Blind Adventurer Hikes Entire Appalachian Trail with Help from Strangers

Hiking the entire Appalachian Trail is a major challenge for any outdoors enthusiast—but imagine how tough it must be for a blind man. But against all odds, Trevor Thomas managed to complete the entire hike with help from strangers he met along the way.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on June 22 2009

The Appalachian Trail

Hiking the entirety of the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail that stretches all the way from Georgia to Maine, with its steep, rocky peaks and extreme weather conditions, is a daunting task for any outdoors enthusiast. Many have tried and failed to take on the Trail: out of 50,000 hikers who’ve attempted the feat, only about 8,000 have finished. (Even world traveler/author extraordinaire Bill Bryson had to quit before the end, though he still got a fantastic book out of his adventure.)

The hike is a challenge even for extreme athletes. So last year, when 39-year-old Trevor Thomas of Charlotte, North Carolina, decided to hike the Appalachian Trail, everyone thought he was insane. Since being diagnosed with a rare eye disease in 2004, Thomas has gradually lost his sight. He is now almost completely blind.

Thomas wasn’t prepared to tackle the trail alone, however—he knew he would need a travel buddy to act as lookout, to warn him of the countless ways he might injure himself during the walk. He’d found an acquaintance who was willing to take the trip with him, but on the day of the hike, Thomas waited in a parking lot off the trail for hours. The man never showed. Thomas later found out that he’d tried to call him, but there was no cell phone reception in the trailhead parking lot.

Thomas’ sister tried to persuade him to turn home, but instead, the determined adventurer decided to wait in the lot to ask random strangers if he could tag along with them on the trail. Twenty-three people he asked said no—they were worried about taking on the responsibility of keeping a blind man safe on such a risky journey.

“I couldn’t blame them,” Thomas told the Times Leader. “That was a lot to ask, but I didn’t have a choice.”

Finally, a 25-year-old student named Kevin Rondeau agreed to hike with Thomas. For the first week, Rondeau walked ahead of Thomas, tapping trees and rocks to help the blind hiker avoid them, and helping him to navigate tricky slopes. But Rondeau wasn’t planning to hike the entire trail, and so he left Thomas with another group of hikers who’d agreed to help. When that group had to move on as well, Thomas persevered, finding other hikers who were willing to look out for him.

The long adventure wasn’t easy, to say the least. During the course of his journey, Thomas broke four ribs, fractured his foot, and gashed his head against a rock. One one particularly difficult day, he fell a total of 78 times.

But through it all, Thomas never gave up. And, after months of travelling, he finally climbed the summit of Maine’s Mount Katahdin, with his fellow hikers cheering him on.

Though Thomas wasn’t able to see the beautiful vistas from the top of the mountain, the climb meant as much to him as it did to any other hiker.

“What they don’t understand is, I appreciated the summits in my own way,” he said. “I heard the snow crushed underfoot, felt the wind against my skin, felt the sun on my face and enjoyed the sheer silence of it all.”

And though, initially, others were worried about taking on the responsibility of helping Thomas, he taught them what he was capable of—and in turn, he saw the kindness in them.

“I put my life in the hands of complete strangers over and over again,” he said. “And whenever it seemed the darkest, whenever it seemed the magic had run out, someone would be there.”

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