How War Drove the First Person to Hike the Whole Appalachian Trail

In the spring of 1948, 29-year-old World War II veteran Earl Shaffer set out from Mount Oglethorpe, Georgia, to do something no one had done before: hike the entire Appalachian Trail from end to end in one continuous journey. At the time, many believed the trail was too fragmented and rugged to complete in a single trek. Shaffer thought otherwise. After 124 days and more than 2,000 miles by foot, he reached Mount Katahdin in Maine, completing the first-ever thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

Born on November 8, 1918, Shaffer grew up on a small farm in York County, Pennsylvania.

“Earl always had a deep connection to nature,” says his nephew, Daniel Shaffer. “In his later teen years, he hiked and camped along portions of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania.”

The idea for a thru-hike took root after Shaffer returned home from the South Pacific, where he had served in World War II. He had seen heavy combat and lost his best friend, Walter Winemiller, during the battle of Iwo Jima.

“Earl’s experiences left him feeling both disturbed and discouraged,” says David Donaldson, board historian at the Earl Shaffer Foundation (ESF). “He served on over 20 different islands in the Pacific theater and never had a furlough during that time. He saw many dead bodies, especially of the Japanese, often burned beyond recognition. As Earl put it, he ‘couldn’t get back into society.’”

In 1947, Shaffer came across a brief mention in Outdoor Life noting that no one had ever hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in a single season. Years earlier, he and Walter had dreamed of taking on the trail together. Now, with Walter gone and the war behind him, the challenge became something more personal. Shaffer, an avid poet, hoped the journey might draw attention to his writing and offer a chance to make sense of all he’d endured. As Shaffer wrote, he wanted to "walk the war out of my system.”

The Appalachian Trail was first proposed in 1921 by Benton MacKaye, a regional planner and forester who imagined a continuous footpath along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains. Momentum grew through the 1920s and ’30s, as volunteers, local clubs and the newly formed Appalachian Trail Conference (now Conservancy) (ATC) worked to carve it out section by section through forests, over ridgelines and across farmland.

By 1937, the final segment was complete, but few believed it could be hiked end to end. The trail remained fragmented, poorly marked and frequently broken up by roads or private land.

A year later, the “Hurricane of the Century” tore through New England, damaging large portions of the trail.

“With resources having been diverted to the war effort, little had been done to repair the damage,” says Sanne Larsen Bagby, President of the ESF. “Interest [also] waned as Americans had turned their attention to achieving a sense of ‘normalcy’ after two world wars. By 1948, the ATC was struggling to secure the very existence of the trail.”

Armed with just a worn pair of Birdshooter boots, a green canvas backpack and his journal, Shaffer headed north. He didn’t carry a stove, a sleeping bag or even a tent at first. He ate canned goods, powdered milk and whatever he could find in general stores or roadside diners. Navigation was a challenge and maps were unreliable. Still, he pressed on—through the Smokies, over the Blue Ridge, through Shenandoah National Park and into the harsh wilderness of New England.

To prove his progress, Shaffer took photos at key landmarks and meticulously recorded his journey. He also engaged with local postmasters and left letters along the way. When he summited Mount Katahdin on August 5, 1948, some 2 million steps later, he became the first person ever to complete a continuous hike of the Appalachian Trail (later confirmed by the ATC).

Shaffer documented the historic hike in his memoir, Walking With Spring, where he captured the rawness of the trail and his internal reflections. "Most people never in all their lives sleep under the open sky, and never realize what they are missing,” he wrote.

His journey helped shape how the trail was maintained, marked and eventually viewed as a singular, unified wilderness corridor rather than a collection of regional footpaths. It also gave rise to the culture of thru-hiking, which today draws adventurers, veterans, spiritual seekers and everyone in between.

Shaffer went on to hike the Appalachian Trail two more times—once in 1965 and again in 1998 at age 79 to mark the 50th anniversary of his original hike. He became the oldest person to complete a thru-hike and the only one to do so in three separate decades. (“Nimblewill Nomad” Eberhart completed the hike in 2021 at age 83.)

Next, Shaffer became a dedicated volunteer with the ATC. He responded to letters from aspiring hikers, offering advice and encouragement and was elected the ATC’s Corresponding Secretary in 1952. He also co-founded several trail organizations in Pennsylvania and helped build four shelters along the AT, often leading construction efforts himself. He passed away in 2002, at the age of 83, due to liver cancer.

Perhaps the most enduring sign of his commitment came when he gave the ATC the rights to his memoir. Still in print more than 40 years later, the book’s proceeds continue to support the trail and its caretakers.

Today, more than 3,000 hikers attempt a thru-hike each year. Still, in an age of GPS, ultralight gear and instant trail updates, Shaffer’s hike remains extraordinary. He had no sponsors. No crowds. No guide but his own compass and resolve.

Just a man, a trail and the long road home.