Dean Krakel Photography

“Most of them won’t make it,” Trevor Thomas says. Thomas, his guide dog Tennille and I are watching thru hikers pass by our camp on the Appalachian Trail in the Grayson Highlands of Virginia. Tennille and I are watching. Trevor is listening. Although he can’t see the backpackers walking by Thomas uses sound, smell and vibration to form rudimentary pictures in his mind. I am certain that he perceives what is going on around us as accurately as I do, just differently. Occasion

"Have you seen the blind guy? I heard he’s out here on the trail somewhere." The hiker was asking Trevor Thomas. "Haven’t seen him," Trevor answered. “Technically I wasn’t lying,” Thomas tells me, “I haven’t seen me in a long time.” Truth is, none of the other backpackers Trevor Thomas and I will meet on the Grayson Highlands portion of the Appalachian Trail will see Zero zero, the infamous blind hiker. Thomas is so far outside our perception of what blindness is and where a

On July 26th 2015 I left my job as a photo editor at the Denver Post, and a thirty-year-long career in journalism to walk The Colorado Trail. The 550 mile long journey from Durango, Colorado to my home in Conifer, Colorado took me eleven weeks. I crossed eight mountain ranges, six wilderness areas and climbed over 100,000 vertical feet. There are some of my favorite photographs in the Gallery site but here I'm posting images that include some beautiful scenics as well as phot