This past Sunday Scott Jurek, an ultramarathoner from Colorado, set the new Appalachian Trail record. Beginning in Springer Mountain, Georgia, Jurek reached Mount Katahdin in Maine after covering an average of 47 miles a day, completing the 2,180 mile Appalachian Trail in just 46 days, 8 hours and 8 minutes. Upon reaching Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park there was a park ranger from Maine there to greet him, a park ranger who then slapped Jurek with a handful of citations.
The new Appalachian Trail record holder was hit with a citation for consuming alcohol within the state park, he was hit with one for hiking with a group larger than 12 people (the group was only there to celebrate his record achievement with him), and he was hit with a citation for ‘littering’ after he sprayed champagne into the air in celebration of his new record and that champagne then hit the ground. That parker ranger is a fun ruining douche bag.
Matt Byrne of Maine’s Press Herald reports:
After the excitement over the accomplishment subsided, Jurek was handed three citations for violating park rules during the festivities atop Maine’s highest peak.
Formally, the summons issued to Jurek was for consuming alcohol within the park, hiking with a group larger than 12 people, and littering, which occurred when champagne sprayed into the air on the 5,268-foot summit hit the ground.
“We really don’t think that the top of Katahdin should smell like a bar,” Baxter Park Director Jensen Bissell said. “He hiked down with the summons.”
But it’s more than an issue of spilled champagne.
Bissell said Jurek and the corporate sponsorship that helped carry him to the record are anathema to the vision of the park set out by former Gov. Percival Baxter, whose 1931 donation of land and funding has made the park what it is today.Jurek, a champion ultramarathoner, covered approximately 47 miles a day to set the record, completing the roughly 2,180 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin in 46 days, 8 hours and 8 minutes. A Colorado resident, he didn’t return a message seeking comment Thursday night.
Now stretching over 209,644 acres, Baxter State Park has earned a reputation as one of the state’s most pristine wilderness areas, and one of its most tightly managed, with rules that are stricter and more rigidly enforced than those found in most Maine state parks.
Someone needs to slap the sh*t out of that park ranger. They’re lamenting the commercialization of a natural resource because an ultramarathoner set the new record?! Jurke’s one of the most highly tuned athletes in the world, but ultramarathons wouldn’t exist without corporate sponsorship. How in the hell would people be able to spend their lives running hundreds (thousands?) of miles around the world each year without corporate sponsorship? The locations where ultramarathons can be held are already extremely limited, and travel to those locations are expensive. This park ranger sees the corporate sponsorship as anathema to their park? F*ck him.
These athletes wouldn’t be able to progress the sport of ultramarathons without corporate sponsorship. Also, the Maine Governor who donated that State Park back in 1931, Percival Baxter, spent his entire life swimming in cash. That Governor’s a hell of a lot closer to the corporation sponsoring this adventure than he ever was to that fuddy duddy ranger.
Anyways, MAJOR CONGRATULATIONS GOING OUT TO SCOTT JUREK on his new Appalachian Trail record. The previous record was 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes. So Scott Jurek bested it by 3 hours and 12 minutes. You can check out pictures from his record setting trek on his Instagram, or follow his story over on his Facebook page.