Rescuers Find Blind Hiker Who Vanished From Appalachian Trail in Good Condition (he lit brush fire)

Fox News / AP ^ | May 3, 2009

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

"Making a note to self to spend Stoat Vacation Dollars in places other than Ann Arbor"

About the only reason to go to Ann Arbor is to watch the Spartans make the Wolverines cry like the sissy girls they are. :)

[Stoat]

There was a blind man who sailed across the Atlantic (I think) by himself, too. It’s an ideological statement. There’s no reason they couldn’t have taken someone else along. From the article, I get the impression this hiker was simply bullheaded, and felt he was proving something by going alone.

It's all fine when disabled people can overcome their disabilities, but when it comes to placing themselves in the obvious path of catastrophe, the political machinery cranks up into high gear to make sure that nothing interferes with their goal of placing themselves and others at extreme risk.

In so doing, search and rescue efforts like this and so many others are undertaken which are all incredibly expensive as well as serving to pull hundredsof people out of their jobs and causing them to place their own lives on the line, all because it's become politically -incorrect to say "Um, no, you shouldn't do that" to anyone who is disabled.

Well, one hesitates to say, “Let him die alone, then,” but it’s a strong temptation.

I share the temptation.

There was a blind man who sailed across the Atlantic (I think) by himself, too. It’s an ideological statement. There’s no reason they couldn’t have taken someone else along. From the article, I get the impression this hiker was simply bullheaded, and felt he was proving something by going alone.

It's all fine when disabled people can overcome their disabilities, but when it comes to placing themselves in the obvious path of catastrophe, the political machinery cranks up into high gear to make sure that nothing interferes with their goal of placing themselves and others at extreme risk.

In so doing, search and rescue efforts like this and so many others are undertaken which are all incredibly expensive as well as serving to pull hundredsof people out of their jobs and causing them to place their own lives on the line, all because it's become politically -incorrect to say "Um, no, you shouldn't do that" to anyone who is disabled.

Well, one hesitates to say, “Let him die alone, then,” but it’s a strong temptation.

[Stoat]

"Making a note to self to spend Stoat Vacation Dollars in places other than Ann Arbor"

About the only reason to go to Ann Arbor is to watch the Spartans make the Wolverines cry like the sissy girls they are. :)
 

ROTFLMAO!!!

"Making a note to self to spend Stoat Vacation Dollars in places other than Ann Arbor"

About the only reason to go to Ann Arbor is to watch the Spartans make the Wolverines cry like the sissy girls they are. :)
 

[Slings and Arrows]

Eggeman said Knight's visual impairment likely played a role in his disappearance.

A proud graduate of the Barney Fife School of Criminology.

[Tax-chick]

make sure that nothing interferes with their goal of placing themselves and others at extreme risk

Well, that's the key, from an outsider standpoint. If it were just himself getting lost and killed, that would be sad, in a "too bad he wanted to die" sorta way. However, it turns out to be a huge effort and expense, putting others lives at risk, to save this putz from himself.

Of course, it's not just blind people who do this. A lot of rescue situations would have been avoided if the rescu-ees had used common sense.

[Stoat]

Eggeman said Knight's visual impairment likely played a role in his disappearance

Obviously Eggeman stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.....

LMAO!  Taking his cue from Ray Charles  :-)

It seems that Ray (RIP) had far more common sense than this bullheaded oaf. 

Eggeman said Knight's visual impairment likely played a role in his disappearance

Obviously Eggeman stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.....

[MinuteGal]

Mr. Knight obviously needs a different pastime, like trying out for NASCAR racing.

Leni

[Inyo-Mono]

The entire concept of common sense is thusly rendered a non-starter and this individual who caused so much panic, monumental expense and hazard (rescue workers and firefighters get injured or killed on occasion, you know) now feels nothing but smugness in that he 'increased public awareness' of Blind Hiking and "demonstrated the need for clearer wilderness path markers" throughout the underbrush of the world.

You nailed it! Watch for markers and guide ropes along trails everywhere.

[Stoat]

I'm all for people meeting and crashing through any limitations presented by their disabilities. But a blind person hiking the AT? That's just wrong.

You are demonstrating Insensitivity To The Disabled Public, and as such you have been selected for 'participation' in the Diversity Gulag. 

 

"That boy's mind ain't right"

 

Parts of the AT run just a few miles from my house -- and sighted people have difficulty with these rocky (often steep; sometimes muddy) sections.

But it's perfectly fine for bullheaded blind people though.  "rolling eyes"

Oh, and it also helps to be able to keep an eye out for bears -- this area is Bear Central in New Jersey....
 

I wasn't aware of that.  I love the internet!  I'm guessing that from a bear's perspective, "Blind Hiker" most likely tastes quite similar to "Sighted Hiker" but is far less problematic to catch and is equally nutritious.

I'm all for people meeting and crashing through any limitations presented by their disabilities. But a blind person hiking the AT? That's just wrong.

You are demonstrating Insensitivity To The Disabled Public, and as such you have been selected for 'participation' in the Diversity Gulag. 

 

"That boy's mind ain't right"

 

Parts of the AT run just a few miles from my house -- and sighted people have difficulty with these rocky (often steep; sometimes muddy) sections.

But it's perfectly fine for bullheaded blind people though.  "rolling eyes"

Oh, and it also helps to be able to keep an eye out for bears -- this area is Bear Central in New Jersey....
 

[Moose4]

I know the rough area this happened in (I grew up about 30 miles east), and the article’s not kidding. We’re not exactly talking the Rockies here, but the area around Punchbowl Mountain is pretty rugged.

I used to help provide amateur radio logistic support for an event called the Mountain Masochist Trail Run every fall; it’s a 50-mile “ultra-marathon” that’s run from the James River Visitor’s Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway at US 501 all the way north to Montebello, VA. Looking at a Google map, I think the course ran right by where he was found; it didn’t use the AT itself, I don’t think, but it used other county roads, Forest Service roads, and hiking trails that ran very close to it.

}:-)4