*** URGENT ***

Backpacking Light editor KEN KNIGHT is missing after a hike on the Applachian Trail in Virginia.

If you saw Ken or otherwise know of his whereabouts after Sunday morning, please contact us at the following email address:

PUBLISHER@BACKPACKINGLIGHT.COM

About Ken

Ken is 5′4″ tall and approx. 180-200 lb. He is vision impaired, has dark hair, and is probably using a dry bag-style pack with an orange packbag.

Ken is an experienced AT hiker but his vision impairment may have caused him to lose the trail.

Point Last Seen

He was last seen on the AT on Sunday morning, around 9-10am, at Punchbowl Mountain, Blue Ridge Parkway, mile 51.7, in the area of Buchanan and Bedford, Virginia.

He’d been trailing behind a group and meeting up with them at their camp sites. On Sunday, he reported not feeling well and suggested he might go off the trail. The group did not see him since leaving Punchbowl Mountain on Sunday.

He was anticipated to reach mile 76.3 on Tuesday, which the rest of the group did. To date, he has not arrived, and he has missed his flight back home to Michigan Wednesday night.

Ken regularly blogs via iPhone when he has cellular coverage. His last known blog entry was Sunday morning, April 26, at 6:36 AM Eastern:

http://twitter.com/kenknight

Search in Progress

Ken’s family has been notified, and a search is currently in progress by NPS and VA State SAR.

Non-agency SAR and other volunteers interested in assisting with this search should contact us at publisher@backpackinglight.com, who is coordinating the efforts of outside volunteers with the SAR Coordinator on location. Please send your name, cellular phone number, and distance from SNP in your message, and then wait for further instructions.

Please Distribute This Info

Please distribute a link to this post as wide as possible via this tinyurl link via Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking avenues. Please copy and paste this exact text to retweet this info on Twitter etc.:

EMERGENCY @KENKNIGHT (KEN KNIGHT) MISSING ON A.T. IN VA: http://tinyurl.com/ded5tt INFO? EMAIL PUBLISHER@BACKPACKINGLIGHT.COM RT @BIGSKYRY

I am in contact with the NPS Ranger and the VA State SAR, the agencies responsible for the search and will relay info promptly them.

Best Regards, Ryan Jordan CEO Backpacking Light

View from PCT in SoCal

While out on the Pacific Crest Trail for a weekend day hike with my dad, I was reminded of a press release I saw on Backpackinglight.com.  The press release announced how Backpacking Light (BPL) and OHV/ORV groups were working together to preserve wilderness.

It seemed counterintuitive at first glance.  Howard Zahniser, in the Wilderness Act of 1964, defines wilderness as “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”   I know when I enter a Wilderness Area, as declared by an act of government, I am not allowed to have mechanized or motorized vehicles.  So why on earth would an OHV/ORV group work to preserve wilderness?

What I learned is that the groups involved are looking for win-win solutions for OHV users and hikers/backpackers alike.  One example of such a win-win solution is aiming for zero emission OHV’s that are noiseless. 

Incase you are wondering what sparked these thoughts out on the trail, well it was a Saturday and people were out enjoying their weekend…I was looking for a quiet trail, which I got for most of the day, they were looking for tread for their non-noiseless OHV’s. 

Photo Courtesy of Bony and Bono

I have been writing a short book about life lessons I’ve learned from backpacking.  I have also given slideshow presentations on my lessons to middle school students.  I thought I would take excerpts from my “book” (I use that term very loosely) and post them here since, this is a blog about the outdoors.  So with out further ado here is the excerpt from…

 

 

 

 

Chapter 4, Lesson 4

Now here is where the fun begins, with lesson 4.  You’ve done your dreaming, you’ve dealt with the naysayers and the crazy talk, and you’ve done your planning.  Now is the time for doing. 

Once you start down the action path, the physical act of working towards your goal, be aware that things don’t usually go as planned.  In our idealistic planning stage (lesson 3) things typically get scripted for how they can be executed perfectly.  That’s all well and good but let’s be honest, things happen.  In this case you are left to rely on your best asset, you.  This is where your brain power and your preparation come in to play.  With quick thinking, creativity and flexibility, you can overcome obstacles that appear in your way. 

Case in point, on the Pacific Crest Trail, one of the most highly anticipated sections of the trail is the High Sierra.  It is a couple hundred miles of high altitude, fairly remote hiking.  In fact, there are a 100+ miles of trail where you don’t even cross a road.  So you need to have a plan, you need to be prepared but you also need to be ready to deal with obstacles as they come up.

When I was getting ready to enter the High Sierra, I got food poisoning.  It knocked me on my butt for a few days and put me behind schedule.  No problem, I adjusted my schedule.  That’s an easy obstacle to over come.  However, in the week and a half to follow, I fell off a high mountain pass, lit my tent on fire, was bitten by a dog and almost drowned crossing a river.  Yeah, it was a heck of a week. 

Now anyone of these things could really put a damper on my trip, even possibly ended my trip (death is usually a trip ender).  However, by thinking fast, being creative and flexible, I over came all of these obstacles and still made it to Canada.

So how did I overcome these obstacles you ask?  You are curious as to how I got myself out of these messes?  Well, briefly here is the low down.  Falling off a high mountain pass was pretty unnerving.  I was climbing up Forrester Pass, the highest point on the Pacific Crest Trail, and I was transitioning from snow to rock and one of the rocks gave way and sent me plummeting to what I was sure was going to be serious injury but I stayed calm and divine intervention took hold, a rock appeared and I landed my butt right on it, stopping my fall.  Now you ask, how does that apply to quick thinking, creativity and flexibility?  Well, I think the big lesson for me was to slow down, don’t stick to my schedule, be flexible with it and you won’t get yourself in to such jams.

Lighting my tent on fire was pretty funny (now that I reflect back on it).  I was camped with 2 friends at the base of Mather Pass and we were getting up very early, 4 AM, to climb the pass while the snow was still hard so we could use our crampons to get up and over before the snow turned to mush and we’d be post-holing the whole day.  Now for reasons of full disclosure I should mention that I am not a morning person.  I was using my tent as a ground sheet since it was a beautiful night and I wanted to sleep under the stars.  In the morning I rolled on my stomach to heat some water for morning oatmeal.  I had my stove on the ground, past the edge of my tent so that I could cook on my elbows from the comfort of my sleeping bag.  Well, unbeknownst to me, I dragged and dropped the guy lines of my tent over my stove.  I didn’t realize it until they were burnt all the way through.  But after a few expletives, I realized I could field repair it without compromising the effectiveness of the tent and life was good again.

The dog bite was an interesting situation.  My friends, Nightingale and Bono and I were hiking out a side trail to pick up more food.  We had to hike 9 miles off the Pacific Crest Trail, to get to a road to get to a town to get to more food.  En route, someone’s dog came up to me and bit me on the leg.  I was pretty angry with the situation.  I mean I am hiking from Mexico to Canada and I need my leg.  It was a small bite but drew blood and left a small scar.  We had to be flexible with our schedule and decided to take a day off in town to make sure it stayed clean and started to heal without infection before we got back on the trail.  By making this simple schedule change we averted what could have been an infected leg.  Simple really. 

Now here is the biggie.  This is the only time I actually felt like my life was in danger.  Not everyone has one of these moments during their quest to reach their goal, and I honestly hope it doesn’t happen to you but it did to me.  I had to cross a pretty big river, we found what seemed to be a slower, better option for crossing.  Bono, being the tall guy went first and shuttled Nightingale’s pack and then my pack across for us.  Nightingale crossed next and made it with no trouble.  Then it was my turn.

I hate being wet, I think it’s from years of springboard diving and always being wet.  I hate it now.  I wasn’t looking forward to crossing the stream and getting wet but I went for it.  It turns out that somehow, I walked into a big hole in the stream bed and my feet no longer were touching the bottom of the river.  My head was under, the water was snow melt and I was an active drowning victim.  The frigid temperature of the water took what little breath I had, away.  Things were not looking good.  Finally, I got a hold of myself and managed to get myself pointed over toward the bank and let the river current push me there as I kicked and paddled.  I managed to beach myself on the shore like a whale, soaking in the warm sunshine as I lay there, replaying the last few moments in my head.  Scary moments but staying calm and thinking fast had probably saved my life.

Now all these crazy stories happened in a short span of time and I managed to overcome these obstacles and I still made it to Canada.  Other obstacles popped up along the way, but none in such rapid fire succession. 

So remember this: Obstacles will come up, but with quick thinking, creativity and flexibility you can overcome them. 

Fireweed

Wild Flowers:  Fireweed

During the summer of 2008, I had the opportunity to do high elevation trail maintenance in Colorado.  I was enthralled by the wildflowers.  I thought I would highlight some of my favorites, one at a time, so that you could learn a bit about each one.  The information comes from both my experiences and the book “Guide to Colorado Wildflowers” by G.K. Guennel.  I really found this book helpful in unmasking the identities of these beautiful flowers.  I took the pictures; they don’t do the flowers justice.  If you think my picture is good, go out and see them in person, it’s a hundred times better.  Happy Trails!

Fireweed, also known as Willowweed, Willowherb, or Blooming Sally, is a member of the Evening Primrose Family.

Flowers are to 1” or more, with 4 roundish, pink to red (or even purplish) petals and 4 linear sepals.  Seed pods are slender, to 3” long and 4-angled. 

To catch a glimpse of Fireweed, check along roads, in burned areas and forest openings, on cleared land, and at the edges of woods.  They can be found from the foothills to the subalpine, so from 6,000 to 11,500 feet in elevation.  Plan to hike, conditions permitting, sometime from June to September.

Chapter 3, Lesson 3

Ok, so here’s the part you’ve probably been waiting for if not since the first post of the book, then at least since the end of chapter 2.  Lesson 3 is critical.  It’s possible that when you were dreaming big you got a little overwhelmed.  You are probably an over achiever, have an extremely high level of self-confidence or are just a heck of a dreamer.  Either way, good for you!  I mean it.  I think it’s great that you have such a big dream.  Not enough people have that big dream and even worse, not enough people recognize that dream and make strides to reach it. 

Now here is where things get a little tricky.  If you have a big dream it’s possible that you are now in a state of paralysis.  You have no idea where to begin.  This state of paralysis happens to many of us.  It’s happened to me in the past and luckily I’ve learned something about it.  Something I want to share with you, hold on…here is the secret.

Walking from Georgia to Maine or from Mexico to Canada is a pretty overwhelming prospect.  Sure it sounds totally doable sitting in the comfort of your living room, freshly showered, eating something recently taken out of the refrigerator.  But if you haven’t prepared yourself, that first night when you are laying out under the stars you are totally overwhelmed by the thought that you still have over 2000 miles left to hike. 

If you are lucky, you’ve already realized that this is going to happen to you.  That thought will enter your mind.  It can make you quit if you haven’t made a plan.  It can drive you mad.  It will toy with your resolve; it will suck the fun right out of your journey.  When I think about my journey, I don’t think about hiking from Georgia to Maine, or Mexico to Canada.  I only have to hike to the next town that has food.  So I only have to walk 4 or so days.  That’s it.

I make these mini goals of just getting to the next town.  I don’t have to worry about getting all the way through the trip.  I only have to get to the next town with food.  If I connect these town stops and I make it to each one, eventually I’ll come to realize that, in the case of the Pacific Crest Trail, the next town stop is…Canada.  Before I know it I have reached my big goal.  I’ve made it to the end.  I have been successful.  I did it.  It’s a great feeling to achieve your big goal but it also feels good to reach the little ones knowing that they add up to the big goal.  

Lesson three simply says:  make little goals, that when added together, reach the big goal.