Men's Journal

A new Smithsonian exhibit looks at environmentalist Earl Shaffer, the first man to hike the entire Appalachian Trail in one continuous trip.

by Sarah Rose

The “walk with spring” is what Earl Shaffer called his historic trek on the Appalachian Trail, the first-ever thru-hike, completed in the summer of 1948. An activist, environmentalist, and author, Schaffer did as much to publicize and promote the trail as anyone (save Bill Bryson) ever has, and starting July 10, his papers and memorabilia will be featured in an exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Although creator Benton MacKaye is the name most visibly linked to the trail, Shaffer, who walked it from end to end to commemorate the life of a fellow WWII vet who died at Iwo Jima, became the AT’s true champion by bringing the trail national attention after it had become derelict after America’s young men went off to war.

Highlights include Shaffer’s “hiking” boots, which somehow made every step of the 2,000-mile trek without falling apart. But even more inspirational is Shaffer’s pocket diary from the odyssey, now dog-eared and crisp, with pages that show both the lean scribblings of a tired walker and the natural poetry of life in the woods. “Below is a flat cove, looking down one gets same curious feeling as aboard ship that one could step down and walk on the treetops,” he wrote of a Pennsylvania lookout. And in Maine: “In morn climbed Katahdin in leisurely fashion…finis. All pau, no more.”

The exhibit runs July 10 – October 11.