Then the Hail Came: Best Trail Journal EVER

[Cool Hands]

IF YOU WANT TO THRU-HIKE OR HAVE THRU-HIKED, YOU HAVE TO READ THIS!!!

Seriously, this is the BEST trail journal I have read, ever. It is poignant, hilarious, incredibly detailed, informative, eloquent, clever -- it's just awesome. It will have you crying and laughing with his ups and downs, like it did me. Has anyone else read it before? The guy hiked the trail in the early 80's, then when the computer age came along I guess he uploaded his old journal. Be sure to read the Prologue as well. It takes quite a lot of time to finish the entire thing, but it is worth it -- you won't be disappointed. It gets better as you go along too. But I'll let you know right away -- it's a novel, not a "how-to" instruction or a faceless description. It truly changed my life. Thanks to this, I know that I will thru-hike some day.

http://www.skwc.com/exile/Hail-nf.html

"Then the Hail Came" by George Steffanos

[Buffalo Skipper]

Thanks. I am oten looking for a good journal to get lost in. Sometimes they can be quite inspirational. I will check it out.

[on_the_GOEZ]

read it last fall - great read! just got Thoreau's "maine woods" last week - cant put it down

[emerald]

Try Hiking the Appalachian Trail, Wilderness and the American Mind and Scott Weidensaul's books. By the time you get through them, you will understand what the A.T. is really about better than 95% of those who have through hiked it.

[Rain Man]

Try Hiking the Appalachian Trail, Wilderness and the American Mind

Just googled that and ... nada.

?

[Snowleopard]

"Then the hail came" is great.
Emerald: "Wilderness and the American Mind and Scott Weidensaul's books." These look very interesting, thanks.

Rain Man: "Just googled that and ... nada."
http://www.amazon.com/Wilderness-American-Third-Professor-Roderick/dp/0300029101
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch?ie=UTF8&search-alias=books&field-author=Scott+Weidensaul&sort=relevancerank

"Hiking the Appalachian Trail" ?? couldn't find it.

[Lilred]

http://www.2000milehike.com/

Here's another journal from 1983. Gonzo's "All in one Roll" Gonzo hiked with the author of Then the Hail Came. Both excellent reads.

http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/THP%20top.html

The above link is to "The Thru-hiking Papers" another excellent read for anyone planning a thru hike.

[earlyriser26]

I agree on then the hail came. The title says it all.

[emerald]

Hiking the Appalachian Trail ... couldn't find it.

Hare, James R., ed. Hiking the Appalachian Trail. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OR3W90?ie=UTF8&tag=fromolearthw-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B000OR3W90)http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=fromolearthw-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000OR3W90 2 vols. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press, 1975.

It's out-of-print. I received as a Christmas gift one of the last copies donated to ATC by Rodale Press in 1980. Someone else has it now. It may still contain the 1980 Amicalola Falls State Park brochure I used as a bookmark.

Rain Man once recommended Alibris.com as a source for out-of-print books. You may be able to locate a copy for yourself there.

[RedneckRye]

Or check abebooks.com

Here is a link for the 2 volume Hiking The Appalachian Trail set...

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=0&bx=off&ds=30&isbn=0875960677&recentlyadded=all&sortby=17&sts=t&x=49&y=11

[BigBadger]

I just read the whole thing, it was good

[perrito]

Excellent read. And it's free! I put all of the chapters together into 1 PDF file and printed it in 3 "booklets". Again, excellent.

[unclemjm]

Great read, thanks for posting.

[JaxHiker]

Excellent read. And it's free! I put all of the chapters together into 1 PDF file and printed it in 3 "booklets". Again, excellent.

For those of you with a Kindle or other e-reader I've created ebooks you can download.

MOBI (http://files.idratherbehiking.com/journals/Then-The-Hail-Came-Steffanos_ George.mobi)

ePub (http://files.idratherbehiking.com/journals/Then-The-Hail-Came-Steffanos_ George.epub)

[Attila]

I just finished! Great reading, thanks for sharing.

[buff_jeff]

Wow, great journal. Honestly, it's probably the best "book" on the AT that I've read.

Thanks for sharing!

[Cool Hands]

What I found particularly funny is that I have a few minor connections to the author. I always felt appreciative of the beauty of nature in the same way he expressed his appreciation, and according to his website, he lives in Hamden -- I live just fifteen minutes up the road in Meriden. Also, I have a friend that works the weekend night-shift at an old gas station off of I-95 in New Haven, and he wrote that he had the exact same job, maybe even at the same gas station. Small world.

And I'm glad you all like it. I've read this at least three times. It's just great, I can't believe it isn't published.

[fiddlehead]

I read all the way up to Vermont.
It is well written.
He is a bit too much of a doo-gooder for me.
Claims to tell everyone they need to hike their own hike but continues to put down people who don't stop to enjoy the views (like him).
But all in all, i enjoyed the read.
In my mind, if i've seen 2 or 3 Pennsylvania views, I've seen them all. They are basically the same view. I came to hike, not veg out at some viewpoint so that I can say I saw them all. Just my 2 cents on a well written journal.

[Tamah]

Wow, thanks so much. I'm always looking for a good trail journal to read.

[Tamah]

Another really good trail journal, and as an added bonus -he's a member here, is Duct Tape's account. Great read.
http://www.downthetrail.com/the-appalachian-trail/

[Tamah]

The only problem was that Duct Tape stopped writing the journal and only posted pictures as he neared the end of his trek. But what he did write was a great read. I felt like I knew him by the time I finished reading.

[rocketsocks]

Bump.........lotta good reading here.

[MyName1sMud]

Thank you for sharing!

[cooldude]

Sounds very cool. Since I watched the movie French Kiss I always wanted to go on such a train journey. Loved Meg Ryan in it.

[gs8336]

I'd like to thank everyone here who expressed such kind words on the story. Just wanted to let you know the old site is no more. My new website is here:

Then The Hail Came - George Steffanos
https://georgesteffanos.webador.com/

I no longer have the entire "book" in my website because it is actually now published, but with cheaper and better slide scanning technology than when I created that site in the 90s, I am working on a very large pictorial journal of that At hike. I've already got about 400 photos in and I'm only in Connecticut. I'm taking many excerpts from the book, adding lots of new writing, and pairing the words and pictures. If anyone had feedback, good or bad, I'd love to hear it. Thank you again.

[illabelle]

I remember reading that story online a while back. Pretty intense!

[gravityman]

George, I read this book 20+ years ago on the internet and hiked in 2001. It was a major inspiration for me, thank you!

[geno1983]

George, so happy to read you have published Then the Hail Came. I have read it at least a dozen times over the years. It is the Gold Standard for trail journals. I ordered a copy from Amazon as my way of saying thank you.

I thru hiked in 83 and you and I had lunch together (with a friend of mine) at a Wayside in SNP. It’s crazy that I still remember that conversation about Mark and Beavuh Fevuh 39 years later. I greatly appreciate you mentioning our lunch in your journal.

I have literally quoted you (verbally and in print) hundreds of times since I first read your journal. In your epilogue you write:

“working for people to whom my value as a human being was on the level of mid-priced piece of machinery”. I love this quote.

As an employee, manager, and business owner that quote has been a constant voice in my head to remind me how not to treat my fellow man.

Thank you,

Gene Hadlow

[gs8336]

This place is kind of amazing. I stumbled across a 10+ year old thread with some kind words on the story. I wanted to thank people, but wasn't sure if anyone would see what I wrote. And here are 3 more replies, so quickly. Thank you all.

I've had a few people mention that my story helped inspire their own thru-hike. Knowing what mine meant to me, I consider that a major compliment, although I also picture someone in their first hailstorm trudging along saying "thanks, George".

One of my big regrets is when I was hanging out with people I liked I almost never bothered taking their pic or even writing down most of what we talked about. I shot so many pics and wrote so many words on that hike that it actually made it harder to do the mileage (something I never regretted after the hike). It got to the point where writing and shooting pics felt kind of like work and when I was with good people I just wanted to enjoy the moment. Ironically, this I did regret later. So it's a testament to all the laughs Gene, his friend and I had in that short break in Shenandoah that I wrote it down. So thank you guys for that.

[gs8336]

If anyone is interested, I finished the photo journal of my 1983 thru-hike.

https://georgesteffanos.webador.com/places-i-ve-been

There are around 750-800 photos scanned from my 1983 slides. I believe this to be one of the oldest thru-hikes on the Internet to be documented in photos like this. Working with analog non-geotagged images was a marathon compared to opening my digital photos from more recent trips in Google Photos and looking at the handy little Google Map Photos generates from the metadata.

I took excerpts of text from the book, combined that with some new writing. I hope hikers both of that era and later will enjoy some of the nostalgic looks at places that are no longer on the AT, in come cases that no longer exist, like Old Antlers Camps in the North Maine Woods and the great views from Standing Indian before the summit became mostly overgrown.

All serious feedback is welcome. Thank you again, everyone.

George Steffanos

[LittleRock]

Wow, George! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your photos of the AT from 2 years before I was born. I'm about halfway through Virginia and thoroughly enjoying them and I plan to purchase your book when I'm finished. It's been really cool to see how much has changed in the past 40 years, but even greater still to see how much hasn't changed. For example, some of the pictures you took in the Roan and Grayson Highlands were strikingly similar to the ones I took on my section hikes through them in 2013 and 2014. That's the real beauty of the AT - it gives people the chance to experience the timeless landscape of the Appalachian Mountains and know that future generations will be able to do so as well.

[gs8336]

I agree. We all owe a lot to the National Park and National Forest systems as well for saving most of the best places on the AT. Also states like New Jersey that have done far more than my home state of Connecticut protecting the AT. That's another big difference you'll find between your hike and mine. More than half of the AT I hiked in Conn. was gone a year or two later because my state found it easier to shorten the trail than protect it as it was. You can still hike all those places, just not on the AT.

You mentioned two of my favorite places on the trail, the Roan and Grayson Highlands. I take it they were among your as well.

[wyclif]

Unfortunately, the site is down. 404 Error.

[rhjanes]

I read it years ago. Funny and informative. I've order the book form and I believe Amazon will deliver today or very soon.
Many times a Trial Journal is pulled or greatly reduced if the person converts it to a book (Paid) format. See the authors reply in this thread, reply number 22

[gs8336]

The old site came down a couple of years ago. I'm getting older and I had some medical issues and couldn't afford to keep paying for it. The book went on sale on Amazon just this past January. In March, I found a free hosting company that was for some reason was willing to host 700-800 images that I scanned from my 1983 slides and I created an even larger project that includes those pics, many excerpts from the book, and a bunch of new writing. I am not hosting the entire book anymore, but I do have what I believe is on of the oldest thru-hikes on the Internet to have that extensive a photo journal. I know I spent weeks placing all those pics I took without the benefit of geotagging. The new site with the new project is here:

https://georgesteffanos.webador.com/places-i-ve-been

I hope hikers both of the 1980s era and later will enjoy some of the nostalgic looks at places that are no longer on the AT, in some cases that no longer exist, like Old Antlers Camps in the North Maine Woods and the great views from Standing Indian before the summit became mostly overgrown. Also, the many great places on the AT that look virtually identical decades later, a real testament to all the agencies and organizations dedicated to preserving them.

I copied that last part from the page. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to best explain what I was trying to do here.

George Steffanos

[gs8336]

In addition to again thanking all those who had kind words for Then The Hail Came, I'd also like to make a recommendation of my own. One of the things that made my story more interesting was the numerous adventures caused by my extreme lack of experience when I began the thru-hike -- 2 or 3 3-day backpacking trips in the White Mountains. A lot of inexperienced hikers like I was try this every year. If this is you or someone you know, it would be a good idea to check out my friend Alan Strackeljahn's book Evolution of a Thru-Hiker: An Appalachian Trail Adventure. It's available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Thru-Hiker-Appalachian-Trail-Adventure/dp/B09TYV7298

This rather unique book contains two trail journals, one chronicling his 1981 thru-hike attempt as a complete novice, and his 1983 successful thru-hike. We actually hiked together a few days during our 1983 thru-hikes. His writing is witty and entertaining, and filled with the lessons he learned on that first failed thru-hike from his own mistakes and the advice he picked up along the way. Despite his inexperience he made it to Cloverdale, Virginia. I wish I could have read something like this before my hike.