Jeff Garmire Breaks Self-Supported FKT on the Appalachian Trail by Just 4 Hours

Garmire finished the trail in just over 45 days, raising $29,000 for the Trevor Project in the process.

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The plaque on Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail (Photo: sshepard / iStock Unreleased via Getty)

On September 21, Jeff “Legend” Garmire made it to Springer Mountain where he set a new self-supported fastest known time for a hike of the Appalachian Trail.

Garmire hiked and ran the 2,198-mile trail southbound in 45 days, 8 hours and 37 minutes, making it to the finish about four hours faster than the previous FKT, which Joe “Stringbean” McConaughy set in 2017.

Garmire has been setting FKTs for more than a decade, with career highlights including unsupported or self-supported records on the John Muir Trail, Long Trail, Colorado Trail, Wonderland Trail, and Arizona Trail. After he received a three-week notice saying that he needed to vacate his apartment this summer, he decided it was time to double down on training for an FKT attempt on the AT

His prep included conducting a two-week training camp in southern Maine and New Hampshire that took him to some of the most rugged parts of the trail testing a nutrition plan in Montana, and gearing up for the attempt. Prior to setting the record, Garmire reflected that “the basis of some of this training is the perfect intersection of thru hiking, FKTs, and Trail running. The beautiful process of combining the strengths from each and minimizing the weaknesses.”

While early FKTs on long trails predominantly involved fast walking, the physical requirements that former athletes have set in these spaces has required that subsequent record attempts up the ante. Now, record setters typically blend running and hiking and forgo sleep.

A standard thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail generally takes about five months to complete. Garmire’s accomplishments involved hiking and running about 49 miles per day for a month and a half. Along the way, he faced obstacles like receiving two left shoes in his first resupply box, breaking a trekking pole, and discovering one of his resupply boxes trashed.

“It’s okay to care. To really, obsessively, spreadsheet-wieldingly care about something,” Garmire wrote in a post about his FKT attempt. “Getting to the start line after dedicating so much time, money, and effort is a victory in itself.”

Garmire used his hike to raise more than $29,000 for the Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth. He found encouragement from virtual supporters on his fundraising page who left comments that cheered him on.

Garmire’s record-setting trip is at least the second time he had completed the trail. He completed a Calendar Year Triple Crown in 2016, which involved tackling the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail within a 12 month period.

In a congratulatory post, McConaughy praised Garmire’s grit.

“I’m proud to see him put up such a stout effort through a lots of ups and downs!” he wrote.

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story mistakenly identified Garmire’s hike as unsupported in the headline; it was self-supported.