An 83-year-old from Alabama started walking when he retired more than a quarter-century ago — and never stopped.
On Sunday, M.J. “Sunny” Eberhart strode into the record books as the oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail.
Eberhart, known by the trail name “Nimblewill Nomad,” said that despite having tens of thousands of kilometers under his belt, the trail was tough going at his age, leading to quite a few spills on slippery rocks.
Photo: AP
“I’ve a got a couple of skid marks on me, but I’m OK,” he said in an interview. “You’ve got to have an incredible resolve to do this.”
To take advantage of optimal weather, he hiked the trail out of order, in sections.
He had completed northern sections, including Maine’s Mount Katahdin, before completing his final section in Dalton, Massachusetts, the same town and year in which a five-year-old became the youngest to complete the feat.
Joining Eberhart for the finish was the former record holder, Dale “Graybeard” Sanders, who lives outside Memphis, Tennessee.
He completed the hike at age 82 in 2017.
“My dear friend Nimblewill is taking my record away from me, and I’m happy for him,” Sanders said.
Sanders confirmed the completion of the feat as Eberhart was toasted with bubbly wine at a friend’s house.
Jordan Bowman of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, confirmed that Eberhart is the oldest to finish the trail, surpassing Sanders.
Eberhart began his wanderlust in earnest after retiring as an optometrist in Florida in 1993.
The man with flowing locks and an impressive beard hiked farther than most who traverse the 3,530km trail that runs between Georgia’s Springer Mountain and Maine’s Katahdin. He started his hike in February at his home in Flagg Mountain, Alabama, adding hundreds of extra kilometers to the route.
The journey represented a relatively modest distance for a guy who trekked 7,080km from the Florida Keys to northern Quebec, an adventure he chronicled in the book Ten Million Steps.
He later hiked from Newfoundland to Florida, an even greater distance. He also walked from Chicago to California on Route 66.
He said that he was feeling his age on this hike. His reflexes are not what they once were, so he tried to limit himself to eight hours of hiking per day.
However, he still got banged up.
On a day in New Hampshire, he took a tumble and bloodied his elbow. A hiking companion asked if he wanted to take a break.
Eberhart said: “Do you think if I complain about it, it will go away?” before picking himself up and pressing onward, said Odie Norman of Huntsville, Alabama, who hiked 160km with Nimblewill.
His first major hike coincided with a search for peace after lugging emotional and mental baggage that involved a divorce and losing the respect of his children, he said.
He eventually found his peace, and forgiveness.
“You can seek peace. That doesn’t mean that you’re going to find it. I persevered to the point that the good Lord looked down on me and said: ‘You’re forgiven, you can be at peace,’” he said during a break near the border of Maine and New Hampshire.
“It’s a profound blessing. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
With the hike over, Eberhart plans to return to his home in Flagg Mountain, the southernmost mountain in the Appalachians, where he serves as caretaker of a fire tower and cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Norman, who publishes The Hiker Yearbook, said that Eberhart probably would not hang up his boots any time soon.
“He said: ‘You know they’re calling this my final hike.’ Then he laughed,” Norman said. “I don’t think it’s going to be his last hike. I just don’t think he knows what’s he’s going to hike next.”
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