Extreme distance hike record for Josh

Image courtesy of Mercy for Animals

Our site already features a number of vegan distance runners, so we were interested to learn of the recent exploits of Josh Garrett. Josh has recently finished hiking from Mexico to Canada along the 2,655 mile Pacific Crest trail in record time.

The course goes through seven national parks and twenty-five national forests including the Sierra Nevada Mountains at 13,000 feet and sea level sections as well. It includes dry desert areas and wetter areas where he had to wade through chest-deep streams. His official time of 59 days, 8 hours and 14 minutes means he averaged around 45 miles per day, and beat the previous record by a massive five days.

Josh, a college track coach and teacher,has been vegan since 2011 when a friend introduced him to a video of the meat industry, then to ‘Forks Over Knives’. “It made me sick to my stomach. My consciousness started to change. The final straw was when I saw the movie ‘Forks Over Knives’, which lays out, mostly through interviews with top doctors, how bad meat and other animal products are for you, and how good a plant-based diet is. There was just no half-decent reason not to go vegan. ”

“It just isn't hard to have a seitan cutlet instead of a steak, or a veggie burger instead of a Big Mac. And you can still go out and eat thai food and chinese. Just order the tofu dishes. Indian, ethiopian, and italian restaurants also have plenty of good vegan choices. Plus a lot of the food you already eat is probably vegan.”

On the hike Josh ate a lot of vegan bars, nuts, cookies, peanut butter and kale chips among other things. He was motivated to start the hike to raise money and awareness for 'Mercy For Animals' who raise awareness about the animal food industry.

Video and more on the hike Mercy For Animals