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Blind Hiker Reflects on His Finish in Maine of Grueling Appalachian Trail.

December 10, 2008 - "Everyone has to do their own hike in their own way."

So said Maine's Bill Irwin, the outdoorsman from Sebec who became the first blind hiker to complete the 2,170-mile Appalachian Trail in 1991 with the help of only his Seeing Eye dog, Orient.

This fall, another blind hiker, Trevor Thomas, completed that journey (with the help of dozens of hikers), proving once again that "The Trail" gives faith to many, but almost everyone finds it in their own way.

"I started just to prove to me that my world was not getting smaller," said Thomas of Charlotte, N.C. "My goal when I started was just to see if I could make two days, then three. The greatest thing is, I turned into an ambassador for the blind."

Since the Appalachain Trail opened in 1937, few detailed records have been kept on those who finish, let alone those who do so with a substantial disability, said Laurie Potteiger, spokeswoman with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

"Reporting the trail is on the honor system. We don't verify," Potteiger said.

But Potteiger said four other hikers who are blind reported completing the trail, although little is known about them.

Irwin and Thomas stand out, she said: both seemed to travel with a purpose.

"Bill was not only the first, he was very charismatic. He is a wonderful storyteller. He had a dog. There was a lot of publicity on him," Potteiger said. "Trevor seems like someone who has something pretty deep to say."

'ZERO/ZERO' DOESN'T GIVE UP

Thomas, a former extreme mountain biker and back-country skier who started losing his vision five years ago, said what made his condition hard to accept was that doctors didn't have a name for it.

"The thing that really annoyed me -- and annoys me to this day -- they had never seen it before; they don't know how to cure it," said Thomas, 39, whose trail name was "Zero/Zero" for his vision impairment.

Probably Thomas' best omen was that on Day One, he didn't give up.

"I got to Springer Mountain and the guy I was going with walked out on me," he said. "And I thought, 'Well, I have invested the last year and a half of my life getting ready for this, I'm going to go anyway.' I started asking hikers if I could follow them. The first 20 to 24 people said no. I almost gave up, then I heard two more people coming, and asked."

A college student who was in a hurry volunteered, but only hiked the first few hundred miles with Thomas. After that, Thomas would ask other hikers until he found a group he could follow, using two trekking poles to maintain his balance.

Kevin Rondeau of Fairfield, Conn., said he helped because he was stunned Thomas was going to attempt the trail.

"He does very well. The first week was incredible. He taught me a lot. I thought the fact he was out there was really inspiring; if this guy is out there, I can't give up," Rondeau said. "He said he is 90 percent blind. He could see the red blur of my backpack. He also listened to my feet. We got into a rhythm where he would know exactly what I was doing."

Hikers came and went, but like many thru-hikers, Thomas experienced later the joy of reconnecting with hikers he had met only a few months earlier.

"All the way from Vermont to the summit, on and off, there would be 10 of us. It was really neat to be back in that bubble with people I hadn't seen for 1,000 miles. It was like a family reunion," he said.

A SHARED EXPERIENCE

Irwin can relate. "It reinstated my faith -- not only with a deeper faith in God, but also the human race, because I met a lot of wonderful people, like Trevor (did), who were perfectly willing to help me," said Irwin, whose book on the journey, "Blind Courage," became a best-seller.

Irwin became so accustomed to navigating the boulders and mountains of the trail -- mostly on the shoulder of his German shepherd, Orient -- that he preferred to hike alone. Which, for the famous hiker, was often a problem.

His unlikely journey thrust him into the international spotlight when he appeared on CNN and in national newspapers. He'd roll into a small town and find 20 reporters waiting.

"Probably better than 95 percent of the time, I was helped by Orient. I calculated it, and I hiked with people 15 percent of the time. Most were my family. I wouldn't hike with anyone else. I had to focus on Orient. When people got too close, they would distract me and I would begin to fall and get hurt," Irwin said.

Yet Irwin, who mostly relied on people only at road crossings, never underestimated their importance.

In that, he and Thomas shared the same experience.

FINALLY, THE FINISH

The hardest part of the journey, Thomas said, was finding his way around grocery stores to resupply. Others would need to shop for him.

Even Maine's Mahoosuc Notch -- considered by many, including Thomas, the toughest stretch on the AT -- he navigated well with help.

"I met these three people at a shelter. They had heard of me. They said, 'Zero, come with us. You are going to die. You will never make it. And nobody will find the body,' " he said.

The most dramatic part of Thomas' odyssey, without a doubt, was the finish. When he arrived at Baxter State Park, Mount Katahdin had been closed for days. Incredibly, that meant he was able to finish with most of the friends he made on the trail.

"The mountain had been closed five days due to snow and ice at the top," said Baxter State Park ranger Bruce White. "We didn't open it again until (Oct. 8). According to the register, there were 70 thru-hikers who had piled up. When we opened it on the 8th, it was like the floodgates opened."

While Baxter State Park keeps data on seasonal trail use, it does not keep daily records.

But White, the ranger at Katahdin Stream Campground, said the number of thru-hikers that day was exceptional, if not a record.

"It was very gratifying," Thomas said. "But the biggest thing I took away was, it renewed my faith in humanity."

By DEIRDRE FLEMING Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, December 4, 2008


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