A little Appalachian Inspiration.

We've been muckrackin' and proselytizin' quite a bit lately at The Real Fitness Nerd, so today I'm gonna hit you with a little good, old-fashioned stoke.

Check out Mike Hanson. This month he's going to do the 2174 mile Appalachian Trial solo. In any other circumstance, I'd just issue a big "BFD" and be done with it, but what makes Mike's journey special is that he's blind.

From ScrippsNews:

More than 11,000 people have completed the trail, but only three or four were blind, said Laurie Potteiger of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. One was Bill Irwin, author of "Blind Courage," who did it in 1990 with a guide dog.

Steep, rugged terrain, strong winds, split-log bridges and changing elevation make hiking the Appalachian Trail a trial, Potteiger said. Veteran hikers commenting on a trail Web site are skeptical that GPS will give Hanson all of the information he needs, she said.

Hanson, 44, is driven to prove that visually impaired people are more competent, capable, independent and employable than is generally assumed. He arranged for his trek to be filmed as a documentary by Gary Steffens, of Fresh Image Video Productions in Mound, Minn. Steffens and Hanson met through a mutual friend.

So Steffens will be following Hanson, but Mike is leading the way. If he gets lost, Gary gets lost too.

I haven't talked about this too much on the blog, but I recently discovered that a nagging back pain was actually a stress-fractured L5 vertebrae. (I'll write more about it eventually.) I'd be lying if I said the injury and the resulting treatment, which includes severally curbing exercise, hasn't thrown me into an emotional tailspin. But the thing is, in theory, my back will heal. Mike Hanson will always be blind and he's not letting that get in the way of, well, anything. Cool guy. Cooler challenge.

Go get 'em, Mike!