This 83-year-old just made history on the Appalachian Trail. Meet ‘Nimblewill Nomad’
An 83-year-old man, known by his trail name “Nimblewill Nomad,” just made history as the oldest hiker to complete the roughly 2,190 mile-long Appalachian Trail.
M.J. Eberhart, who’s been trekking through hiking trails since the early 1980s, finished his record-breaking “Odyssey 2021” hike on Nov. 7 in Dalton, Massachusetts after a more than 200 day journey that began in February at Flagg Mountain, Alabama, according to his website.
His completion of the feat was met with congratulations from friends, including a huge hug from the Tennessean he refers to as “Grey Beard,” whose record he just surpassed.
“My dear friend Nimblewill is taking my record away from me, and I’m happy for him. Records are made to be broken,” Dale “Greybeard” Sanders, who was the oldest to complete the trail at 82 in 2017, told The Associated Press after celebrating with Eberhart, who is from Alabama.
Appalachian Trail Conservancy spokesperson Jordan Bowman confirmed Eberhart now holds the record.
McClatchy News has reached out to Eberhart for comment.
Eberhart traversed throughout the Appalachian Trail in different sections out of order, reaching one of its northernmost points at Maine’s Mount Katahdin before finishing in Massachusetts, the outlet reported.
“I’ve a got a couple of skid marks on me, but I’m OK,” he told the AP. “You’ve got to have an incredible resolve to do this.”
Eberhart was born in New York and “reared-up” in Missouri’s Ozark Highlands, according to his website, where he chronicles his hikes with photos.
After retiring as an optometrist in 1993, he began exploring the outdoors even more, the AP reported.
During that time, he moved by Nimblewill Creek in northern Georgia.
“There, I started making up for lost time…after being cooped-up in examination rooms with no windows for nearly thirty years,” he wrote on his website.
He embarked on his first “uninterrupted long distance hike” in 1998 that was over 4,000 miles long and began at the Florida Keys all the way to the northern cliffs of Forillon National Park in Cap Gaspé, Quebec.
It was an adventure he recounted in his book “Ten Million Steps” and when he assumed his nickname, “Nimblewill Nomad.”
Then, during 2000 and 2001, he completed that “hike in reverse” during his first known trek along the Appalachian Trail in a more than 5,000 mile-long trip over 347 days.
He reflects on how over 25 years ago, he was recommended a pacemaker by heart specialists in Florida, a device he’s “very well managed to do without,” he wrote online.
To this day, he remains “blessed with remarkably good health and stamina,” he said.
Back in March 2021, before completing his latest Appalachian Trail hike, Eberhart hinted that he will be hiking for as long as he’s able to.
“Do you know somebody 100 that’s still hiking?” he told the Calhoun Times, when asked if he’d continue long distance hiking.
“If you don’t, I’m going to work on being the one you find out can do it,” he said.
“To all who’ve supported me, to the legions who’ve encouraged me, and to my generous sponsors, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for this amazing journey!,” Eberhart wrote online the day he became the oldest to hike the Appalachian Trail.
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