When Jamieson Hatt set the inaugural unsupported Bruce Trail FKT (fastest known time) in 2022, he knew his benchmark wouldn’t stand forever. His mark of 14 days, five hours and 20 minutes on the gruelling 900-kilometre trek from Tobermory to Queenston, Ont., was lowered a year and a half later by Canadian ultrarunner Cody Taylor, who shaved off five hours.
Hatt was proud to see the record progress, but the idea of getting it back never fully left his mind. “There was a part of me that knew I could do a lot better,” Hatt told Canadian Running. “My goal [in 2022] was just to finish.”
He planned a second attempt for early May 2025, but two days before his start date, his father, Ken, died suddenly. “It came as a shock—I thought my dad was in perfect health,” says Hatt. “I knew I had to put the Bruce Trail away for a while and support my family.”
In the weeks that followed, the 45-year-old stepped away from the sport. But with time, he realized what his dad would have wanted. “There’s nothing he would’ve wanted more than for me to be out there training and doing the thing I love to do,” Hatt reflects. “A few weeks later, after completing a backyard ultra, I knew what I had to do.”
The second attempt
With Hatt’s window narrowing, he chose to take on the Bruce again in late August. “There are pros and cons to doing it this late,” he says. “The heat and vegetation are tough: lots of tall grass, morning dew, everything constantly soaked. But the upside was that I could pack light. My base weight was just 6.25 lb. (2.8 kg), and I didn’t need much cold-weather gear.”
When you’re running and hiking for more than a week, struggle is inevitable. On the second day, it drizzled nonstop, leaving Hatt’s feet soaked. “By the third night, I questioned if I’d even be able to continue. I called my wife, and she told me, ‘You never make a decision at night.’”
The next morning, he pushed forward, leaning on his simple mantra: keep showing up. “That was the turning point,” he says.
Why you should plan a trip to Ontario’s Bruce Trail
Reaching the record
On Aug. 30, Hatt reached the southern terminus in Queenston, Ont., in 12 days, 11 hours and 38 minutes, smashing Taylor’s unsupported Bruce Trail FKT by a day and a half.
“It’s cool to get a good time, but what I am most proud of is overcoming adversity and making it through,” Hatt says. While he imagined the emotions of finishing, he said he never let himself get too far ahead of himself. With more than 60 FKTs now to his name, he knows these challenges can be 50/50 at best—one clip of a rock, or root, and it could be over.
The unsupported style is considered the purest (and often most respected) form of FKTing: athletes must carry everything from the start, with no resupply or external aid, relying only on natural water sources.
Hatt says he’s unsure what challenge lies ahead, or whether he’ll tackle the Bruce Trail again, but the thing that’s kept him running for the past 27 years is the drive to take one step further.
