Athletes
Route
Route variation
Standard route
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Unsupported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
4d
11h
28m
30s
Verification
GPS track(s)
explore_30.gpx374.01 KB
Photos
Report
- I successfully completed the Ozark Trail from the western trailhead to Onondaga State Park between 3:55 a.m. on 09/27/2022 and 3:25 p.m. on 10/01/2022.
- Official distance on the topographical maps is 223.7 miles. My Garmin Forerunner 945 recorded 235.1 miles, though ~2 miles can be attributed to backtracking and wrong turns. I took the official OT through-route, avoiding any spurs/shortcuts.
- My effort was unsupported: I carried all food/gear/supplies from the beginning, I took water from only natural sources except for one spigot at the Sutton Bluff Campground on the trail (I also used the toilet there for leave-no-trace principles but used my own toilet paper). I hiked alone. I carried all my trash to the end.
- I got four poor hours of sleep the first night, four poor hours of sleep the second night, three decent hours of sleep the third night, and five excellent "screw it" hours of sleep the fourth night.
- I was hiking almost the entirety of the route on sight, having only hiked the overlapping portion of the Berryman Loop Trail. My original goal was to hike ~60 miles per day with ~4 hours of sleep per night, pushing through day four to finish in less than 96 hours. Unfortunately tough trail conditions, dehydration, and nonstop spiderwebs in the first few sections quickly put me behind schedule. Inefficient camp setup/breakdown the first night also set me back. This created a bit of a vicious cycle where I'd get started later, hike later (therefore more tired, therefore more slowly), get to sleep later, wake up later, hike later and less efficiently the next day, etc. Fatigue made catching up difficult, even once my pack started to lighten and the quality of trail improved. Still it was possible to push through to 96 hours with a strong final day—until I felt acute knee pain halfway through the third day. From experience, I knew it was the type of pain that precedes serious injury. I thought it was enough to end the attempt, but I stopped for a long lunch, extensively stretching and massaging since there seemed to be little to lose. I expected to start hiking again, feel the same pain, and then retreat to the highway and call it. Instead, my joint popped and suddenly the pain retreated, mild enough that I knew I could continue. While the schedule had now been obliterated and I knew I'd have to take it a bit slower, completing an unsupported attempt would result in an FKT since there wasn't yet a male record. I just barely had an extra half-day of food and battery. In the end, under-preparation and flirtation with injury meant my final time wasn't the best I could've done, but I'm still pleased to have completed the Ozark Trail in four and a half days for a new FKT.
- A note on future verification: There are long sections of trail that run parallel to dirt roads, sometimes just a few yards away. GPS data from FKT submissions should be scrutinized, as taking these road walks might not be immediately obvious but would result in a significantly quicker/easier route.