Fourth of July, 50 years ago

 After a long hot hike, we arrived at Van Deventer LT in Tennessee. My legs and arms were scratched from all the pricker bushes along the AT.  It was a 20 plus mile day from Moreland Gap LT.

About midday, we crossed the river below Laurel Falls.

On Section 4, between Wilbur Lake and Watauga Dam Road, the guidebook said it as 1.58 miles.  My handwritten notes state "this section makes an excellent 3-4 day traverse & should be undertaken only by idiots."  That gives you a taste of the Ups and Downs.

By 730 pm we reached our home for the evening and a fireworks free evening.

Here is Ralph's pic of the leanto.

We only had 45 miles to go to reach Virginia and the town of Damascus, also a mail drop.

Some scans from 50 years ago today in North Carolina

 On the AT in North Carolina.  First is obviously Albert Mountain and a portion of the USGS map.

And then we have Standing Indian. Plus air photo and map.

Fifty years ago today

 On this date on June 7, 1974, after skipping my high school graduation, I climbed Springer Mountain with a dream to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, some 2,000 miles long.

That's one sweaty 18 year old.  My hike along the approach trail, an 8 mile climb as found on the USGS Topo Map!

The dream was to end June 12th, 1975, but the memories are forever.

Enough pics, how about some old maps of the AT

 Here is a selection of old AT maps.  All freely available from web sources.

First from the Library of Congress we have

And then from the south.

For Virginia we have:

For Maryland

And for Pennsylvania from the Federal Register:

From Cumberland Valley AT Club

New Jersey next

From the NYT

From the Connecticut Walk Book

Mt Greylock in Massachusetts

For Vermont, how about this USDA-FS map

Next North is New Hampshire

And for Maine

Round Bald and AT

 On the First of July in 1974, we hit Roan Mountain and several other Balds in the Southern Appalachians.   Spectacular views and tons of Rhododendrons.

Heading toward Carvers Gap, we crossed highway 261.

And the map of the period is shown next.

Plus a air photo from 1993.

And a streetview image from 2009.

Camping out in the AT Berkshires (Tuesday 15 October 1974)

 On the 15th of October 1974. I was hiking on the AT south.  I camped out some 3 miles south of Dalton.  As I recall it was a cloudy day.

This is the historic topo for the area south of Dalton, so I camped out somewhere here.

And this map of my hike into Warner Hill area more recently.  I tried the AT on one trip but after climbing Warner Hill, I saw a fairly steep descent into the former homestead.  On the next trip I followed the old wood road into the settlement.

Notice the foundations on this LiDAR image on the AT corridor.

And some details here, showing stone walls, and foundations of the 19th century farm.  Blue lines represent the NPS boundary while the red (even chopped off) shows the Trail:

Here are some pics of the foundations taken November 2020.

This is a north/south roadway.

You can see this old road from the air photos.

Here is a Mass GIS air photo from 2021 showing cleared Warner Hill (old apple orchard) on left and old wood road on right.

So, next time you want to virtually explore an area, try Google Earth with historic imagery and topo maps.

LiDAR maps are a bit more difficult to find so search "LiDAR viewer" and "location" to see what might be available.  The imagery varies by location, availability and quality.