Shaffer was born in rural York, Pennsylvania, which lies approximately twenty miles from the AT, and which he always made his home.
Shaffer enlisted in the army in 1941, was well along in his training at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, and did arduous and risky service as a forward-area radioman in the South Pacific into 1945.
With sparse equipment that would be regarded as grossly inadequate by most of the through-hikers since – he used worn boots, his army rucksack, and no stove or tent[5] – he reached Mt.
He privately published his memoir of the experience; his book, Walking With Spring (ISBN 0-917953-84-3), reflects the experience of most AT hikers, that the project of making the whole trip in the northward direction (the most common choice), is furthered by a start timed to the weather in the Georgia mountains, and by continually taking advantage of the northward progress of milder weather.
In 1965 Shaffer hiked in 99 days from Maine to Springer Mountain, which had recently replaced Oglethorpe as the Trail's Georgia end, becoming the first person to claim a complete trip in each direction.
The flowers bloom, the songbirds sing, And though it sun or rain, I walk the mountain tops with spring From Georgia north to Maine.
After careful consideration of Earl’s documentation and other evidence, he was officially recognized by the ATC as the first person to hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail without interruption.
The original "Little Black Book" is part of the Smithsonian Institution's permanent collection at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. along with many of Earl's belongings.
A portion of the journal was written in a fast moving "marching" rhythm with ballad quatrains and end rhyme.
South of the Sunset specifically describes the war in the Pacific Theater with eyewitness accounts of battles and cultures.
[9] As teens Earl, along with his neighbor Walter Winemiller and younger brother Evan Shaffer, frequently walked the section of the Appalachian Trail from Caledonia off Route 30 to Dillsburg, PA. Before Walter entered the US Marines and Earl the US Army, they made a pact to walk the entire Appalachian Trail when they returned home.
[10] Following his thru-hike, Earl became active in the work the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC), which he had joined prior to his hike.
Earl’s contributions as an Appalachian Trail volunteer are recorded in his authorized biography by Donaldson and Forrester, A Grip on the Mane of Life.
Trail of the Tropic Moon contains music written by Earl while he was stationed in the South Pacific during World War II and after he returned home to Pennsylvania.