The CT has also seen a few truly unsupported trips. Unsupported means you carry all your food from the start, basically getting nothing but water en route. The CT was first done this way in 2004 by Demetri (Coup) Coupounas, the founder of GoLite, in about 20 days. Coup carried a big pack full of food, but also lost 25 lbs body weight on the hike. Coup also did the JMT and the LT unsupported that year, completing the "Triple Gem" of backpacking. In another of his classic trips, Paul Pomeroy attacked the CT unsupported in 2006 -- with a vow of silence for the entire trip. Paul finished in 14d9h30m, dropping 16 lbs of body weight that he could ill-afford to lose. In August 2012, Shawn Forry crushed Pomeroy's unsupported time by hiking the trail (east to west) in a remarkable 10d19h5m. Forry carried a SPOT Tracker, and his track is archived on trackleaders.com. A very detailed report with daily splits is on Forry's blog. He reports doing a few things that could be considered (small) violations of unsupported and FKT efforts, including: taking food/calories from happenstance sources ("Trail Magic") on 4 occasions, totalling 3 sodas and some fruit slices; buying a repair kit for his sleeping pad; disposing of trash and un-needed food along the way; and walking off-route (but not fewer miles) on 4 occasions to obtain water.
Note: Because of the violations of unsupported style we have flagged this FKT. At the time Forry did this, the support styles were less clearly defined than they are now (see our Guidelines). People wishing to set an unsupported FKT should stick strictly to the Guidelines!