Hello Hikers. My trail name is Ram Sham and I work with a Deafblind (profoundly deaf and legally blind) AT hiker named Cane. I am his sighted guide. He has Usher's Syndrom which is responsible for his deafness/blindess and in addition to his unsteadily balance. We logged in at least 1,900 miles under our belt for past 3 years. His determination to hike and accomplish his AT dream amaze me from time to time. With less than 230 miles left to hike in part of NH and ME, we encounters a serious "trials and tribulations" - Cane is currently struggling with hiking on trail that throws him off balance and fall down at numerous time. He is frustrated and has to get off trail twice. We are staying at Pine Ellis Hiker Lodge in Andover, ME. He is currently re-contemplating his options. We discuss for a long time and decide to post something here at request of our fellow AT hikers (special thanks to Crabapple, Ilene T. and David R. of Pine Ellis Hiker Lodge) to see what our AT community may offer to us.
Here is a couple of options that we came up so far:
1) find someone to carry most of Cane's gears to allow Cane to concentrate on his hiking and maintain his balance without having his backpack weight throws him off-balance (porter or sherpa)
2) find someone who is available to help us with ride arrangement and knows the local services/resources very well and able to communicate via text
Please feel free to offer any ideas or suggestions either here or via email. To give up pursuing his dream is last thing Cane wants to consider. If you want some background information on Cane's AT journey, we have the blog: http://atdeafblinddream.wordpress.com