I would like to announce that a new endurance record (unsupported) of the LT has recently been set.
24 y.o. Jennifer Pharr recently completed an unsupported end-to-end hike of the LT in 7 days 15 hours and 40 minutes.
She started at the VT/MA border at 5am on Wednesday August 1st and reached the VT/Canadian border at 8:40pm on Wednesday August 8th. Her longest day was 45 miles and her shortest day was 27 miles.
She broke the existing unsupported LT record of 8 days 13 hours and 25 minutes that I set 29 years ago in 1978.
This is a remarkable achievement and I assume that this is the first time that a long distance trail endurance record, either unsupported or supported, has been set by a woman.
Jennifer, a college athlete/literature major, attended the Appalachian Trail Institute in December 2004 and went on to complete NOBO thru-hikes of the AT in 2005 and the PCT in 2006. She is presently in the final writing stages of a book concerning her AT/PCT hikes.
She is planning on setting an unsupported woman's endurance record of the AT next summer. Having 'coached/mentored' her a little bit, I feel she has all the necessary attributes (ie. level of comfort; threshold of pain; temperament) to be a successful long distance endurance hiker.
Of course, she will also have to endure the skepticism/criticism from other hikers but I, and other members of the hiking community who have experienced the particular satisfactions/rewards of long distance endurance hiking, will be supportive of her endeavors.