Ken Knight Missing on Appalachian Trail

[freefall]

Yes I do.

In fact, you can see one of the hikes I made last week here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...HzKtqhP5XpPu7f

It shows up best if you use the "Hybrid" view.

Ignore the last few tracks. I forgot to turn the spot off when I came off of Mt. Wrightson.

Cool. I've heard mixed reviews about the SPOT.

Have you used it in thick forest settings yet? That is the complaint I have heard- it does not work in thick canopy.

[River Runner]

Great news that Ken has been found!

[Tin Man]

especially mr. knight. in the future maybe he won't be so hard headed about hiking alone

pretty much what i was thinking. it might be interesting to hear what he has to say about his ordeal and lessons learned

[Frau]

GLAD he is alive but very sad at the tremendous expense brought on by all this. Virginia should NOT have to pay for fierce independence: an airplane aloft and catered meals for 150 for two days (mentioning only 2 small aspects of this)?

This could have been avoided.

Frau (her usual curmedgeony self)

[Lone Wolf]

Frau (her usual curmedgeony self)

no. what you say is the damn truth.

[MintakaCat]

With that said, how many hikers that you know, carry the 10 essentials every time they go out?
1. Map
2. Compass (optionally supplemented with a GPS receiver)
3. Sunglasses and sunscreen
4. Extra food and water
5. Extra clothes
6. Headlamp/flashlight
7. First aid kit
8. Fire starter
9. Matches
10. Knife

In just the short time since I got back into hiking, it's amazing to me how many hikers I meet who can't read a map, and it's their map!

I meet a couple on the Chattooga River back in March that had a book with maps and everything and had no clue where they were going. When they asked me for directions, I showed them in the book where they were.

They had hiked 2 miles in the wrong direction thinking that the book had a typo and that the trail was really on the side of the river they were on.

They then blamed the book for not being clear enough

After I finished talking to them they took off in the wrong direction! I was not far from where I setup camp so I figured I would wait for them to come back or they would make the additional 2.5 mile hike to the highway. They never came back.

It's one thing to carry a map, but can the hiker understand it? I'm not saying that this guy they found in VA can't read a map. What I am saying is that I'm surprised hikers don't get lost more often, judging from a few that I have meet just within the past few months.

[Engine]

Second guessing Ken is easy to do, but to be completely honest I would burn all of SNP if it meant getting out alive. Only about 20% of people lost in wilderness come out alive (true survival instinct is a rare thing) and Ken did, as a result of his decision to create a fire. The survival instinct often becomes a requirement after earlier poor decisions but come on, how many of us have made those same dumb decisions only ours didn't come back to bite us?

As for it being "true wilderness", I'll bet the nature of the woods changes a lot when you are seriously visually impared.

[Lone Wolf]

he wasn't "lost" in the wilderness

[Engine]

he wasn't "lost" in the wilderness

Re read my post and maybe you'll actually note my reference to his blindness actually changing what wilderness would be for him. I am not defending his actions leading up to the point of being lost as they were definitely a mistake, but I'm just pointing out that the definition of wilderness might be a bit flexible depending on the hiker.

[WalkingStick75]

Interesting how this thread turned to "if he had carried Spot". Here we have an editor for backpackerlight.com and he gets lost in Va, either did not carry a map and compass or did not know how to use them and then starts a forest fire. Possibly a backcountry class is needed. Signal fires produce smoke but do not have to be huge fires.

[Bad Co]

Set a fire or die what would you do , what would you want your kids, or loved ones to do
I'm with Engine on this

[TrippinBTM]

For reasons I cannot fathom, I just received a phone call from the Ann Arbor (Michigan) newspaper about this. Asked "Is it dangerous to hike the AT" and "Are there many bears and such things," my response was, "No, it is not dangerous. But it can be dangerous to hike it." There will be much hysteria on this; let's just hope this guy is hunkered down somewhere. I was told that the NPS was involved in the search.

The Weasel

Are you Russ E. Boltz? If so, you were quoted:
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/...ng_on_app.html

[Pedaling Fool]

This has been great publicity

[Homer&Marje]

Great to hear everything turned out fine. Don't know him but Ken seems like a stand up guy that puts everything into not being a blind hiker, but just a hiker.

With that in mind...some more precautions could have been heeded to

[jaywalke]

especially mr. knight. in the future maybe he won't be so hard headed about hiking alone

So, should people with heart conditions also carry a SPOT/EPIRB or never hike alone again? If they disappeared (which can happen within 100' of the trail), people would come looking for them whether they asked them to or not, and in the process spend taxpayer dollars.

I've hiked with Ken in the past, and I was out there on the search Friday and Saturday. I left base just in time to miss the good news. He's a cantankerous individual, but he is also very tough and resourceful. He made a lot of dumb mistakes, but did the main things correctly: hunker down and attract attention. While SAR would have found him eventually, it was his own actions that led to his rescue.

In the past when I've hiked with him, he also got lost. Then he figured it out, got himself un-lost and beat me to camp. By the time I got there, he was coming back out to look for me. If you want to bar Ken from the woods, you also need to keep everyone with a poor sense of direction home.

I'm as pissed at him as anyone. You have to get in line to kick his ass, and I'll be bringing a staple gun and EPIRB to permanently attach it to him . . . however, this incident also made me look in the mirror. My brother wanted buy me a SPOT for x-mas, and I said, "No, I don't need that." All it would take, however, would be a bad fall out of sight of the trail, and I could be the focus of all these news stories.

Those first stones are heavy, and it's hard to cast them accurately. Sometimes they act like boomerangs.

[modiyooch]

GLAD he is alive but very sad at the tremendous expense brought on by all this. Virginia should NOT have to pay for fierce independence: an airplane aloft and catered meals for 150 for two days (mentioning only 2 small aspects of this)?

This could have been avoided.

Frau (her usual curmedgeony self)

it happens. there's many a hiker that gets pulled out of the gsnp during snow storms in the winter because they insist on winter hiking. And then there are many accomplished winter hikers that don't need to be pulled out during the snow storm I for one don't want someone making that decision for me. I went up and over Mt Washington in the snow in aug against 100% advice not to do so. I am so VERY glad that I was able to consider their concerns, but make my own educated decision. Once the snow cleared, it was picture perfect and an awesome experience.

As far a being found a mile from the road, there have been alot of tragedies where the victim was found near safety. I'm glad that all is well, and we can all count our blessings.

[warraghiyagey]

Just came across twitter Ken has been found alive and well

...

Sweet news! . . . .

[Mr. Magoo]

Wonderful news, indeed!

I would quickly add, however, that Mr. Knight do some self-reflection on how he hikes in the future and what skills he needs to sharpen.

[Lone Wolf]

Set a fire or die what would you do , what would you want your kids, or loved ones to do

if i were damn near blind i would have someone hiking in close proximity to me. ego be damned

[tommangan]

Just to reiterate for the second-guessers: He knew he was lost most likely sometime on Sunday. He was lost all that day and did not signal for help. And all day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday -- at which point he probably had not eaten in a few days and finally gave in.

I don't know the guy and have no idea how he navigates, but this is what I surmise: much like a pilot flying on instruments, he uses what he can see up close: map and compass, plus dead reckoning as to whether he's on the main trail based on what he can see in the area around his feet.

I'm a slow hiker but otherwise able-bodied... when I'm in a group where one of the organizers insists on having somebody sweep, this person inevitably walks about two paces behind me, which drives me nuts. And I can see just fine.

Suggesting that he take a minder along next time is the kind of thing that only makes sense from the distance provided by a computer screen.