Remembering the Pennsylvania veteran who first thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail

GARDNERS, Pa. — When Earl Shaffer scrambled to the summit of Maine’s Mount Katahdin on an August afternoon in 1948, the York County native was an anomaly, someone who took the leisurely hobby of hiking to the extreme.

Shaffer, 29 at the time, was the first person to thru-hike the 2,000-plus miles of the Appalachian Trail, a feat its founders never imagined possible and never intended. Even after Shaffer, who served in the South Pacific during World War II, it seemed unlikely the masses would follow his path.

“Not many will want to duplicate Shaffer’s feat. Not many should try,” a newspaper wrote about Shaffer in 1949.

In the ensuing decades, Shaffer himself would complete the trail two more times, once heading southbound from Maine to Georgia, then one last time when he was 79. All told, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, some 20,000 people have completed the trail over the decades, either thru-hiking over several months, like Shaffer, or completing sections at a time.

“Before Earl’s hike, thru-hiking was met with skepticism and seen as something maybe impure for a hiker to care about walking the whole trail,” said Silas Chamberlain, author of On the Trail: A History of American Hiking.

Chamberlain, along with many of the late Shaffer’s relatives, gathered in Cumberland County’s Pine Grove Furnace State Park on Saturday morning to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the accomplishment. Pine Grove is the traditional halfway point on the trail, home to the Appalachian Trail Museum and the famous “half-gallon” ice cream challenge for hikers making their way through.

Family described Shaffer as a quiet loner and poet who came alive when discussing the outdoors.

“Earl didn’t have a wife or a children, or a real job, so he had the ability to go out there into the wilderness for months and months,” said Kay Capron, Shaffer’s niece. “He liked fixing old furniture and tinkering around with stuff, but he loved the outdoors.”

Shaffer’s interest in the Appalachian Trail began with boyhood dreams, with he and his best friend, Walter Winemiller, imagining a life in the woods. World War II changed that. Winemiller, died in the invasion of Iwo Jima, and Shaffer spent years setting up radar equipment and airstrips while battling tropical illnesses in the South Pacific with the Army Signal Corps.

“They were gonna do it together after the war. They talked about it a lot, but Walter was killed and Earl had a real problem with that,” Capron said.

Shaffer, in his book Walking with Spring, said he was “confused and depressed” after returning from the Pacific. This was decades before post-traumatic stress disorder was a recognized medial diagnosis. So, to fulfill the dream he and Winemiller shared, he decided to “walk off the war.”

“It straightened me out, more or less,” Shaffer, now deceased, said of his journey in 1998.

Saturday’s event also featured the dedication of a trail shelter Shaffer helped build with stone in 1956. The shelter was abandoned for decades after the trail was rerouted, but the stones were eventually moved to the museum at Pine Forge, which opened in 2010.

Luke Kolbie, CEO of the 125-year-old Russell Moccasin Company, which manufactured the boots Shaffer wore on his epic hike, made the case for quality over quantity. The company reissued the same handmade boots for the anniversary.

“Earl himself said, ‘Carry as little as possible, but choose that little with care’,” Kolbie said.

The anniversary boots cost $750 and, according to the company’s website, are sold out.

Saturday’s event lured in a few thru-hikers still making their way north and south on the trail. There was a free lunch and conversations to be had.

Jeffrey “Chipmunk” Thayer, of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, said his time on the trail was running out. He had commitments back home and could only stay a few more weeks.

“My wife is having surgery, so I need to be back to help her,” Thayer said.

Thayer started in Georgia in April and believes he’ll be in New York — ”hopefully” — when he has to go home.

“But I’ll be back,” he said. “I love this trail. I’ve loved every single step I took on this trail.”