Blind hiker to speak at Bangor Baptist Church

BANGOR – The only blind person to walk the entire 2,143-mile length of the Appalachian Trail will speak Feb. 3 at the city’s largest Baptist church.

Bill Irwin, 67, of Sebec is scheduled to address the 8:45 and 11 a.m. worship services at Bangor Baptist Church on outer Broadway.

Irwin is a motivational speaker and addresses audiences throughout the world from his headquarters in Piscataquis County.

His hike with his Seeing Eye dog, Orient, began in Georgia in 1990 and ended almost nine months later at the foot of Mount Katahdin. While others have hiked the trail to raise awareness about diseases such as AIDS or to publicize personal causes, Irwin’s motivations for his hike were personal.

He had no other mission, the Bangor Daily News reported in 1999, than to save himself from the despair of alcoholism, two divorces, and mounting depression by surrendering his fate to God. By the time his journey was completed, the North Carolina native had become one of the trail’s most triumphant stories and one of its most enduring legends.

The trip, he said at the time, was a way of putting his faith in something bigger than himself and accepting the outcome, broken bones and all. That is part of the message he will share at Bangor Baptist.

His companion on that hike will not be with him.

Orient, the German shepherd guide dog that sniffed and spied the trail for Irwin, retired in November 1995. The 8-year-old dog had arthritis in his hips and spent his last days lying around, eating and sleeping, according to Irwin.

The dog was featured in two of Irwin’s books, “Blind Courage,” his 1992 account of the journey, and “Orient: Hero Dog Guide of the Appalachian Trail,” a children’s book published the year Orient retired.

For information, call 947-6576.