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Man hiking the Appalachian Trail
Hiking the entirety of the Appalachian Trail is no small feat, and that nearly 2,200-mile trek has managed to humble plenty of experienced wanderers in top physical condition. It’s typically not a journey a 91-year-old would tackle, but one man did exactly that while reclaiming a record he originally set close to a decade ago.
Canada lays claim to the longest designated hiking trail on the planet, as the aptly named “Trans Canada Trail” stretches a whopping 17,000 miles from Newfoundland to the Yukon Territory.
The Appalachian Trail doesn’t even crack the top ten, and there are multiple routes in the United States that are longer. However, there aren’t any in America that are more iconic than the one that clocks in at exactly 2,197.4 miles and weaves through 14 states while taking you from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the summit of Mount Katahdin at Baxter State Park in Maine.
More than three million people tackle at least some portion of the trail each year, including thousands of ambitious “thru-hikers” who attempt to traverse the entire thing. That includes one man who goes by “Grey Beard,” who set a record after spending close to a year making his way up north.
A 91-year-old man named Dale Sanders is now the oldest person to ever walk the entirety of the Appalachian Trail
In 2024, an ultramarathoner named Tara Dower set what is considered the current Appalachian Trail speed record by making her way from Maine to Georgia in 40 days, 18 hours, and six minutes (an average of 54 miles a day).
However, thru-hikers have up to a full year to complete the trek if they want to stake a legitimate claim to traversing the entirety of the Appalachian Trail, and the man who is now firmly the oldest person to complete it had less than a week to spare when he set the record he previously claimed close to ten years ago.
Dale Sanders, who goes by “Grey Beard” when he’s hiking, was 82 years old when he originally became the oldest person to go end-to-end in 2017, surpassing Lee Berry, who was 81 when he did the same in 2004. However, in 2021, he was unseated by M.J. “Sunny” Eberhart (a.k.a. the Nimblewood Nomad), who set the bar at 83.
According to SFGATE, the now 91-year-old Sanders officially took back the crown on Monday, August 31st when he arrived at the top of Mount Katahdin to cap off a journey that began when he departed from West Virginia on September 6th of last year.
Sanders “only” averaged six miles per day, but he did take a few breaks while hopping along the trail. He spent six months training for the feat but still had to adjust to the physical exertion he subjected himself to, and he told the outlet he fell a grand total of 71 times.
That includes six tumbles he classified as “hard falls,” which was the case with one he endured on Mount Killington in Vermont in June that ultimately led to him being diagnosed with a pinched nerve that left his arm numb.
However, he powered through, and it seems safe to assume his record will stand for longer than it did the first time.