In an era where humans carefully monitor their fitness watches to ensure they're getting 10,000 steps a day, Jeff Garmire, a 27-year-old consultant from Vancouver, Washington, logs about 60,000. On average.
Gamire is a long-distance backpacker. He's known in the hiking community by the nickname "Legend," and for good reason: Two years ago, he trekked all three of America's best-known trails—the Triple Crown of Hiking, which is composed of the Pacific Crest Trail (2,650 miles), the Appalachian Trail (2,190 miles), and the Continental Divide (3,100 miles)—in a single year. To date, only three other hikers can say the same.
This year, Garmire is tackling an even more unprecedented challenge: the Great Western Loop, a mega-trail that combines five separate trails and spans nearly 7,000 miles. Only one other hiker has done it. Garmire recently spoke to GQ about how one trains to walk around the entire Western half of the country; the secrets to refueling using only what you can carry; and what it's like to come face-to-face with a grizzly bear out on the trail by himself.
GQ: What do you do for work when you're not hiking?
Jeff Garmire: I've worked in the accounting and finance field, and basically save all my money. I need to hike to keep my sanity, I guess.
Did you have to quit in order to hike? Do you just look for jobs when you get back, or…?
For the Triple Crown, I was able to take a leave of absence, so basically I got my old job back. This time I just went ahead and quit everything. We'll see what I do when I'm done.
How do you train for a 7,000-mile backpacking trip?
I do a lot of trail running. I'd run four to five times a week, five to nine miles a day, 30-35 miles a week, with maybe 4,000 feet of elevation gain. One of my favorite routes is about 1500 feet of elevation gain and maybe six or seven miles. I'd do that one a couple times a week.
What are you eating on the trail?
I've made some of my own food, and my aunt and my mom have helped with home-dehydrated meals. I'll buy food when I hit a town, too. I'll usually start with couscous or ramen noodles and add, like, tuna packets. If I can, I get dried vegetables to throw in there.
My favorite food to eat is a wrap. I'll take tortillas, sharp cheddar cheese, and pepperoni or summer sausage or salami—some meat that will keep for two or three days in a backpack—and then either like hot sauce or mustard. Usually the first day out of town I'm pretty lucky because I can also pack out an avocado or two.
I try to eat something every hour throughout the day, and to stay away from the sugary stuff. I think that really helps keep the energy really constant throughout the day as compared to waking up and eating a bunch and then not eating again for three hours.
Is that enough food? Or are you always hungry?
I've had to ration it a few times. I usually come into town hungry. I would say I carry just a little bit too little food. and then I just make it work.
Do you get any major food cravings?
I really love pizza. I kind of have the appetite of a five-year-old. I don't get a ton of cravings when I'm in town, though. I'm kind of used to what I eat most of the time, and can spice it up a little bit and make it good. I'm not too picky, mostly because in a lot of these towns, there are only a few hundred people, so there's not a lot of choice as to what you can get.
How many days of food are you carrying at a time?
My next section is a big one, so probably five days. I have 170 miles from here to the next resupply point, so I have quite a bit of food.
Watch:James Marshall Takes on Marathon de Sables, a 140 Mile Race Through the Sahara DesertHow heavy does that make your pack?
It never gets over 30 pounds, but sometimes hits the high 20s.
What would people be surprised to learn that you don't carry with you?
Probably that I don't carry a gun. Especially in Wyoming and Montana, people ask that a lot. It's grizzly country up here.
And you've come across one, right?
Yeah, I was hiking through the Bob Marshall Wilderness, right before the crossing of the south fork of the Two Medicine River. I saw a bear with its head kind of in the huckleberries and it heard me coming and pulled its head out. Behind it I saw two grizzly bear cubs. The mom was probably about 60 feet away. She started sprinting towards me.
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I pulled the bear spray out—I keep it in the water bottle holder in my pack—and took, like, an athletic stance, ready to fight off the bear. But at about 25 feet away she stopped and just stood there and stared at me. I still had the bear spray ready to go, but she turned around and ran down the trail, grabbed her cubs, and took off into the brush. I had the rest of the evening to hike after that, too—and that's when all the scenarios started playing out in my head.
Are you carrying a tent?
It's a single-wall tarp tent, so it's about as basic as you can imagine. I cowboy-camp whenever the weather isn't too threatening. The only other time I won't cowboy-camp is when I've been up at 9,000 or 10,000 feet—it's been pretty cold at night, and body heat keeps the tent 10 or 15 degrees warmer. But cowboy-camping is my preferred method when it works out.
Are you sleeping directly on the ground, or do you have a mattress of some kind?
It's a foam pad. It's really not that comfortable, but it's lightweight and it doubles as the back of my pack. I get eight to nine hours of sleep, and spend 15 to 16 of either hiking or taking a break. Even just a month ago it was probably seven to eight hours of sleep and more hiking, just because there was more daylight. I don't use an alarm, so I just get up whenever I get up. When the sun was coming up at 5:45 A.M., I would be up and hiking.
How does...showering work?
I'm in a town once or twice a week, and I shower in most towns, but not all. And I definitely don't do laundry every time. I've gone a pretty long while without doing laundry before. It's my least favorite thing to do.
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