Sunday, January 27, 2008

Blind Man Hiking

I believe I missed this when it came out in the newspaper last October; but I have seen the mention of it in another hiking club newsletter: The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune has an article dated 9 October 2007 by Stephen Regenold titled "Ultrafit: Tapping his way along the Appalachian Trail; With the help of a voice-enabled GPS, Minneapolis attorney Mike Hanson, who is blind, is training for the hike of a lifetime."

The subtitle pretty much explains it all: GPS unit, cane, no dog, Maine to Georgia. He's aiming on a solo hike, starting at the beginning of March. His web site doesn't give much detail, but does say he's aiming to start on 1 March 2009, and be done in about 7 months. (The newspaper article says 8 months, and starting March 2008.)

There was a lively discussion on WhiteBlaze.net, most of it negative with regards to Mr. Hanson's prospects. And amidst the discussion there is a link to the recording of a 21 minute interview with Hanson on the American Hiking Society web site.

Stay tuned.

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