A 91-year-old Bartlett, Tennessee man is once again the oldest person ever to complete the Appalachian Trail, capping an 11-month, 2,193-mile journey that included 71 falls, a brief hospitalization, and a stumble just 200 yards from the finish line. Dale Sanders reached the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine on August 31, pausing to pray at the summit sign in Baxter State Park before officially reclaiming the record he first set nearly a decade earlier.
Sanders first became the oldest Appalachian Trail thru-hiker in 2017 at age 82, only to lose the title in 2021 when M.J. Eberhart completed the trail at age 83. According to the Associated Press, via Action News 5, Sanders trained for six months before setting out again, launching his comeback hike from West Virginia on September 6, 2025. He reclaimed the title of oldest hiker to complete the trail this year at age 91, according to the AP account carried by the Memphis station.
Rather than hiking the trail's full 2,190-plus miles in one straight direction, Sanders used a flip-flop strategy — an approach the Appalachian Trail Conservancy recognizes as an official thru-hike so long as every section is finished within a single year. As detailed by The Trek, Sanders went southbound from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to Georgia starting in September 2025, took a winter break, then resumed northbound from Harpers Ferry to Katahdin come spring. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy defines a thru-hike as completing all sections, in any order, within one year, and per BroBible, Sanders finished in 359 days — just six days shy of that 365-day cutoff.
A Grueling Final Stretch
The hike was not without serious peril. Sanders was briefly hospitalized after his left arm went numb, a scare that doctors ultimately determined was a pinched nerve rather than a stroke, and he had returned home to Tennessee in early August to be with his wife before finishing the trail. He suffered scrapes to his legs, arms, and hands along the way, was briefly hospitalized after one especially hard fall, and endured a rough tumble in a boulder field while descending Vermont's Killington Mountain in June.
The toll was cumulative: six hard falls during the hike overall and 71 falls in total as he worked to reclaim the record. On one 12-mile hiking day, he lay down and slept briefly on the trail from exhaustion. Then, with the finish nearly in sight, he fell just 200 yards from the end of the trek before pushing on to summit Katahdin.
Sanders' fall count sits within a broader public health pattern among older Americans. According to CDC data updated in 2026, more than 14 million adults age 65 and older — roughly one in four — report falling each year in the United States, making falls the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries in that age group.
A Rival Turned Support Crew
Sanders' comeback carried an unusual note of camaraderie: the very man who had taken his record in 2021 helped him win it back. As reported by Smithsonian Magazine, M.J. “Nimblewill Nomad” Eberhart drove Sanders' support vehicle, nicknamed the “Base Camp on Wheels,” for the first 800 miles of the comeback hike and walked alongside him on some of the toughest sections.
Upon finishing, Sanders said he thanked God, his support team, and everyone who helped him along the way. He also said that people are motivated and encouraged by his efforts, and that his mission expanded beyond simply reclaiming the record.
A Lifetime of Extreme Endurance
Sanders, born in Kentucky in 1935, served in the Navy and retired from a career in parks and recreation in 2002. Following that retirement, he served as Director of Outreach for the Wolf River Conservancy in Tennessee, where, according to the Wolf River Conservancy, he authored the group's 2010 River Guide Manual and created its monthly public paddling program.
His athletic résumé stretches back further still. Per UC San Diego's Healthy Aging program, Sanders set an underwater breath-holding record in 1959 and was named Athlete of the Year by the International Underwater Spearfishing Association in 1965, decades before he turned to long-distance hiking. He also became the oldest person to paddle the entire Mississippi River, a feat he completed in 87 days after starting the trip on his 87th birthday. During his first Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2017, at age 82, the same UC San Diego program notes that Sanders suffered severe digestive issues that dropped his weight to 135 pounds, along with heart palpitations and internal bleeding in Maine's Hundred-Mile Wilderness that nearly forced him to abandon the attempt.
Cheers From Home
News of Sanders' finish drew reaction from his hometown. Bartlett Alderman Kevin Quinn congratulated Sanders on social media, saying Sanders inspires others to keep pursuing challenging activities as they age. Meredith Ewenson, who led a hike in New Hampshire for 10 other women earlier this summer, said Sanders showed that anything is possible and that the journey matters most.
The achievement stands out against long odds facing any Appalachian Trail hiker, let alone one in his 90s. The Appalachian Trail runs between Springer Mountain, Georgia, and Mount Katahdin, Maine, and according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, between 3,000 and 4,000 hikers attempt a full thru-hike each year, but only about 25% ever complete the entire distance.
