In 2011 Williamson beat his own record by less than one day by hiking north to south in 64d11h19m, August 8 - October 11. This was Williamson's 13th thru-hike of the PCT!
Williamson announced his intentions for the hike as follows:
Hi There I am new here so bear with if this somehow gets screwed up. Scott Williamson AKA "Bink" here. Just wanted to put word out that I will be attempting to break the overall speed record for a single continuous hike/run on the 2655 mile Pacific crest trail. As you may know Adam Bradley AKA "Krudmeister" and I co-hold the current record of 65d, 9h, 58m set in 2009. My intention is to do it in the same style that Adam and I did in 2009, that is what we call "unassisted" or "self-supported". This means I will NOT have anyone following, or otherwise meeting me in prearranged manner to give me support. I plan to do this hike as Adam and I did in 2009 as a backpacker, carrying all of my food, equipment, and water between resupply towns, which I will walk into and out to pick up prepacked and mailed food boxes or phurchasing food, in these towns. As with Adam and I in 2009 I will not be getting in a vehicle for any reason during this attempt, if I do it means the attempt is off. I will be following the official PCT route, no detours, road walks or alternates of any kind. For me the style of this undertaking is more important than breaking the record itself. I plan to start around 4:30-5 am on August 8th at monument 78 on the US-Canadian border, at the northern terminus of the PCT. If all goes well , with no specific goal of how many days I will be doing (sub 65 would be great even if only hours), I should hit the Mexican border earl in the day on the 11th of October or earlier.
With all of that out of the way let me expand on a few things. I am only announcing this because I intend to do a fast hike of the PCT and if possible would like to lower the record. However because of work and home obligations I have not been able to train as I would like to have so this is really going to be decided in the first half of the trip for me. In addition I will be doing this solo. On both the 2008 speed hike with Joe Kisner and 2009 with Adam, I felt that undertaking a speed hike of this kind is mentally MUCH easier with someone else doing it with you, than it would be solo. Frankly I do not know how that is going to be. Thinking about this gives me even more respect for David Horton's run in 2005. Yes he had many people meeting him along the way, but he alone was running the entire distance. His record in my opinion is still the "solo" record. The other huge factor is that in 2009 Adam and I went northbound, and had much longer days and warmer weather than I will have on this hike. As a result not only will I end up night hiking more than we did, but will also be affected by weather much more than we were. In short with these factors figured in I give myself a 25% chance at bettering the current record. At the minimum I hope to break the "south bound" speed record, which as far as I know is in the 87-90 day range, (maybe someone can help me with this) depending on who you ask. Failing any of that I will have fun spending time on the trail I Love.
I will not be keeping any sort of blog or website on this self funded effort. I will periodically be in touch with Adam Bradley "Krudmeister" so his blog FSTPKR may be your best bet if you need to know how it is going, although I do not know if he will be posting anything about this. I leave tomorrow for ten days of pre hiking in the north cascades and thus will have no computer access after tonight. Weather I am successful or fail at this I will be back here with a short trip report on what went wrong or right. This is going to be interesting either way, such a late start heading south, who knows. either way I know the reality of what I will be trying to do, thus while I may sound under confident about this, it is more a realistic outlook form experience. Either way the challenge of doing it in the style I have set for myself is far more important than being able to say I broke the record. Adam and Joe: I wish you guys could be along or this one! Onward! BINK