This is completely un-related to my work as a Backpacking LIght staffer.

Some of you know me. A smaller number know that last May I took part in the 29th Great Outdoors Challenge. That event is serving as the impetus for me to finally get the Wandering Knight Podcast going. This is a podcast that will focus on things I have done but will not, I hope, be exclusively about me. I hope, and with the help of listeners out there feel I will succeed, to get other people involved. What makes this podcast different from other travel-based podcasts is that I, as some of you know, am legally blind.

To subscribe to the podcast follow this link to subscribe to it in iTunes. You can also check out the podcast's web site.

** Ken **

Hi Ken - Just subscribed.. Looking forward to following along with your podcast. Brian

Hope I can ask some questions...

1. What is Ken's visual acuity?
2. You travel alone alot huh? Do you wear glasses or contacts?
3. Do you carry extra pairs of corrective lens? How many?

I really should answer these in a future podcast instead of here since many won't see the response.

Glasses are of no use to me. My problem is not with the lens; it is with the retina. Furthermore, I only have one eye and the vision in that eye is quite limited.

It's difficult to explain the difference. I snuggle up to my computer screen to read text. I snuggle up with a book to read it. To read a map I have to work from close-in to far-away. I can't absorb the whole map like a normal sighted person can. I am far less likely to spot the trail a few dozen feet away from me if I have lost it in a boggy bit. It's pretty much an article of faith with me that their is a large "E" on top of the eye chart. But I do a lot of travel both with friends and solo and am still around to tell the tales.

I frequently say that I have gotten temporarily misplaced numerous times but only lost a couple. Even on a couple cruddy days of the Challenge last year I wasn't ever lost but was going very slowly through places like Heatheryhaugh. I get through but far far slower than a hiker with normal vision who can easily take in a larger vista and see where the best route lies.

At some time in the future I'll devote a podcast to issues of navigation. Not exactly sure how it'll play out since I would rather it not merely be a monologue which would get boring to listen too after a while (I'll happily take suggestions).

By the way, while I don't mind answering questions here it's perhaps best from the podcast's point of view if they be asked on the site devoted to the podcast which you can find here.

** Ken **

Thanks Ken. Tell that Andy Mytys he should be hanging out over here on BPL sometimes!

John, How do you know Andy? Or am I being dense and just not recognizing your name.

Andy is so busy with work these days he barely has time for local groups like GreatLakesHikes over on Yahoo. He has been in a posting draught for months now and if you know Andy you know he can write up a storm.

Hmm, guess this means you visited some of my other sites since the podcast certainly does not mention ANdy (though future ones could).

** Ken **

Ah, yes, the old Backpackinglight yahoo group. I've not posted or read there in quite a few years. It was getting too large for me to keep up with and I felt as though I was answering the same question over and over again. I'm sure it's still a useful resource I just got overwhelmed.

Edited by kenknight on 09/23/2008 09:40:42 MDT.

Hmm, looks like somehow John's response got overwritten sort of by mine or something odd happened. Suffice it to say that I didn't mean to explode what John wrote. Not sure what happened here.