Ken Knight is Missing

My friend and college classmate and roommate Ken Knight, age 41, is missing in Virginia. Here is a very recent photograph (click on it for a larger version):


The device he is holding is his digital audio recorder. He also frequently traveled with a video camera.

He was hiking a stretch of the Appalachian Trail and was last heard from via Twitter on the morning of the April 26th (Sunday) when he posted a 12-second video clip.

His Twitter page is here.

There is an active search going on; the Chicago Tribune has reported the story, and the AP wire has picked it up.

Here is the story from a Lynchburg, VA newspaper.

Ken is legally blind and suffers from epilepsy, although the illness has been mostly controlled over the 24 years or so that I've known him. Despite his visual impairment, he has been a very avid backpacker and hiker and has hiked all over the world. He is a contributing editor for Backpacking Light magazine and a regular volunteer at The Ark. He lives on the Old West Side of Ann Arbor.

Ken has a home page here, a blog here and the latest episode of his podcast can be found here.

Ken is a good and longtime friend of mine and I am extremely concerned. My thoughts are also with his family; one of the news sources reports that his parents have joined the search effort.