Free Outside: Getting to know a Legend
The first time I met Jeff Garmire came as a surprise.
A few weeks into my first thru-hike - a Winter NOBO on the Appalachian Trail - I had gotten ahead of all but three other hikers. I did not anticipate catching up to the three ahead of me and didn't think anyone behind me would catch up before I took my next zero-day. So as I relaxed in the late-afternoon sun at Knot Maul Branch shelter, I settled in for what I assumed would be an uninterrupted evening.
Around 5 PM, I heard some rustling followed by footsteps; I perked my head up and stretched my neck to get a glimpse of who it could be. Relatively close to Atkins, VA, I figured maybe a day-hiker or overnighter was coming out to the shelter. A young man emerged out of the brush. His beard was ragged and his clothes dirty with holes in them; a small backpack draped over his shoulders, and trail runners donned his feet. As he reached the shelter and sat down, a now-familiar smell wafted over to me and confirmed it: this was a thru-hiker.
This was the first time that I had been caught by a hiker I had not yet met. I felt a slight sting to my ego but nevertheless was excited and eager to get to know a new face. It was still getting dark by 8 PM every day, so I didn't even bother asking if he would be staying at the shelter as we got to talking. It seemed to be a given to me.
As we spoke, the hiker, who introduced himself as Legend, quickly began boiling water and eating an energy bar. We had about five minutes to talk before the water boiled, Legend poured it into a sealed container, threw it in his pack, and started to get up and go.
"You're hiking on tonight?" I asked, somewhat bewildered.
"Yeah," Legend replied. "I'm going to try to get to Chestnut Knob Shelter."
My state of bewilderment only grew at this. That was nine more miles with almost 2,000 ft of elevation to gain on the way. Planning out my next day earlier that afternoon, I had estimated I could maybe make it there for a lunch break but certainly no sooner. This guy was ready to crank out what would surely be another four hours of hiking with the evening cold already announcing its presence.
Legend hiked on and indeed made it the nine further miles to Chestnut Knob Shelter. After that, he would go on to hike some 7,300 miles more that year, becoming only the fourth person ever to complete the Calendar Year Triple Crown (CYTC) - thru-hikes of the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Trail, and Continental Divide Trail all within one calendar year.
The second time I met Jeff Garmire, it was much more expected.
ON the PCT in 2018, Legend was a well-known name, and his attempt to become the second person to hike the Great Western Loop (GWL) was common trail gossip amongst hikers. I excitedly told the story of my brief meeting with him on the AT to anyone with interest.
Getting into Casa de Luna - the legendary oasis for PCT hikers - we all knew Legend would likely be there. The rumor was that he had passed our bubble the night before as we slept. Sure enough, as my little trail family rolled into Hippie Daycare, within a few minutes of exploring the place full of hikers, I saw Legend.
The beard was identical to the haggard locks he wore in 2016. He wore the same trail runners, but this time he donned a bright red dress and a Santa Clause hat. He had a beer in each hand and was thoroughly enjoying himself. He was hiker-trash through and through.
I didn't get to talk to Legend much that night. We would later learn that Casa de Luna set a new record with 90 hikers staying. I mostly hung out with my friends and had a blast. Legend did the same, and before dinner, I witnessed his "wedding" with another hiker. It was the best kind of thru-hike fun. Care-free, miles in nobody's mind whatsoever. Just everyone ready to have as much fun as possible. Legend was leading the way.
IN his almost decade-long hiking career, Jeff Garmire has a list of accomplishments that compares to the most decorated long-distance hikers. He went on to finish the Great Western Loop in 2018 to compliment his 2016 CYTC. Last year he established new self-supported Fastest Known Time's (FKT's) for the Arizona Trail and the Vermont Long Trail. Garmire has proven himself to be a miles machine. He has consistently impressed the hiking community with achievements in both distance and speed.
Whereas most other hikers with similar accomplishments may be seen entirely as athletes, there is more to Garmire. He has maintained a humbleness, humor, and positivity that feels much more akin to the fun-loving, "average" thru-hiker.
He has also proved himself to be a talented writer. This past year he released Free Outside: A Trek Against Time and Distance - a detailed, entertaining, funny, and epic account of his 2016 CYTC.
I was lucky enough to get Jeff on the phone for an interview recently to talk about the book, his hiking career, and long-distance hiking in general.
JEFF was introduced to the outdoors at a very young age, often going on short overnight hikes with his family to lakes to camp and fish. The hiker who now carries packs that the stingiest ultralight hikers may envy recalls growing up backpacking with 70-pound packs for three-mile hikes. At 16, his family met two PCT thru-hikers and served as trail angels for them. The experience of feeding and sheltering two thru-hikers put the idea of a PCT thru-hike in his mind. Halfway through an engineering degree in 2011, he took a semester off to make the pilgrimage from Mexico to Canada. At 20 years old, with 55 pounds on his back, Jeff set off on his first thru-hike.
In talking about that first hike, he recalled the differences between the community back then and one that now heavily uses social media.
"There was a lot of trail gossip, and you knew everyone on trail. There was Facebook, but there wasn't a big social media presence, so everyone you knew was through the trail."
Through this on-trail network, Jeff learned there were other long-distance trails, specifically the AT and the CDT. The many hours of walking and thinking were conducive to the idea of hiking all three in one year, forming in his mind. Jeff finished that hike, and three years later graduated from Oregon State University. He moved to Denver, got a job, and even scratched his itch for a physical challenge by successfully climbing all 58 14,000 foot peaks in Colorado.
Still, something was missing, something that the first thru-hike had awoken in him. (When talking to Jeff about my own journey to becoming a full-time long-distance hiker, he joked, "The first one ruins you.")
"I was still missing that whole thru-hiker freedom. I would summit six or seven peaks in a week and then go back to work. I just wasn't enjoying that lifestyle. That's when I put into motion the plan to do the CYTC."
Jeff details that incredible, 7000+-mile odyssey in immense detail in Free Outside. A riveting page-turner, the book takes us through every step on the way of Jeff's quest to hike all three trails in 2016. As we follow along, mile-by-mile, we see a hiker who still had a lot to prove to himself find his footing as a strong-willed, determined man and make it through a multitude of obstacles and difficulty along the way.
That Winter on the AT saw heavy snowfall. Early in the book Garmire details the sub-zero temperatures and three-plus foot snowdrifts in the Great Smoky Mountains that made him question whether or not he could really do what he had set out to. We spoke about that Winter and Jeff shared some solemn words about the challenges it presented.
"This is week two of a planned nine-month adventure. I really questioned how I could keep going that long. Hitting one of the hardest parts of the CYTC on week two and having just an unimaginable amount of miles left was very mentally challenging."
Upon being asked how he made it through - Jeff offered some sage advice that any backpacker could stand to hear.
"I just couldn’t let myself quit. I acknowledged that it couldn’t get a whole lot worse, and tried to find little things to improve it. So I bought mittens, which made it a little bit more comfortable physically.
Then just mentally, I tried to change my mindset from ‘how am I going to do this for nine months’, into ‘what am I going to eat when I get to my next resupply?’”
FROM that first challenge on, Garmire takes us through the ins-and-outs of hiking the CYTC. The little mental wins needed to keep him going every day. The many colorful characters that such an adventure is sure to bring about. All of the pain that one must put themselves through to achieve such a goal. Garmire goes into all of this and more in detail that I found hard to believe having tried to record hikes myself. In our interview, I wondered how he could have recorded such detail while still hiking for a ridiculous amount of time every day.
"I have pretty close to what would be considered a photographic memory," he replied lightly. "Also, I would write one paragraph every day, and that could spur on the memories. Then just using my memory, piece it all together and remember everything - right down to what song played at a certain moment."
In the book, the reader will find the dichotomy that is Jeff Garmire, the dichotomy I observed over my first two meetings with him. He is a relentless hiker and athlete. He refuses to let fatigue, weather, or pain stop him from achieving his goals. He is also a fun-loving, kind, and humble man. Anyone who follows him on Instagram knows this, being treated to a hiker who doesn't take themselves too seriously in a refreshing way. Tasteful nudes, silly captions, and plenty of photos of his cat are scattered on the grid of @thefreeoutside.
When I probed as to why he thinks it's important to keep things light, Jeff responded with one of his wisest answers.
"Whether I'm doing an 8000-mile hike or someone's doing a 100-mile hike, everyone's out there spending their money and their time doing that for fun. There are some notable hikers out there who have this air of untouchability or think they’re better than the average thru-hiker, and I've never wanted that to be a thing.
Having fun and trying to be relatable as more of a multidimensional person as opposed to just a hiker that did something really far or something really fast has been important. We're all just people - not better than someone because they did a trail faster. I think it's just as cool if anyone does whatever they want to do out in the outdoors. It's just walking - let's have fun with it."
AS his name and legend (pun intended) have grown over the years, Jeff has become a figure in the long-distance hiking community advocating for the encouragement and inclusion of all hikers. Jeff donated his entire income for a week to Black Lives Matter causes in the wake of the recent national dialogue surrounding police abuse and discrimination against people of color, and the BLM movement. All money he earned from his book sales and his job working at a grocery store in Montana. I didn't ask about this, but when talking about the thru-hiking community, Jeff made sure to mention his thoughts on the lack of diversity in the hiking community.
"Being a white male, I wish there was more inclusion. I guess there's a lot of hope for inclusion, and that's kind of cool, but obviously we're all striving to get more people out there."
Like many others in the hiking community, Jeff's plans changed rather quickly over the past few months as COVID-19 spread across the world. Still, he is staying busy and active with running and hiking and continuing to write. In addition to working on a website project, he hopes to begin a second book on his 2018 Great Western Loop.
As far as his hiking future goes, Jeff is still ambitious as ever. He hopes to attempt the Barkley Marathons next year, the legendary Tennessee Ultramarathon. With a potential Florida Trail thru-hike to serve as training, he is also mulling over going for some more FKT's in the future.
IN 2018 Legend quickly got ahead of me after that night at Casa de Luna. Knowing the sort of miles he was putting in, I didn't think I'd see him again on that hike. Much to my surprise, he was still in Kennedy Meadows when I arrived a few days later, taking an extra day to hang out with other hikers. This time we did get a chance to chat for a bit.
We recalled our meeting on the AT in 2016, and I thanked him for the beer he had left in Docs Knob Shelter a few days after our meeting at Knot Maul Branch. It was the ever-rare trail magic given from one thru-hiker to another.
That's Legend though, a rare character in the complicated, diverse web of people that is the long-distance hiking community. Some hikers are married to the miles. They push day-in and day-out to accomplish more exceptional, difficult athletic accomplishments. Some hikers prioritize the social aspects of a thru-hike. Making sure to stop and talk to as many people as they can. Always giving a friendly greeting to folks on the trail. Legend shows us a mix between the two. He is a man dedicated to improving his community while pursuing his goals. Even as they become ever more ambitious - his mindset on hiking remains unchanged.
