90-Year-Old Dale “Grey Beard” Sanders Sets Out To Reclaim AT Age Record: Meet the Man Behind the Legend

Dale “Grey Beard” Sanders became the oldest person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in 2017, completing the roughly 2,200-mile trek at age 82. He held that title until 2021, when his lifelong friend and fellow AT legend MJ “Nimblewill Nomad” Eberhart took it in 2021 at age 83. 

Fiercely competitive, Grey Beard set out on another AT thru-hike attempt on September 6th, 2025. His mission? To reclaim the age record.

He is now 90 years old. 

The AT is far from Grey Beard’s only accolade. He also has a gold medal in competitive spearfishing and holds age records for hiking the Pinhoti Trail, the Florida Trail, and the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim, and for thru-paddling the Mississippi River. 

What makes a serial record breaker tick? Our writer met up with the man himself before he began this most recent AT attempt to learn more about his fascinating history.

— Ed. 

Rendezvous With a Legend

Ever since I heard of Grey Beard’s plan to attempt another record-setting AT thru-hike, all I could think of was going to meet this amazing human. One thing led to another, and soon I found myself on a seven-hour drive to his home on the outskirts of Memphis, TN.

After ringing the bell at his beautiful home and getting no reply, I walked around to the back side of the house to discover a long-haired, white-bearded old man reclining on a porch swing, a baseball cap covering his face.

I must’ve startled him when I pierced the silence of this peaceful day by calling out, “Knock, knock!” He sprang up with the strength of a much younger man, instantly sliding his cap back on top of his white head.

After exchanging greetings, he led the way around the house on a concrete walk leading down to the entrance of his basement. Grey Beard informed me that this finished basement was sometimes used as a hostel for people paddling the nearby Mississippi River.

After giving me a tour of the rest of his spacious home — most of it looking like it had been furnished by a professional decorator and beautiful enough to be included in a Better Homes and Gardens photoshoot — we went back downstairs to the hostel. Settling in, he unfolded his life story to me over the next several hours — and what a life it has been!

I will admit to being quite starstruck when the realization set in at what this man of action has done in 90 years. It was a humbling experience, to be in the presence of a legend who has lived, and continues to live, his dreams to their fullest.

Grey Beard: Before the Beard

Dale Sanders was born on June 14, 1935 in Logan County, Kentucky — about an hour’s drive north of Nashville, TN. Although his early childhood was in the height of the Great Depression, he said he has no memory of it. By the time he was old enough to know what was going on, the Depression was over and World War II had already begun.

“I grew up in hard times,” he said gravely. Although the nation had transitioned into a wartime economy, the economy in Logan County continued to struggle.

At the end of the Depression, his father bought 82 acres of farmland with an “old rotten log house on it” for $1,800 (“can you imagine that?”). There, the family raised tobacco and grew much of their own food.

To supplement their protein needs, Grey Beard said that when he was around 5 years old, he began using a 22-caliber rifle to hunt small game on their property (he still has that rifle to this day and hasn’t fired it in over 70 years). 

He estimated that 95% of their meat came from his hunting, along with fish they caught from the waterways around there. “Many meals would have been meatless without this gun,” he told me. “My mom always kept food on the table” throughout all the hard years, he told me, and he was glad to have done his part to help.

His father loved to fish. “Whenever my dad talked about fishing, he would literally begin to tremble with excitement.” He said that ironically, his dad didn’t like to eat fish, he only liked to fish, often giving the excess catch to friends and neighbors.

He remembers his dad as a hardworking soul whose pleasures in life were simple: besides his favorite pastime of fishing, he would often go to the local country store and sit on the bench, conversing with neighbors, buying and selling knives, or just playing checkers.

Grey Beard said that besides hunting, he and his handful of close school friends spent their free time exploring the many caves in the area.

Junior High: The Bullying Begins

Grey Beard was often bullied once he reached junior high because of his thin, 5’6” frame. Instead of letting it hold him down, he told me, “I chose to let it make me better.” Competitive by nature, he began seeking out an arena where he could beat the bullies and eventually landed on acrobatics.

It worked. He was good at acrobatics — a natural, even — and because of this, from that point on, “the bullying went away.” But it had a lasting effect on him: as he says, “I am who I am because of bullying.” 

During his high school years, after his first job as a soda jerk in a local diner, he moved on to his second job one summer as a lifeguard at Camp Curry, a boys’ camp on Kentucky Lake, where he became a certified swimming instructor and a specialist in handicap swimming — a skill that would benefit him for the rest of his life.

The 1950s: The Economy Rebounds

Approaching the 1950s, the economy in rural Kentucky began to look up. In 1947, his dad was able to tear down that old rotten log house and build a new, four-bedroom farmhouse in its place.

Though it had electricity and lights, “we didn’t have a bathroom, plumbing, or air conditioning because my family couldn’t afford it.” It also lacked a telephone — something he only acquired years later when he was in the navy — and a television was out of the question. “The first time I saw a television was in 1951 at a Hancock’s furniture store in Russellville, KY.”

However, by the time he was a senior in high school, the family did finally get plumbing in the house. 

At one point in our conversation, he told me that his only regret in life is not studying harder in high school. “The Korean War was going on at the time,” he confided. “I truly thought I was going to be killed, so I thought, what’s the use in wasting time on education?” But the war ended shortly before his eighteenth birthday, and his life took a different path. 

Time for a Change

Raising tobacco was hard, nasty work. Although he grew up in a tobacco culture, he said he never smoked. He remembers vividly the stench of the tobacco processing room, where large smokers were used to help cure the hanging tobacco. That smell only intensified his dislike of tobacco. “I hated tobacco, I absolutely hated it,” he said in a tone of pure disgust. “That’s the main reason I had to leave that farm.”

He continued, “When I graduated high school, I grabbed a rusty old suitcase and hitchhiked on Route 66 (there were no interstate highways in those days) all the way to California,” where his uncle James lived about five miles away from Disneyland in Anaheim.

At first, he took a job hanging sheetrock, but “I hated it and didn’t last more than three days.” Right after that experience, he applied to work at Disneyland, where, because of his background as a lifeguard at Camp Curry, they placed him in Parks and Recreation. “I worked at Disneyland when it was new,” he is proud to say.

Before long, he joined the Navy. He once again found himself in Parks and Recreation, where his skills in handicapped swimming served him well in rehabilitating wounded Korean War veterans.

“I Always Liked Making People Happy”

He spent four years in the Navy, where he rose to the level of regional director of MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation — the new name for Parks and Rec) and oversaw four different military bases. It was a perfect fit for him.

“It’s a good field because I always met people when they were at their happiest,” he reflected. “I always liked making people happy,” he said, and when people were engaged in recreation, “they were always in a good mood.”

After his Navy years, he remained in MWR in the Civil Service. For the next 33 years, he inspected MWR programs at over 100 bases worldwide, finally retiring in 2002.

During his long and illustrious career, Grey Beard managed to earn three degrees: an associate’s, followed by a bachelor’s in Parks and Rec, and finally a master’s degree in education.

Another activity Grey Beard pursued along the way was competitive spearfishing — something he excelled at. In fact, he did so well that he was on the national championship team in spearfishing, and in 1965 achieved a gold medal as a US athlete. Proudly holding his medal out to me, he said, “Out of a room full of trophies, this is the only one I wanted to keep.”

In 1980, while he was director of MWR at Subic Bay in the Philippines, he met and married Meriam and has been with her ever since. They have three children: two sons and a daughter. One of the sons and his daughter now live nearby in the Memphis area, while the other lives out of state.

Retirement: The Next Chapter

Upon returning to the US, his last posting before retirement was at the Naval Air Station in Millington, TN, where he currently resides.

Grey Beard told me that his original retirement plan was to move to Florida, but Meriam, who had developed a tight-knit group of friends in the Filipino community near the base, insisted they retire there.

Though it wasn’t his first choice to remain in Tennessee, Grey Beard made a deal with Meriam: “If you let me travel and do my adventures, I’ll build you a nice house here and we’ll stay in the Millington area,” a proposal she gratefully accepted.

Meriam shared with me why she loves it here. She explained that she loves the Filipino community at her church and how important it is to be able have Bible studies and pray in Tagalog, her native language. She said that this is what keeps her from getting cabin fever and helps her cope with being alone while her husband is away.

“I support my husband,” she told me in a calm, serious tone. “It’s good that he has adventures and does things that make him happy.” She later revealed insight into why their marriage works: “I’m the hidden nail that holds the building together.”

Competitive Spirit: Let the Records Be Broken!

For many people, life is winding down at 80. Not so for Grey Beard.

When he retired, he began doing a lot of canoeing on the nearby Wolf River and hiking in local forests. But the competitive spirit that had always been so integral to his life only continued to grow.

Tired of canoeing and hiking locally, when he turned 80, he decided he wanted to do something big. With the Mississippi River nearby, he decided that since nobody in their 80s had ever canoed the entire Mississippi, he would be the first.

In 2015, he paddled 2400 miles from the Mississippi’s source in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, becoming the oldest person to do so. Several years later, when he discovered another old man had broken his record, Grey Beard went back and set the record again at 87, and still holds that Guinness record to this day.

There was even a movie made about his river trip entitled “Greybeard: The Man, the Myth, the Mississippi,” a moving documentary of his epic adventure. And, just like the abundance of trail angels on the AT, he couldn’t say enough good things about the Mississippi River Angels, without whom his experience wouldn’t have been anywhere near as pleasant.

Longer Trails Are Calling

At 82, with the Mississippi River feat behind him, Grey Beard set his sights on another big goal: becoming the oldest person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail.

So, in 2017 he began his AT flip-flop thru-hike: Springer Mountain, GA to Harpers Ferry, WV, then Mt Katahdin, ME back to Harpers Ferry.

His plan was to “leapfrog” his way up the trail, using his van as a base. He would park the van at a trailhead, hike about 100 miles, get a shuttle back to the vehicle, then repeat this process for the rest of the trail.. He could store food in the van, sleep in it, and use it to get to and from towns for resupply and hostels for hygiene and laundry needs.

What he didn’t expect was how hard this hike was going to be on his digestive system. “My stomach hurt all the time from trail food; it didn’t agree with me.” Before long, he got down to 135 pounds. “I could not get enough good food, and my body was devouring itself.”

What saved him was when he met up with a couple thru-hiking out of their truck. Together, they devised a plan to park their vehicles at opposite ends of a stretch of trail, hiking in from different directions, exchanging keys in the middle, then meeting up later in towns where they could get good, hot meals at restaurants.  

This Year: Attempting to Reclaim the Age Record on the Appalachian Trail

On September 6, 2025, Grey Beard began another record-setting attempt of the Appalachian Trail.

The method of flip-flop he is using is a bit unconventional: starting at Harpers Ferry and hiking south with the fall colors, taking the winter off — he doesn’t like cold weather — and then resuming northbound in spring from one mile north of Harpers Ferry all the way to the northern terminus on Katahdin. 

He is saving that first northbound mile out of Harpers Ferry for the very end, so that he can return and share the final mile of his journey with friends, family, and the media.

As long as the hike is completed within 365 days, it counts as a legitimate thru-hike.

This time around, he plans to have Guinness officially recognize this hike, something nobody has ever done on the Appalachian Trail, with the exception of ultrarunner Karel Sabbe’s 2018 Fastest Known Time.

Grey Beard has already filed an application and is setting up the recognition process: he must have statements from personal witnesses both on and off trail, maintain a logbook and a spot tracker record, and present video evidence of his hike.

Some close friends plan to hike along with him on the first leg of his flip-flop hike for moral support and, as he puts it, “just for the fun of it!” Among them are Nimblewill Nomad — the current AT age record holder — Barry Riddle, and Lori Underwood Willis.

Another friend, Johnathan Biebesheimer, plans to hike with him for the first four days and will afterwards continue to help from the home front by coordinating shuttle drivers and maintaining Grey Beard’s website and social media pages.

A special group of volunteers will also support him in his hike. For the duration of the first leg, he’s got several teams of volunteers lined up at segments along the way: one to drive his 2000 Chevy Silverado 2500 camper  and another to drive a shuttle vehicle to transport them to towns and hostels along the way.

Next spring, starting April 6^th, a different group of volunteers will essentially do the same thing.

Grey Beard will be carrying a spot tracker so that everyone can keep up with his progress (the tracks will be available on his website). “If they use the satellite view, they can see the tree that I’m sleeping under!”

He said he welcomes anyone following along to show up on the trail and hike a few miles with him. At my request, he’s even going to carry some different colored clothing marking pens so that he can sign his name on their shirts.

This tracker also serves to confirm the legitimacy of his hike for Guinness.

Of all the things he is looking forward to on this hike, one of the highlights he shared with me is meeting trail angel legend Miss Janet Hensley. “In my way of thinking she’s the queen of the trail.”

Funding His Hike

Grey Beard told me that he has no sponsors and did no fundraisers for this hike. Though he sells merchandise on his website, he assured me that he doesn’t make any money as the merch is priced almost at cost. “I want people to be able to afford my stuff.”

Between equipping his truck camping rig, hiking gear, and money for the hike, he said that he’s already spent over $30,000 of his own money.

Fortunately, Grey Beard owns a triplex apartment in Memphis, a charming, gingerbread-style apartment house beside his home, and a room in the upstairs of his house—all rented out and bringing in steady income.

He shared with me how much he desires to have a videographer document his hike, similar to his Mississippi canoe trip. But videographers are expensive, and he feels most are unwilling to invest in a video production at this point because, “they don’t think I’ll be able to finish.” His hope is that when he finishes the first leg of the hike, someone may come along and decide to cover the remainder of his hike.

Superhuman? Grey Beard’s Current Health Status

On a recent doctor visit,  Grey Beard’s doctor said to him, “There’s no other 90-year-old like you, and I’m going to keep you alive till you’re 100.” Yet despite his many athletic achievements and his overall good health, he is still human and is not without some health challenges. 

He had surgery to overcome a bout of prostate cancer in the early 2000s and has had to start taking cholesterol and blood pressure medications over the years — although he was able to stop taking them for the duration of his first AT thru-hike. Grey Beard is also hard of hearing. Though he wears hearing aids, “Whenever I get in crowds with lots of conversations and background noise, I can’t hear a thing.”

During my visit, he demonstrated for me how he is unable to pick up a coin off the table since losing the end of his right thumb between a motorcycle chain and sprocket back in 1971, although he can pick up just about anything else quite easily. When the accident first happened, he said, “My first thought was, can I ever spearfish again?”

Grey Beard said he currently weighs 146 pounds. Considering how he initially struggled to maintain his weight during his first AT thru-hike, this time around he plans to get healthier food in towns along the way from the get-go.  

Beyond that, he deals with a certain amount of joint pain. “Right now, I’m having problems with my right knee and am working on exercises to get it in shape for this hike.” However, on a recent training hike, he said he moved up and down those hills with ease. He also experiences some foot pain but finds that it normally clears up after he starts hiking, and a little bit of shoulder pain.

Grey Beard said he looks forward to turning 100 (“so I can get a letter from the president!”).

The Spiritual Side of Grey Beard

That Sunday morning before I left, I took Grey Beard up on his invitation to accompany him to his church.

I was taken aback at the size of his church, which had roughly the footprint of a small shopping mall.

The pastor delivered a stirring sermon about having faith in one’s destination while in the meantime focusing more on prospering and enjoying the journey. 

When I asked Grey Beard if he was going to employ this message in his life and focus only on enjoying the journey on his upcoming hike, instead of the goal, he demurred. “Absolutely not,” he shot back. “I’m in this hike to break a record, and I must be focused solely on that effort. Otherwise, what’s the purpose?”

Still, during my interview, he had shared a moving experience he had while hiking on top of a mountain on his previous AT thru-hike. Gazing upon the wild landscape, he said, “I felt like in my mind, I was everywhere at once — the lakes, the valleys and the mountains — I was one with everything that I saw. I was here, I was there, I was everywhere; I was with God and in God.” 

“I can’t get into that mood by myself,” he continued. “There’s no drug that can bring you a feeling like that.” Aside from the record-setting goal, I suspect that he has the underlying desire to get back on a mountain and have that pure, blissful experience again.

Leaving a Legacy

Why does the age record motivate him so much? “I like to break records,” he told me, seeming almost chagrinned to admit it. “I know it’s selfish, but it gets my good adrenaline flowing, and that has the potential to increase my lifespan.”

He said the legacy he wants to leave by setting all these records is to inspire people to live better, healthier, longer lives. “I’ve always cared about people, and I do this because I still care about people.”

A Lifetime of Achievements

• At 30, he won a US gold medal for spearfishing
• At 80 and again at 87, he set the age record for canoeing the Mississippi River
• At 82, he set the age record for thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail
• Also at 87, he obtained a Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to do a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim (there and back) hike of the Grand Canyon
• He holds unbroken records for being the oldest to hike the Florida and Pinhoti trails
• At 88, he entered a spearfishing competition in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, coming in third place team in the master’s division (Over 50+). He said, “I’m the only person in their 80s that has ever competed in a national spearfishing competition.” He came out with 20 fish, and his teammate, a younger man in his late 50s, also had 20 fish. In true macho fashion, he bragged that he got the gold medal because “mine were bigger than his!”
• At 90 (this year), he is going to once again attempt to become the oldest person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail

What’s in Grey Beard’s Future?

Not one to sit back and bask in the glory of past achievements, Grey Beard said he is always looking to the future.

Yet at the same time, when I asked him if he ever feels like time is closing in on him, he said he never thinks that far ahead; he lives every moment to its fullest.

Currently there is a 91-year-old man who holds the age record for hiking Rim-to-Rim (one-way) in the Grand Canyon. Grey Beard holds the age record for hiking the Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim, that is, there and back. But because of his competitive nature, Grey Beard said that when he turns 92, he plans to hike the one-way Rim-to-Rim and claim yet another record.

With a twinkle in his eye, he added, “God willing and the creeks don’t rise!”

Featured image: Photos via Dale “Grey Beard” Sanders