Appalachian Trail News
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
Two Appalachian Trail news items of interest this week:
Mike Caetano of Pensacola, FL is hoping to become the oldest person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail and he’s already on his way into the record books. The 86-year-old man started his hike this spring and hopes to complete the journey in November. Caetano is planning a “flip-flop” hike where he’ll skip some southern sections of the trail this summer and will return to them in the fall to complete the hike. This is not Caetano’s first time on the trail as he’s “section-hiked” the entire Appalachian trail in the past. The current record holder, 81-year-old Lee Barry, completed his thru-hike in 2004. We’ll try to keep you posted on Caetano’s progress as we hear more…
A legally blind hiker was rescued after becoming lost on the Appalachian Trail last week where he spent 6 days alone in Amherst County, VA. Ken Knight became separated from his group while hiking on the trail and it took rescuers three days of searching to locate the man (he wasn’t reported missing until three days after he disappeared). After lighting a signal fire that turned into a 2-acre brush fire, Knight was found by rescuers mostly unharmed.
Knight says he’ll consider hiking with a satellite beacon or a cell phone next time but points out that the most important things hikers should bring along are survival skills. Technology can fail he says and survival skills may be the only thing that keep you alive until help arrives. Amen to that.


