At some point, finishing isn't enough. Episode 3 follows two men who came for the number: one who chased a ghost record by starting in May and hiking south toward home, and brought a camera that slowed him down by several days and maybe kept him from quitting; and another who lost a year to a helicopter evacuation, came back, and crossed the same spot in the wilderness 12 months later with new ground ahead of him for the first time. "You can always make more money," he says. "You can't make more time."

Show Notes

Jeff Garmire completed the Calendar Year Triple Crown in 2016. When asked if there was a Fastest Known Time for it, he said it wasn't really a competitive thing, people just want to finish. Then he was asked directly whether anyone had hiked it faster than him. He said he thought he was among the faster ones. That's how the FKT era begins.


Episode 3 of The Big Year follows two men who came for the number afterward: Billy Meredith, who aimed at a 236-day ghost record instead of the official 252-day FKT, started in May instead of January, and hiked south toward home; and Nick Gagnon, who lost a 2024 attempt to a helicopter evacuation in a remote stretch of the Continental Divide Trail and came back in 2025 to finish what he started.


Billy brought a Fujifilm camera that slowed him down by several days, and says it may have kept him from quitting. Nick went self-supported and pure, every decision under the clock, ending his year with a 50.3-mile final day in the rain. Billy finished in 234 days. Nick broke it with 231.


Guests:



  • Billy "Wahoo" Meredith

  • Nick "Chezwick" Gagnon

  • Jeff "Legend" Garmire


Topics covered:



  • How the FKT conversation started, and Garmire's original 252-day benchmark

  • Billy's strategy: a May start, a southbound finish, and a ghost record nobody else was chasing

  • A chance meeting with a competitor's parents on the PCT outside Yosemite

  • The camera that cost Billy time and the reasoning behind carrying it anyway

  • A helicopter evacuation from a remote stretch of the CDT, and the comeback the following year

  • What self-supported purity means, and what it costs

  • A 50.3-mile final day, soaking wet, deciding not to spend one more night on trail


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