Blind hiker and his dog are thru hiking the CT

That's wonderful; I'm only sorry he'll miss some of those great views (but he'll get the smells, and sounds, and "feelings" of the hike, which will be great!).

Last year, on the JMT, we hiked for a few days with a young, 3rd-generation deaf woman, who was hiking alone — very cool gal, very courageous, strong as hell, too (I lifted her pack!). Because she lived in a "deaf bubble" (her words), she couldn't lip read, so we communicated by passing a notebook/pen back and forth rapidly. She rocked it!

Cool story. Thanks for posting it. I read his website. It's amazing the trails he has conquered.

I wonder if the dog is trained to find good camping spots, lead him to water sources, things like that? Seems like the dog would need some wilderness specific skills.

I don't know. That's the first thing I thought about as well. How do you find a camp site? On this trip I think he has someone with him. Not sure what he did on the AT. I'd guess that the dog is really trail trained and savvy. Pretty tough to teach the rest. But it would be really cool if it was: "That spot over there looks like a possibility. It's a little close to the stream. A bit of a depression. Lots of grass. Let's keep going." :)

I bet that dog is smart enough to know a decent camp site. He could tell by the food smells left behind by other previous people. Or he can probably tell because I'm sure dogs get tired and know that if the tent will fit he'll get to sleep inside.

What I wonder is does he have a compass or some kind of navigation device that he can feel or that speaks to him?