Overview
- Sanders reached the summit of Mount Katahdin on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, completing the roughly 2,190–2,193 mile Appalachian Trail and regaining the title as the oldest recorded person to thru-hike the route.
- He completed the trail in segments within a 12-month period that began Sept. 6, 2025, averaging about 12 miles per day and pausing over winter to meet the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s thru‑hike criteria.
- By his count, Sanders fell 71 times during the attempt, including six to seven hard falls and one that led to a brief hospital stay in Maine where numbness was diagnosed as a pinched nerve rather than a stroke.
- Support from friends, volunteers and trail angels — including logistics help from a camper van dubbed a “base camp on wheels” and encouragement from fellow hikers like M.J. Eberhart — kept him on the trail and drew thousands of online followers.
- Sanders’ finish adds to a string of late‑life endurance accomplishments — earlier AT record in 2017, a Mississippi River paddling record and a Grand Canyon rim‑to‑rim‑to‑rim at advanced ages — and highlights how the trail’s rules let hikers complete the route in sections within a year.