Earl Shaffer is best known as a trailblazer of the Appalachian Trail, the first known thru-hiker, and a strong advocate for conservation and community building along the Trail.
Did you know that while he hiked, he was also writing poetry and music along the Trail?
Many of these poems are published in his poetry books - including in his best-known hiking memoir, Walking With Spring, the photo book Calling Me Back to the Hills, Not Too Distant Trails, and more.
Earl also set many of these to song, sang and played on his guitars at Appalachian Trail gatherings and more. We are happy to share that the Earl Shaffer Foundation has digitized and uploaded Earl's songs to our website for the public to enjoy!
On our website, you can download and listen to some of his best-known songs for free, and sample even more. We are working on making music videos and uploading these to Youtube, too!
Have you heard Earl perform in person?
And have any of you written or performed songs about the Appalachian Trail?
Let us know, and we'd love to share your songs with our community, too! We'd especially love to do some covers of Earl's songs.. this is a call for musicians in our community - let us know if you have Appalachian Trail music to share!
Happy Trails and Music-Making,
The Earl Shaffer Foundation
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