Day 1:
42 Miles
Started the trip really early waking up at about 3:30 and taking my time while also being quiet in the shelter. The rain that we were anticipating last night never came and so I set up and packed my 30-pound backpack in the dark, making my grits and coffee while trying to minimize noise.
I know I was most assuredly louder than the sleeping hikers would have wanted, but its their first day of the Thru-hike so welcome to shelter life. I officially started the trail at 4:18 AM on 4/1 and in retrospect did a good job documenting the day. The first miles flew by and even though the rain started about 2 miles into the day I kept high spirits.
I listened to Ready Player Two and until a decent on mile 30 was feeling good, then my knee started feeling awkward and I had to really watch it the last 10ish miles.
Doing an unsupported means no picking up any form of assistance throughout the entirety of the trail. This proves a little more annoying on the BMT because when you pass through towns, you must abstain from picking up anything at all
I cowboy camped at around 10, across the street from the trail right next to the river.
Day 2:
38 Miles
Day 2 was an interesting day. When I was originally thinking about the BMT and everything that I had heard centered around it being a more "out there trail". Day two saw that response, said "hold my beer" and illustrated how that was incorrect.
On Day 2 I planned a break for a shelter that was literally in the heart of a neighborhood and spent a good amount of the first half walking and navigating roads until the second half of the day provided the solitude I was promised.
Overall the knee started to bother me more and more and really proved to be a problem on the downhills. Uphills were mostly manageable but every time I started to go down I had to watch my step and I was very careful not to overcompensate because I injured myself in 2017 overcompensating when a hip hurt and I promised to never do that.
The pain in my knee felt centralized to the left knee on the outside under the kneecap and for the most part about every couple of miles, i could stretch away the pain only for it to come back eventually.
This day i did not get to my reach goal of the GA/TN border settling for 5 miles before the border, but as compensation, I did get to call home and let Michelle know that it was as good as could be expected
Day 3:
36 Miles
This is the day it started moving south. The stretch every couple of miles progressed to stretch every 1/2 mile at around mile 20 when my knee was dying. It was so tight and every downhill hurt so bad and during a river walk, which should have been the easiest part it was causing me alot of problems.
The only thing that really kept me going was the fact that looking at the elevation, most of the terrible elevation seemed to be behind me after the first two days. From here on out it seemed like there were significant stretches of flat on each day and if by some act of god, I could hang on I figured I might be able to get the record.
The knee pain caused me to sleep before the sun went down for the first time all trail and I laied down at around 730 at the top of a hill right next to the river, once again calling home and relaying how the circumstances had become dire.
Day 4:
34.7 Miles
Since I was planning on the FKT dying I sent a text to a friend in the morning arranging a pickup on Friday night at Fontana Dam. I also left camp after the sun had rose sleeping in until about 6 and leaving at 7, the lastest I woke up during the entire FKT.
At some point 10 miles into the day was the first time I noticed that I had been wearing my underwear inside out for the past 4 days, which really just illustrates how locked into walking i was previously. It really was the only time I had taken a break near water for the first 4 days and it gve me time to reflect on how not chill it actually was.
It sounds dumb, but honestly, I was not expecting the walking all day, waking up at 340 ish AM walking till 1030ish or later PM to be as tiring and yet starting on day 4 noticed how exhausted I would become the moment the sunset.
I hiked shirtless for the first time ever because my back was starting to annoy me, it was ultimately unsuccessful, but a failed attempt at relief is better than nothing.
At the end of the day I stumbled my way up a 5 mile climb only to camp on a road bed that said it was a campsite, but I couldn't find anywhere that was super campable.
Day 5:
42.8 Miles
For the entirety of the trail for the first 2 days especially i had said "If i can just make it to day 5, i can finish this thing". It felt just like my first Ultramarathon when I knew I was out of shape, and hurt and I just thought "if i can make it to the final lap (20 miles) I am sure I can do whatever I need to finish this.
In retrospect this is crazy math, at the start of the day I had around 130ish miles and yet internally i was like "im basically done". Alot of hiking and running is motivation and that was my biggest motivation, get to a manageable finish.
I was out of camp at 410ish and passing hikers that day was the first time i vocalized that I was going for the FKT because it was the first time I REALLY felt like it was a possibility. It was hot, there was an EXTREMELY steep downhill about 20 miles into the day that my knee could not have handled 2 days earlier, but I made it through the day and hiked until midnight to get to fontana dam, before collapsing.
This was the latest I hiked all trail, but it felt worth it because fontana dam to me signaled the start of the smokies and then i REALLY was close to finishing the trail. (even though i had 94 miles left)
Day 6:
41.2 Miles
This was the day I planned on really making some miles in the park. I think the milage caught up to me as even though the miles were reletivly easy I struggled to make the 41 miles.
For the first 2/3s of the day I walked the excellent lakeshore trail of the smokies which mostly followed old roadbeds and had minimal elevation because of that. Yet during that i noticed my speed rarely got over 2.7 miles per hour and because of that even though I hiked all day i still arrived at camp around 11. I did not reach my stretch goal and only actually made it to the shortest camp that i found acceptable.
I mostly did that because like the previous 2 days, the moment the sun went down I felt like all my energy was sapped up and I almost took a cat nap in the dirt because I was so tired. I don't know what the right choice would have been but making it to the Mill Creek camp felt like a win in the dark and I decided I wouldn't push it.
Day 7
38.9 Miles
My goal for the trail had been to finish in under 7 days....that did not happen. 7 days would have been a tough time to beat, but the lazy day on day 3 and 4 made it so that I couldnt postion myself close enough to the finish to push.
Day 7 was almost poetic to me because after a 5 mile climb in the rain up and 4 miles down I hit the MST and for the entirety of the day was on what I called the "Old MST" following the path it took for years before a 2021 rerouting to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Originally when I hiked the MST in 2017 I tried to get an FKT and so dancing on the trail all day felt like a success after so many MST FKT failures.
Unfotunalye it also rained, all day for the first time all trail on me and it was a cold rain.this resulted in me not taking a break until mile 25 and by the time the sun set, somehow I only had hiked around 34 miles. While i cannot confirm anything, i think the miles were getting to me....
At the end of the day, faced with 15 miles left listening to NPR in the dark in the rain i decided that a super competitive record, while nice was not worth walking through the night to the end of the trail. I wanted to make Mt. Collins shelter but once again, to reflect how tired i was, I couldnt muster the 2 mile uphill to that and instead collapsed at a trail intersection and as it turns out, on a bed of poison ivy.
Day 8
13.8 miles
Once again to illustrate how tired I was, with 13 miles left, instead of running it in, I slept in. Not too long, but instead of 4 Am i was out of camp by 6 because the sound of rain was just sooo not inviting to me.
In order to make up for my late wakeup i decided to jog as much as I could for the day. Wearing just a long sleeve and pants I kept warm just because i kept moving just basking in the happiness of the accomplishment and even my knee wasnt bothering me as if it came to accpet hte hell I had put it through. I thought i was really trucking but in retrospect, 13.8 miles in 4 hours is NOT A Fast pace for someone who thought they were jogging a lot.
Regardless i passed people, bragged and enjoyed a hard-earned FKT finally.
Finish time 10:57 AM on 4/8/12 or 7 days, 6 hours, 39 minutes, and 0 second from the start moment