[at-l] Amputee puts bionic leg to test on Appalachian Trail

[bleederguy at adelphia.net (bleederguy)]

I thought some of you might be interested in this article found in the
Burlington Free Press, Burlington, Vermont.

Beau Bushor
"bleeder guy"


Amputee puts bionic leg to test on Appalachian Trail 

By Duncan Mansfield 
The Associated Press

MORRISTOWN, Tenn. -- A hiker with a battery-powered, bionic leg has set out
to become the first amputee to walk the entire Appalachian Trail, a
2,168-mile trek from Georgia to Maine. 

"I am on my way," Scott Rogers http://www.onelegwonder.com said by telephone
last week from Amicalola Falls State Park in Dawsonville, Ga. 

The morning was cold but the sun was shining and Rogers said he was eager
"to hike as far as I can in one day," but added that his immediate goal was
"just to get through Day One." 

"I have met tons of skeptics, people I don't know," he said, "but people who
know me know that if there is any way possible for me to do it, I am going
to do it." 

The 35-year-old former paramedic from Washburn, Tenn., first talked last
fall about making the seven-month trek with the aid of a high-tech limb
called a "C-Leg." 

The silver and blue prosthetic leg, knee and foot assembly is powered by a
battery, driven by hydraulics and controlled by microprocessors that monitor
his movement 50 times a second to create a natural, stable gate. 

Otto Bock Orthopedic, the leg's German manufacturer, and Hanger Prosthetics
and Orthotics, which fitted the leg, are supporting the hike with a
solar-powered battery recharger and service along the way. 

Rogers' wife, Leisa, will be following from campsite to campsite in a
27-foot motor home with their six children. 

Rogers lost his left leg below the knee in 1998 when he shot himself while
hunting a snake. He learned to water ski and fly an ultralight airplane
despite the disability, but chronic pain forced him to quit his job as a
paramedic. 

Two years ago, the leg had to be re-amputated above the knee and he faced
the prospect of having to use a wheelchair before Hanger Prosthetics steered
him to the C-Leg. 

Rogers took on the Appalachian Trail trek as a personal challenge, but with
publicity has come a broader impact. People have written him with
encouragement, advice and offers of help along the trail. 

He became a mentor to Lane Milliken, an 8-year-old Clarksville, Tenn., boy
who lost the use of a leg in a lawnmower accident five years ago and will
soon have it amputated in favor of an artificial limb similar to Rogers'. 

"If I fell before, I'd just be falling in front of my wife and kids. Now if
I am going to fall, it will be in front of everybody," Rogers said. "But
that is OK, if I fall I get up." 

Hiking eight to 10 miles a day, Rogers hopes by July to reach Harpers Ferry,
W.Va., about halfway up the trail. He will get off there and drive to the
trail's end at Mount Katahdin in Maine. There, he will get back on the trail
and head south to the finish. 

This "flip-flop" approach, intended to avoid wintry weather toward the end
of the hike, is perfectly acceptable to the Appalachian Trail community.
Around 2,400 hikers start the Appalachian Trail each year, but fewer than
one in five finish. 

The key will be to "set several small goals every day and find something to
celebrate, something to be thankful for," Rogers said. 

"And if I am not still hiking in November," he said with a laugh, "I will be
OK." 

On the Web: Scott Rogers: http://www.onelegwonder.com

Article from the Burlington Free Press, Burlington, Vermont
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/bfpnews/living/2000h.htm