{"id":20458,"date":"2019-12-06T14:34:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=61902"},"modified":"2019-12-06T14:34:10","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T21:34:10","slug":"living-legend-craigs-john-jepkema-seeks-world-record-as-oldest-man-to-hike-grand-canyon-rim-to-rim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/living-legend-craigs-john-jepkema-seeks-world-record-as-oldest-man-to-hike-grand-canyon-rim-to-rim\/","title":{"rendered":"Living legend: Craig\u2019s John Jepkema seeks world record as oldest man to hike Grand Canyon rim-to-rim"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
John Jepkema completed a historic rim-to-rim backpacking trip in late October, becoming the oldest person to ever complete the trip. <\/strong>
Courtesy Photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Craig resident John Jepkema has seen it all in his travels on foot.<\/p>\n

From walking all throughout Craig and Moffat County, trails in Palisade and Utah, and three trips rim-to-rim of the Grand Canyon \u2014 six times total at the bottom of the Canyon, Jepkema has always had his walking boots on.<\/p>\n

His last trip rim-to-rim in October was a historic one though. Jepkema, at 91 years old, become the oldest man to ever complete the trip, setting a Guinness Book of World Record in the process.
<\/a><\/p>\n

Jepkema completed the backpacking trip in October with Craig resident Ann Wagner, 70, and Loveland residents Craig Mortensen, 68; Pete Bergmann, 66; and John Whinery, 66. During the trip, the crew documented <\/a>Jepkema\u2019s journey for the record, allowing him to submit an application to the Guinness Book of World Record for the rim-to-rim hike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was special this time because we were able to document it for the record,\u201d Jepkema said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a few months before we get confirmation back that it\u2019s the record, but we know for sure I\u2019m the oldest to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 91, Jepkema spent 5 days hiking from the North Kaibab Trailhead at the North Rim to the Bright Angel Trailhead at the South Rim. Training for four months leading up to the hike, Jepkema started seriously training in July and walked roughly 5-8 miles a day, five days a week, allowing him some recovery time.<\/p>\n

Despite needing to walk around town to train, Jepkema was quick to point out that<\/p>\n

With his age and the record open, Jepkema decided to go for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty competitive by nature,\u201d Jepkema said. \u201cI knew it was an open record, so I decided to go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The backpacking trip through the wilderness over the 5 days allowed for plenty of time to socialize with the rest of the group, making for a good time for all.<\/p>\n

At the end of the walk, it wasn\u2019t the accomplishment that struck Jepkema. It was the amount of people lined up to take pictures with the nonagenarian hiker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was pretty special,\u201d Jepkema said. \u201cI am not sure how many lined up to take photos, but it had to be between 20 and 30 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting that, but it certainly boosted my ego,\u201d he added with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Now that the record is set, Jepkema says he\u2019ll take a break from hiking to possibly get back into competitive shooting, something he\u2019s done for more than 70 years.<\/p>\n

Jepkema shoots a .22 pistol and mainly attends matches in Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started competitively shooting with some friends years and years ago and just kept at it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be nice to get back into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Jepkema completed a historic rim-to-rim backpacking trip in late October, becoming the oldest person to ever complete the trip. Courtesy Photo Craig resident John Jepkema has seen it all in his travels on foot. From walking all throughout Craig and Moffat County, trails in Palisade and Utah, and three trips rim-to-rim of the Grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 10:30:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}