Just 14 days, 14 hours, 26 minutes and zero seconds.
That's how long Renee Miller spent on the Oregon portion of the Pacific Crest Trail this past July.
Those 14 days, 14 hours, 26 minutes and zero seconds spent there alone set the new record for the women's fastest known time unsupported on that hike.
Becky Rogers set the previous record at 16 days, four hours, 44 minutes and 11 seconds on Aug. 8, 2023.
Miller documented much of her journey on TikTok, as two million supporters rallied from all over.
Here's more about the how, why and everything in between, of her journey:
Q: When did you first start taking a liking for outdoor recreation activities?
A: I think it was kind of in college when I met my, now, husband. I was kind of more interested in sports, you know, running and swimming, and he was kind of a camper and boy scouts. I kind of started doing some camping trips with him and then backpacking and it started getting more and more intense every time.I think he was a sophomore and I was a freshman when we first met.
Q: At what point in time did you decide, "I'm going to do the Pacific Crest Trail"?
A: (My husband) Tim and I hiked the entire Pacific Crest Trail in 2018, we through-hiked the entire trail, absolutely loved it, and got very addicted to through-hiking and long outdoor adventures.
After that we did two more big, long through-hikes and just kind of heard about this thing called FKTs, and started following the FKT website on Instagram.
I saw that someone last year set the unsupported women's fastest known time for the Oregon section of the Pacific Crest Trail and I just kind of looked at the her miles per day, and I just was like, oh, that seems like something I could do.
I'm not like the fastest or the best out there, but I just got it in my head after I saw that a record, a baseline, was set and just was like, 'I need to do that next year,' so I did.
Q: Can you tell me more about how your TikTok following came to be?
A: It was honestly a complete accident.
The long story of it is after hiking the full Pacific Crest Trail in 2018, my husband and I moved to Germany for work, and we built a hiking app for some of the German longer trails. We thought, oh, we should market this, you know, the new thing is making videos, but we had no idea how to do that, so we made a personal account to practice.
We played around with it for six months in Germany and then came back to the U.S. to do another longer hike, the Continental Divide Trail, and the first video we posted was dehydrating rice, and it got million views and just took off from there.
Q: What were some of the bigger, or unexpected, challenges of the hike? How did you overcome them?
A: One of the biggest things was it was unsupported, so I had to carry all my food the entire trip, I couldn't stop and get more, so my back was just way heavier than I'm used to. I tried to prepare for that, but I think just because of that and trying to hike so many miles per day, my body was just so sore every night. I was having a really hard time sleeping, so I think that ended up being one of the biggest challenges.
Just the goal made me overcome it, just thinking, I know I can do this, I know I'm tired, my body is hurting, but just that goal was there.
Toward the end, I started having like mild hallucinations like just walking down the trail and saying, oh, there's the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. No, it's just a tree stump.
Q: Now that you've completed it, can you describe the feeling of accomplishing your goal?
A: It was pretty awesome to finish and I was definitely very proud of myself. It was kind of a crazy heat wave, there was more snow than I expected and a lot of downed trees, so I was just thinking wow, I did it, I can do things like FKTs.
My sister-in-law met me at the finish and I told her I'm never doing and FKT again, that was so hard, but then, you know, a couple weeks later I started looking up what some other FKTs there are.
Q: What is a lesson you took away from this experience?
A: I usually do these long hikes with my husband, but I did this one completely on my own, unsupported, and it's pretty cool being out there knowing I can do these things by myself and be strong.
Q: So, what's next?
A: I'm set on a big, long-term hike in a year or two, but I work full-time in between. I'm a mechanical engineer and I love my career, so it's always a balance between quitting a job or taking time off.
In the shorter term, I'd like to do another week-long hike and we have our eyes set on the lowest to highest route, which is from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney.
Q: Anything to add?
A: Get out there and follow your dreams and goals.
Find some of her photos and journal entries online . Her and her husband's TikTok is @thruhikers .
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