Post AjOAmS8aJGuSp4vgLg by GSteffanos@mstdn.social
 (DIR) More posts by GSteffanos@mstdn.social
 (DIR) Post #AjOAmOZNZhxxl1R1Ye by GSteffanos@mstdn.social
       2024-06-28T13:41:47Z
       
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       🧵 1/4June 28, 1983, 41 years ago today: After seven miles of virtually continuous climbing, I finally began a long descent from Bluff Mountain into the Pedlar River Valley. At a junction of woods roads a mile-and-a-half later, the AT turned right from the dirt track it had been following down the crest of Bluff Mountain and onto another.#backpacking #hiking #outdoors #landscapephotography #virginia #mountains #nature #forest #AppalachianTrail
       
 (DIR) Post #AjOAmQS0a5G5ak0ALY by GSteffanos@mstdn.social
       2024-06-28T13:42:00Z
       
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       🧵 2/4I continued straight ahead, taking the quarter-mile side trail to Punchbowl Shelter for lunch. It was so early, and I had already come so far, that I was quite comfortable with removing my boots and socks and kicking back for an hour, munching and perusing the shelter register.
       
 (DIR) Post #AjOAmS8aJGuSp4vgLg by GSteffanos@mstdn.social
       2024-06-28T13:42:08Z
       
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       🧵 3/4The shelter sat at the edge of a slight bowl-shaped depression along the western slope of the Blue Ridge inside a setting from Tom Sawyer. Everything was intensely green. The road was a wide strip of grass broadening into a large meadow sloping gently downward to a tiny pond. The opposite shore was becoming densely overgrown with tall, pungent weeds. Even the waters of the pond had a slight greenish tinge of algae and mud.
       
 (DIR) Post #AjOAmTnO938vxv1maW by GSteffanos@mstdn.social
       2024-06-28T13:42:19Z
       
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       🧵 4/4Tadpoles swarmed in the murky shallows, while a chorus of bullfrogs croaked complacently in the soporific afternoon heat. A small spring trickled through a shallow ravine below the pond. I love exploring side trails; they almost always seem to pay off.From my book Then the Hail Came (A Humorous and Truthful Account of a 1983 Appalachian Trail Thru-hike). Available in paperback, audiobook and eBook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QFG4ZR6
       
 (DIR) Post #AjOAmVoAf6xQCvPR5M by GSteffanos@mstdn.social
       2024-06-28T13:42:24Z
       
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       You can read or listen to my book for free if you are a Kindle Unlimited eBook or an Audible Plus audiobook subscriber. Both of these options are available from Amazon, where the paperback, eBook or audiobook can also be purchased.