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He Survived Bear Attack on 530-Day Patagonia to Alaska Walk

Holly Harrison’s big walk

Holly Harrison, 58, just finished walking from Ushuaia, Patagonia, to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska over 530 days.

His 22,530-kilometre walk, an average of 24 kilometres a day, followed one of the world’s longest trails along two continents.

He’s only the second person to complete the walk, which means he gets the FKT for the trail. Before Harrison, George Meegan took over six years to complete the same journey 35 years ago.

Unlike Meegan, Harrison had homemade hiking poles fashioned from leaf blowers and baseball bats.

In South America, he ate mostly hot dogs, bread and cheese that he could buy from corner stores, often going days without food in remote areas.

Near the end of his trip, he was attacked by a grizzly bear, but beat it off to grab the world record for the hike.

“I just had a bear encounter,” Cargo said in a video he uploaded to Facebook.

The bear “sat up on his haunches right in front of me…started snorting, shaking his head and moving his paw…at me.

“I think I knocked the crap out of him, although I haven’t checked my own pants yet.”

Holly Harrison in Alaska

Harrison, known to his friends as Cargo, had survived drug-runners in the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama and suffered a heart attack in Nevada.

For the final push, he was constantly hungry and “needed to eat constantly.” He said he will document his travels in a book.

Visit his Facebook page below for more videos.

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