1930s he hiked with a neighbor and close friend, Walter Winemiller, and they made plans to hike the whole of the AT together, after the war that they anticipated the US would eventually enter. Shaffer enlisted in the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

in 1941, was well along in his training at the time of the

Pearl Harbor attack The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ...

, and did arduous and risky service as a forward-area radioman in the South Pacific into 1945. His friend Winemiller served in the Pacific Theater as well, and died in the Iwo Jima landings. Shaffer said he did the trail to "walk the war out of my system". In 1948, he began the journey from Mt. Oglethorpe, in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

(the trail's southern end at that time). With sparse equipment that would be regarded as grossly inadequate by most of the through-hikers since – he used worn boots, his army rucksack, and no stove or tent – he reached

Mt. Katahdin Mount Katahdin ( ) is the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Maine at . Named Katahdin, which means "Great Mountain", by the Penobscot Native Americans, it is within Northeast Piscataquis, Piscataquis County, and is the centerpiece of Baxte ...

Maine Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...

, in 124 days, averaging 17 miles per day. Especially after he overcame the skepticism of Appalachian Trail Conference officials (who initially believed his claim of completing the route was obviously fraudulent), his trip raised public awareness of the Trail. He privately published his memoir of the experience; his book, ''Walking With Spring'' (), reflects the experience of most AT hikers, that the project of making the whole trip in the northward direction (the most common choice), is furthered by a start timed to the weather in the Georgia mountains, and by continually taking advantage of the northward progress of milder weather. In 1965 Shaffer hiked in 99 days from Maine to

Springer Mountain Springer Mountain is a mountain located in the Chattahoochee National Forest on the border of Fannin and Gilmer counties. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia, the mountain has an elevation of about . Springer Mountain serves ...

, which had recently replaced Oglethorpe as the Trail's Georgia end, becoming the first person to claim a complete trip in each direction. In 1982, the Appalachian Trail Conference published Shaffer's ''Walking With Spring'' commercially; it is now called "a classic trail diary". In 1998, he claimed another northward through-hike (at age 79) from May 2 to October 21 (six days past official closing of the state park), in 173 days, for the 50th anniversary of his first one, with David Donaldson (known as "The Spirit of '48"). He later developed his notes from this trip, under the working title "Ode to the Appalachian Trail", into ''The Appalachian Trail: Calling Me Back To The Hills''. Shaffer was diagnosed with liver cancer, and died of its complications soon after on May 5, 2002. Donaldson, his most recent

through-hike Thru-hiking, or through-hiking, is the act of hiking an established end-to-end trail or long-distance trail with continuous footsteps. In the United States, the term is most commonly associated with the Appalachian Trail (AT), the Pacific Cres ...

companion, was at his bedside. On June 17, 2011, he was inducted into the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame at the

Appalachian Trail Museum The Appalachian Trail Museum is located in Pine Grove Furnace State Park near Gardners, Pennsylvania, United States, and commemorates the builders, maintainers and hikers of the Appalachian Trail, including those in the Appalachian Trail Hall of ...

as a charter member.

Long distance hiking

Earl Shaffer is best known as the first person to hike the entire length of the

in one, continuous journey. Such hikes have come to be known as “ thru-hikes” from the words, “hiking through.” The original concept of a thru-hike was a continuous journey from one end of a long trail to the other. In the 21st century, however, the requirements with respect to the

have been relaxed to recognize a hike of the entire Appalachian Trail completed within a single period of 12 months. This was not the case at the time of Earl’s A.T. thru hikes.

1948: first thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail

Prior to 1948, only 7 people had hiked the entire length of the

—more than 2,000 miles. They had done so by means of “section hiking”, consisting of shorter journeys of a month or a few weeks completed over the course of several years. Completing a hike of the entire trail in one journey was not considered feasible. Earl, however, believed it was possible, and set out do so on April 4, 1948. For extraordinary claims, extraordinary evidence is necessary. With this in mind, Earl carefully documented his northbound hike through photography, entries into notebooks kept at trail shelters where he spent the night and, most importantly, detailed entries into the trail journal he called hi
“Little Black Book.”
The first indication that Earl was well on his way to completing his hike took the form of a postcard sent to the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) from Holmes, New York. On the postcard, Earl had sketched a view of the Pinnacles of Dan in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

(no longer on the AT) along with the following poem as his message: ''The flowers bloom, the songbirds sing,'' ''And though it sun or rain,'' ''I walk the mountain tops with spring'' ''From Georgia north to Maine.'' Earl’s claim to have hiked the entire Appalachian Trail received careful scrutiny, particularly by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) whose members had the most intimate knowledge of the Trail. After careful consideration of Earl’s documentation and other evidence, he was officially recognized by the ATC as the first person to hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail without interruption.

1965: first person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in both directions

After many years of volunteer work related to the Appalachian Trail, Earl undertook a second thru-hike in 1965, starting from Mount Katahdin in Maine and finishing at

, which had recently been designated the Trail's southern terminus, replacing Mount Oglethorpe. On completing this hike, Earl Shaffer became the first person known to have completed thru-hikes of the

in both directions: northbound, from

, and southbound, from

1998: oldest person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail

Fifty years after the completion of his historic 1948 hike, the mountains called Earl back for a final, northbound thru-hike that established him as the oldest person at the time to have completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. When Earl completed this “50 Anniversary” hike, he was 79 years old and just two weeks short of his 80th birthday. Earl’s account of his 1948 hike
Walking with Spring
is published by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. His final hike is recorded in two books published by th
Earl Shaffer FoundationAppalachian Trail: Calling Me Back to the Hills
is a large format, “coffee table size” book that is richly illustrated with

photographs A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now creat ...

of the Appalachian Trail taken by Bart Smith
Ode to the Appalachian Trail
is a smaller, more personal account of Earl’s final hike written in a poetic, “ode” format. It is a limited, numbered printing for which copies are still available.

Earl Shaffer's writing

During his groundbreaking first thru-hike of the

in 1948, Earl Shaffer documented his adventures in vivid detail. Along with his photographs
Earl's trail diary
was used to confirm that he was the first-ever person to complete the more than 2,000-mile long trail in one continuous journey. Filled with stories of interactions with locals and other hikers, stories of adventure, poetry, and reflections on the stillness he found in nature, this compilation was later published as his best-known book
Walking with Spring
The origina
"Little Black Book"
is part of the

Smithsonian Institution's The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded o ...

permanent collection at the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

in Washington, D.C. along with many of Earl's belongings. Earl's 1948 trail journal has been both scanned and transcribed by volunteers and is available to read in its entirety as an online exhibi
here

Earl Shaffer's poetry

Before Earl "walked with spring" he documented his entire Army experiences in a poetic journal. A portion of the journal was written in a fast moving "marching" rhythm with

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

quatrains A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Gre ...

and

end rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

. It is titled "The Doughboy Odyssey." In other sections of his journal, he experimented with different poetic forms such as the difficult English and Heroic sonnet forms as well as free verse and the

. He had with him a

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

rhyming dictionary A rhyming dictionary is a specialized dictionary designed for use in writing poetry and lyrics. In a rhyming dictionary, words are categorized into equivalence classes that consist of words that rhyme with one another. They also typically suppor ...

, and a book of Rudyard Kipling poetry. Through his poetic journal, he not only documented his

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

odyssey from island to island as a Signal Corps man, but also specific battles, war machinery, war time news, and island cultures. These poems have been compiled into two volumes. <
Before I Walked With Spring
/u> includes "The Doughboy Odyssey" which is a ballad review of his entire military career. <
South of the Sunset
/u> specifically describes the war in the Pacific Theater with eyewitness accounts of battles and cultures.

Appalachian Trail volunteer

As teens Earl, along with his neighbor Walter Winemiller and younger brother Evan Shaffer, frequently walked the section of the

from Caledonia off Route 30 to

Dillsburg Dillsburg is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,643 as of the 2020 census. Geography Dillsburg is surrounded by Carroll Township in northwestern York County. According to the United States Census Bureau, ...

, PA. Before Walter entered the US Marines and Earl the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, c ...

, they made a pact to walk the entire

when they returned home.

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

intervened and only one of the two returned home. The decision to attempt hiking the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in 1948 was not only the challenge of doing something never done before, but also to honor his friend Walter and "walk off the war" as he described his own war trauma. Every year thousands of recent war veterans begin their trek on the Appalachian Trail for the same reason. Publicity following Earl Shaffer’s 1948 thru-hike increased public awareness of the Appalachian Trail and brought to it many new hikers. Following his thru-hike, Earl became active in the work the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC), which he had joined prior to his hike. Earl’s contributions as an Appalachian Trail volunteer are recorded in his authorized biography by Donaldson and Forrester
A Grip on the Mane of Life

Musician

While he concentrated much of his time on writing poetry, Earl Shaffer enjoyed setting many of his poems to song. In his later years, Earl recorded many of these songs while playing his

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, steel string guitar and

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

. Many of his songs are dedicated to his experience and love of the

, and to his experience as a soldier during

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. His music is compiled into albums that include ''Always in April'' and ''Trail of the Tropic Moon''. ''Always in April'' is an album of songs primarily focused on Earl's experience on the Appalachian Trail. ''Trail of the Tropic Moon'' contains music written by Earl while he was stationed in the South Pacific during

and after he returned home to Pennsylvania. Earl's music can be downloaded digitally on th
Earl Shaffer Foundation website

References

External links

Earl Shaffer Foundation

NPR interview
the day after his third thru-hike, on October 22, 1998
Earl Shaffer's digitally uploaded music

An online exhibition from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Earl Shaffer's books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaffer Hikers Writers from York, Pennsylvania 1918 births 2002 deaths Appalachian Trail American nature writers American male non-fiction writers