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"Blind Hiker Tackles Appalachian Trail With Only His Wits and a GPS"


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why is it going to cost him $25K?

 

10K for food and equipment for him and the videographer and 15K for batteries for the GPSr.

 

I wish him luck, but I wonder how he will handle the rocky ridges where you cannot "feel" the trail with the cane and 10ft off trail may put you over a cliff???? Been there and have seen it, maybe it is better it you can't see it. :(

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Alabama geocacher Gubbool recently hiked the AT from it's southern terminus near here to its northern.

 

First he moved out of his house and into a tent at a local state park and hiked the trails every day for four months to get into shape and get his equipment right.

 

It took him several months to hike the trail but didn't cost much... certainly not anywhere near $25K!

 

Once he got to the northern terminus a cacher met him with his bicycle and he rode it back to Birmingham.

 

Then he got in a kayak and paddled the extent of the Coosa River from north Georgia to Mobile Al and back.

 

I bet he wished he had a budget like that, and better yet, a GPS "that is accurate to ten feet and will keep him on the trail".... heck, I want one of those!

 

My bet is this guy stumbles up the trail a few hundred yards, busts his butt and retires from hiking with a nice bank account from his generous supporters.

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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Since this was posted in the Geocaching Topics forum, once can only assume that he intends to grab a few caches along the way, right?

 

Geocaches are prohibited along the AT.

I actually managed to finish half the AT, in a demented series of day hikes, and section hikes. Rockfish Gap, Va, to the Presi Traverse, NH, plus a few sections in Maine. Decided I wasn't having fun anymore on Mount Madison, NH. So I stopped. I usually hiked eight miles a day. Longest day was 20 miles across the Cumberland Valley, Pa. I pared my backpack down to 25#, which was not easy. Everything I needed for six days.

Yes. I managed to get quite lost a few times! There are a lot of very rocky thousand foot climbs! And hiking across rivers. I calculated the Presi Traverse at 9000 feet of climb in 24 miles. (My sister and I took four days to do that!)

I met a blind hiker, a few times, on the trail that I used to maintain. (Not an easy trail.) I admired his gumption. He had two fellow hikers to help him. He was very slow. (Which is not surprising.)

What do I think of a blind hiker tackling the AT? I wish him luck. It's a great experience. But it's a publicity stunt.

As I mentioned, I liked to do eight miles a day. Most thruhikers do twenty miles a day. I can't see this guy doing more than eight miles a day. That's at least 250 days to complete the AT. Sorry, but Mount Katahdin is closed in November.

Hope he has fun, but I'm not impressed with publicity stunts.

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Well, he's done 30 miles in the Shenandoah area. It doesn't say how long it took him, but he surely can calculate an estimate from that experience. This could be a lifetime project for him doing more bits and pieces. All that travel expense might account for the high price tag. He better have budgeted a couple weeks for the "rocksylvania" section.

 

 

typo arghhh

Edited by edscott
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Since this was posted in the Geocaching Topics forum, once can only assume that he intends to grab a few caches along the way, right?

Geocaches are prohibited along the AT.
Yes, I remember well the thread activity here surrounding that. I was only kidding.

 

In lots of places the trail right of way is only a few feet wide. Although they did over step this distance when the mass extinction occurred, there has been some regeneration of caches within a reasonable reach of the trail. It also appears that the level of the determination to eradicate caches varied from region to region along the trail. It isn't a power trail, but I suspect a person could get several hundred without getting way off the trail.

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