Visually impaired hiking editor missing on Appalachian trail

More than 100 people searched today for a visually impaired hiking magazine editor who went missing along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.

Kenneth Knight, 41 of Ann Arbor, Mich., was last seen at the shelter on Punchbowl Mountain near Buena Vista on Sunday morning, said Randy Sutton, a spokesman for the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Knight was hiking a more than 60-mile section of the trail near the parkway with six friends and failed to meet up with them Tuesday, Sutton said. When he missed his flight home to Michigan on Wednesday, friends reported him missing.

Sutton said the National Park Service conducted a small search for Knight on Thursday. The search expanded to include more than 110 people, canine and horseback units and air patrol today.

Knight was an editor for Backpacking Light magazine and an experienced hiker, colleagues and authorities said.

Ryan Jordan, chief executive officer of Backpacking Light who was helping search for Knight, posted an update Thursday evening that said Knight regularly blogged via his cellular phone when he had service and that the last entry was about 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

The entry is a 12-second video including the picturesque mountains and a camp site.

Jordan wrote that Knight reported not feeling well and suggested he might go off trail.

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

Sam Haraldson, an employee at the magazine, said via e-mail that Knight had worked at the magazine since 2004 and documented his hiking on his Web site, wanderingknight.org.

The group started its hike April 22 and planned to take about a week to hike from milepost 13.1 south to mile post 76.3. Knight was last seen close to the midway point of the hike, and he didn’t meet up with them Tuesday at the finish point near the parkway.

Sutton said the friends would hike separately and then meet up at certain points. Because of Knight’s visual impairment, Sutton said he was accustomed to hiking slower and alone. Sutton said Knight had hiked that portion of the trail before.

The weather was comfortable and “survivable,“ Sutton said, with cool nights but nowhere close to freezing. The biggest problem was the large area that needed to be searched, he said.

“It’s such a long stretch. We’re talking five counties here,“ Sutton said.

Sutton said searchers had found no clues from the trail or from interviews of other hikers and that search dogs had not picked up on anything helpful.

The search was planned to last into the night and continue this morning, Sutton said.