Cam Bostock on his Upcoming Bibbulmun FKT, the Beauty of Trail Magic, and Hiking as a Sport

Last year legendary Aussie hiker Cam Bostock secured the fastest known unsupported hike of the 1000km Bibbulmun Track. Now he’s back to tackle the even harder self-supported record – but not before spreading a little trail magic of his own.

I’m a trail runner. In fact, I could claim my status as an ultra runner, with a bunch of 50s and one 100km run under my belt. What Cam’s doing makes all that look like a warmup. He’ll need to tackle 90km a day for 11 days, with no aid stations and a hiking pack that’s just a running vest with 2kg of stuff in it, if he wants the self-supported FKT.

But this isn’t his first rodeo. Last year Cam hiked the Bibbulmun Track in 14 days, 7 hours, and 49 minutes, securing the unsupported FKT, meaning he carried all of his food and gear with no resupplies. The self-supported FKT is faster as he’ll be able to access drop boxes and any external help available to all hikers, like shops.

Ahead of this challenge, Cam ventured out to spread a little trail magic. The concept – which originated on the 3,540km Appalachian Trail in the United States – is centred around providing unexpected kindness to long distance hikers, with their purveyors known as trail angels.

Aussie Cam Bostock (@cambostock) has thru-hiked all over the world

In Australia we have a bunch of long distance hikes and thru hikes, yet the concept of posting up at a random spot to provide food and cold drinks hasn’t really caught on.

With the northern terminus of the trail only half an hour from his front door, and countless hours logged, Cam decided to head to a remote part of the Bibbulmun Track the other week to bring some trail magic downunder.

I caught up with him to find out more.

Interview with Cam Bostock

Tim: So you’re heading off tomorrow?

Cam: I’ve delayed it till next Monday now, there’s some terrible weather on the south coast section of the track, like 30mm of rain a day for the next five days. 

Oh my goodness.

Yeah it really is all about timing on these things. And luckily I had a few days when I could start. 

I guess you’re trying to find that spot when it’s not too wet and not too hot, or bushfirey. 

It’s so hard to find the perfect balance. You’re always going to get less than ideal weather. But choosing when you start is kind of the biggest superpower. So I’d rather not start during a massive storm front.

Well thanks for jumping on to chat. We’ve done a little bit of work with you and have been following your adventures and the growth of your hiking supplement Optiventure.

Yeah, I love what you guys do! It’s good to chat man.

How’s it all going with Optiventure?

It’s been a really good year, our marketing has been purely organic and we’ve had a really good six month period of record sales month on month. 

It’s very much a side gig but it’s ticking along nicely, building a great community and, you know, the best part is people are using our product on trails all over the world, 

People are just noticing a big difference when taking it, which is so awesome.

Cam with one of the early iterations of Optiventure

I think it’s such a cool idea, it just filled a gap that I’d never really considered, but it makes so much sense and obviously comes from experience.

Yeah, we literally created this for ourselves because Hursh, my co-founder and myself were both pretty big supplement nerds. We used to take a bloody pharmacy out with us on expeditions. And we just, we just were like, why isn’t there like an all in one? 

Thankfully our Head of Nutrition & Science Jess is a qualified nutritionist and was able to help us formulate it so it was science-backed.

I kind of love how that’s where hiking is going a little bit. Like, I’m an ultrarunner and I’m used to having all this gear kind of tailored for me, but I feel like hiking hasn’t been taken that seriously.

Exactly, right!

Thru hikers always say that we just borrow solutions that are made for ultrarunners or Hyrox or Crossfitters, like we’re buying electrolytes and supplements and all these things that aren’t made for us. 

So it just blew me away that there wasn’t actually a product dedicated to it because we have very unique demands nutritionally. 

Speaking of nutrition, more recently you’ve been spreading a bit of trail magic. I’d love to know what was your first experience of trail magic on your hikes?

I walked the Pacific Crest Trail in the US in 2024 and that was one of the best trail experiences of my life. And a big part of why it was so good, apart from how beautiful and incredible the trail is, was the community around the trail itself.

The people I hiked with, the trail angels, and the people who wanted to help hikers. There’s such a history on that trail and I experienced so much trail magic on the PCT at one point. I remember early on in the trail, I experienced people driving out to trailheads and cooking food for us four days in a row. Four separate groups of people. 

After a dose of trail magic in the US, Cam was keen to bring it down under

Some people go so extreme with it. Like I remember during that four day period, this trail angel just drove out randomly and brought like 20 pizzas to a trailhead. And there happened to be like ten of us hikers there. And we just smashed the pieces because we were so hungry and it was the best day ever. 

What do you think motivates these people? Are they often connected to the trail in some way?

It’s such a popular and iconic trail. People that have been thru-hiking this thing since the 70s. So most of the time people that are coming out are connected in some way. Like maybe they hiked it a decade ago and every year they come out to give some trail magic to this year’s hikers. 

When I was in the US this year one of my big goals was to go back to the PCT and give some trail magic. And I think that’s the case for a lot of people.

And in Australia, on the Bib, you haven’t really experienced that hey?

It’s not really part of the culture here, there’s less of a backpacking culture in general. But I’m going to make it my mission now to bring that culture here because I just think it’s so, so cool. 

So does it count if someone’s spreading some trail magic and you’re doing the self-supported FKT, because everyone can access it?

So last year I did unsupported FKT and in the unsupported category there’s no outside help whatsoever. So it’s a no go. However this year I’m attempting the self-supported FKT. Technically, if other hikers can access it, then I’m allowed to.

But, it’s an interesting one, especially in my case because I have a bit of a platform and people know me for hiking the Bibbulmun multiple times. Like I’ve already had people offer to come out and give trail magic while I’m on the FKT. But that’s not in the spirit of the rules and like, typically there is none.

I can imagine it gets pretty controversial!

Yeah, we’ve had our fair share of FKT controversies on the Bib, so I prefer to just play by the rules and play it safe.

So where did you set up? How hard was it to get to?

When I gave some trail magic in the US I found out that it’s way more fun giving trail magic than actually receiving it, just hearing people’s stories. So when I got home I was like, I’m going to do this again. And I particularly wanted to get out to a more remote section of the Bib where people definitely wouldn’t be expecting to see trail magic.

I’ve been driving this Mazda BT-50 ute for the last 14 months at this point and it’s a very capable four wheel drive. So I made it my mission to do a bit of bush bashing and go exploring south of Perth in the Darling Range.

I thought you might have purposely gone somewhere that people wouldn’t expect you, How was it received?

The Bib doesn’t have much trail magic as it is, so people aren’t expecting it anyway, but being out in a spot that’s like so far from any town, so far from any asphalt road, so when people walked around the corner and saw me they were very confused.

I think a lot of people were actually a bit apprehensive, like what is this guy doing in the forest? But I did make a cardboard sign that said trail magic with a little arrow. If you’re a thru-hiker you kind of know what that means. Even if you don’t experience it much in Australia. People were a little bit curious I think. There were a few people who didn’t stop (laughs).

Surely you’d stop for this, right? RIGHT?

I had quite a few people just like blown away that it was happening and so excited. I was cooking burgers, had cold drinks. All the stuff that I always crave when I’m on trail, especially in a section that’s a fair way between towns. We had some happy hikers, that’s for sure.

That’s awesome. I think it’s such good karma just before jumping back on the trail again for an FKT. 

I get wanting to go back to the trail because you love it. But going back to do something so brutal, the hardest thing you’ve ever done, what do you think’s drawn you back?

I do love the Bib. It’s in my backyard, so there’s that nostalgia factor to it. I’m always on the Bib doing like multi-day trips or overnighters.

And, you know, I’m also really just a competitive person. I love pushing myself. I love competing, and for the longest time, I was like, how am I supposed to out-work my competitive nature in the world of hiking, it’s not really a competitive sport. It’s more of an individual activity. And then when I discovered the world of FKTs, which is like, pushing hard and going fast on long trails, I was like this is the perfect outlet. 

It’s like, a relatively easy non-technical trail with no big mountains. So it’s a good entry point. It’s a good entry point for beginner thru-hikers too.

Last year was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it was also probably my favourite thing I’ve ever done. And ever since I finished it and completed it, I’ve just been craving that feeling again. And I really did consider doing a different trail this year. But the Bibbulmun Track’s always just calling to me. So I’m going to head back again to the same trail and there’s different different categories in the FKT world. So I can go for a different record on the same track.

And with the experience of it last time, is there anything you’re doing differently with your training or your gear?

Funnily enough, I’m not really training specifically for it, but I just live a very active life. I do a lot of hiking so naturally I’m in pretty good shape. I’ve just come off a couple of months hiking in the European Pyrenees and Dinaric Alps so my body’s sort of fit and firing, which is nice, I’ll try and utilise that. 

But I learnt a lot last year for sure. Whether it’s like little gear optimisations or nutritional optimisations, or you know, pacing strategies, all that kind of stuff. There’s lots of little things that I’ll be implementing in this FKT for sure that have been learned from previous hikes.

I love how all of this, all the questions, is just tied together because that’s just your life. You’re just thru-hiking and it’s all connected.

Yeah, it’s a good life!

Cam is planning to start his self-supported Bibbulmun Track FKT on Monday 28th of September – you can track him digitally (and see his gear list) on Optiventure’s site. Although self-supported FKT hikers aren’t allowed spectators, that doesn’t extend to messages, which he says give him a much needed boost in the depths of a difficult attempt.

Photos thanks to Cam Bostock