The Appalachian Trail Author:Ronald M. Fisher Ripe Blueberries: "We picked them until our fingers and lips were stained and our pockets were full. Then we recrossed the dew-soaked meadow to our camp, and ate them all for breakfast." — There, in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, author Ronald Fisher the photographer Dick Durrance and his wife Jill shared one of the delights of hiking the ... more »Appalachian Trail.
Setting out from its southern terminus on Springer Mountain, Georgia, the three backpackers explored sections of the 2,015-mile wilderness footpath all the way to its northern end at Mount Katahdin, Maine. They made side trips to farms, villages, and historic sites near the trail, meeting hospitable people wherever they went. They rediscovered the splender of the mountains, the stillness of the forests, the wonderful diversity of plants and wildlife.
You will hike with them through the Great Smoky Mountains, bright with the bloom of rhododendrons and azaleas. You will visit an Indian arts and crafts center at Cherokee, and a stoneware factory in the Tennessee highlands; experience rare solitude deep in Jefferson National Forest; follow a ranger-naturalist on a walk in the Blue Ridge.
At the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah, the trail passes Harpers Ferry, scene of John Brown's raid and capture. Nearby lies Antietam Battlefield, where McClellan clashed with Lee on the bloodiest day of the Civil War.
In New England you will pause at Tanglewood, and climb Mount Greylock in the Berkshires; tramp the Long Trail through the Green Mountains; and ascend hazardous Mount Washington. Past lakes and ponds, the haunts of beavers, the trail climbs toward Katahdin.
Illustrated with more than 125 photos, this book documents the appreciation of the author and photographer "that the trail exists...a splendid and precious thing."« less