In a statement posted to his website Friday morning, Scott Jurek issued his first public response to the three summonses he received from Baxter State Park on his final day of breaking the Appalachian Trail thru-hike speed record.

In it, he describes interactions with park rangers that offer a contradictory account to a Facebook post published by the park on July 16. Jurek claims rangers approved the size of his hiking party and allowed them to carry alcohol to the summit; these two matters were the basis of two of the three summonses he received.

Jurek told Runner’s World Newswire he felt compelled to respond because of the “personal attacks, misinformation, and flat out lies that have been posted.”

“I want to follow the rules and remedy the situation,” Jurek said. “I am not above the law; that is not who I am. If I was found to be doing anything wrong, then let's deal with it in a professional manner.”

The park issued Jurek summonses for three violations: hiking with a group larger than 12, the largest the park allows; public consumption of alcohol; and littering.

On Friday Jurek said he has not been issued a fine for the violations. If the park does choose to issue a ticket, Jurek said it could be for as much as $1,000 per citation. He has had no correspondence with the park since receiving the summonses.

In his statement, Jurek said he registered with rangers at the base of the mountain, and they confirmed his group was within the allowable size.

“When I arrived at the base of Katahdin, two park rangers counted my group and registered our number as within the authorized limit of 12 people,” Jurek wrote. “I stopped to pose for pictures with several large groups of people, including a trail work crew... There have been reports of a ballooning group size, but my group always remained at 12.”

Jurek also said a ranger at the trailhead seemed to permit a friend in the group to carry up a bottle of champagne.

“He asked the two park rangers at the trailhead if that was okay and was advised to keep it away from families and children,” he wrote in his blog. “To him, that sounded like alcohol was acceptable within reason. When I reached the summit, two different park rangers watched my friend hand me the bottle to celebrate. We were not aware of any rules against alcohol and I own that—I should have been better informed. Neither of the rangers said a word about it. If they had, I would have immediately put the bottle away.”

Jurek told Newswire the summons for littering came because of champagne spray. He said he was careful to pack out all of his trash, including the cork, before he hiked down.

“Anybody who knows me knows the way I practice leave-no-trace ethics,” he said. “Of course I am not going to litter.”

Baxter State Park Director Jensen Bissell spoke with the Portland Press Herald on July 16 and said Jurek received the citations from rangers at the summit of Mount Katahdin.

“He hiked down with the summons,” Bissell told the reporter.

Jurek, however, told Newswire that three rangers gave him the summonses in a parking lot near the trailhead after he had already hiked down the mountain. He said they requested to speak with only him, asking that the others in his group walk to another area. His wife, Jenny, asked to stay with him. She took the photo seen at the top of this article.

“I even told one of the rangers, ‘I think you are singling me [out]. Are you giving tickets to anyone else or is this to make an example of me?’” said Jurek, who believes that based on park rules, others in his party should have been ticketed as well. “He did not respond to that question.”

Jurek said the rangers congratulated him after handing over the paperwork.

Officials from Baxter State Park have not responded to multiple requests for comment from Newswire.

In the past year, Baxter State Park has expressed concern about its location as the northern terminus of the Appalachian trail, including a meeting with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy earlier this month concerning the growing numbesr of thru-hikers.

Ronald Tipton, executive director/CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), the lead nonprofit agency responsible for management of the Appalachian Trail, told Newswire last week he wasn't surprised Jurek received the citations.

“When I saw the photo with the champagne cork popping, I knew what was coming,” Tipton said. “[Jurek] erred in some aspects of how he handled the last day.”

When Jurek was asked if he felt like the park was using his accomplishment as another way to express those concerns, Jurek responded, “100 percent.”

“If they were trying to do their job that day, they would have told me before I spilled the champagne,” he said. “If it really was that big of a deal, somebody would have said something.”

While he wants to share his version of what happened at the summit of Katahdin, Jurek said he doesn’t want to point fingers. He said he wants to make it clear that he respects the trail.

In an email to Newswire, Jurek’s wife, Jenny, said that they packed out all of their trash, including more than 4,000 wrappers, which she sent to the recycling company TerraCycle.

“I think it's so easy to point fingers at Scott, saying he's a litterer and a self promoter,” Jenny wrote. “But how a person handles themselves in the darkest hours when nobody is looking speaks volumes. Scott carried out every scrap of trash, every square of used toilet paper, every wrapper he found on the trail that wasn't his. Scott continually moved downed trees and branches that had fallen on the trail.”

Kit Fox Special Projects Editor Kit has been a health, fitness, and running journalist for the past five years.

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