“This is insane,” wrote Jared Fenstermacher afterward.
Walking with his hands, carried at times, it took Fenstermacher and his helpers seven hours to travel the one-third of a mile between the Appalachian Trail trailhead and Mount Algo shelter near Kent, Connecticut.
“I refuse to quit.”
Indeed. In 2016, Fenstermacher was taking a break from his thru-hike of the AT to raise money for charity by cycling across America. Eighteen days into his ride, in Iowa, he was struck by a distracted driver in a pickup truck. He suffered a concussion, broken bones in both arms, and a T5 spinal injury rated ASIA C on the impairment scale—he had some movement from the stomach down but was effectively paralyzed. His recovery required a month in the hospital and another six weeks in a rehab facility.
And yet, in 2020, he returned to Iowa, mounted his new recumbent bike, and hand-cycled twelve hundred miles to Ocean City, Maryland, to complete his ride.
In 2022, with unfinished business on the Appalachian Trail, he returned to
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