Completing the Long Trail is impressive enough. But completing the entire length of the Long Trail one way, and then immediately turning around and completing it again—all in record time—takes things to another level.
That’s exactly what Canadian endurance athlete Cody Taylor did in August as he set a new Long Trail Out and Back Unsupported Fastest Known Time (FKT), completing the entire trail in one direction and then the other in 17 days, eight hours, and 42 minutes.
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, the Ontario-based ultrarunner and running coach started his unsupported Long Trail FKT attempt just a month after setting another out-and-back FKT on an iconic Adirondack High Peaks traverse.
The Long Trail stretches 272 miles from Massachusetts to the Canadian border. It traverses most of the largest mountains in Vermont and features 68,000 feet of vertical gain. Taylor started and ended his journey at the trail’s northern terminus.
For his unsupported FKT attempt, Taylor had to carry everything he would need on his back and could not use any resupplies or outside help. He slept in his tent along the way and filtered his own water.
In his FKT report, he said the first few days were the toughest. His pack weighed over 50 pounds at the start of his journey, and he said that weight decreased by almost two pounds per day as he went through his nutrition. He did not go through all of his planned food for the first eight days, which he said helped him over the last days of his attempt.
Taylor faced plenty of adversity along the way. It rained for much of his journey, and he said he nearly became hypothermic at one point. He dealt with blisters, cuts, back chafing, and more. He said he frequently fell because of the slippery conditions on the trail and his heavy backpack. And he said he didn’t sleep well for much of it because his hips were throbbing every night.
He started his Long Trail Yo-Yo FKT attempt on August 3, finishing it on August 21. The start of it came just a month after he completed an out-and back FKT of a challenging Adirondack traverse.
On July 3, Taylor and his friend Matthew Shepard completed the Bob Marshall Traverse out-and-back in 40 hours, 52 minutes and 56 seconds. The Bob Marshall Traverse is a 32-mile traverse that runs from Johns Brook Lodge to the Mount Jo trailhead near Adirondak Loj. Along the way it summits 14 Adirondack High Peaks. Doing an out-and-back meant Taylor and Shepard did more than 64 miles and summitted each of those high peaks twice, for nearly 30,000 feet of elevation gain.
Check out Cody Taylor’s video account of his Long Trail FKT below.
