i know this is a random shot in the dark but figured it was worth a try.
i'm contemplating a trip to isle royale and several times now i have happened upon admonishments that say things like "experienced backpackers should plan no more than 8-10 miles a day."
to me this means one of two things- the NPS be trippin' or the hiking here is on the level of hiking in the whites.
i suppose the trails could be similarly rugged to the whites, but given the lack of any serious elevation, i still have a tough time taking their advice as something that should be heeded.
i wish the NPS was more consistent about these things. they seem to on one hand make all sorts of hyperbolic warnings of imminent doom for doing some rather innocuous things, while on the other (though less commonly) telling people "yeah sure, take a 25 mile day hike over 2 mountain passes, you can do it! no problem!"
it seems like the deciding factor is the gloom and doom is often done in places where unwitting travellers are present in droves and arguably need to be saved from themselves. (ex- the grand canyon)
applying that concept here, i don't see isle royale as likely to be a place that some hapless soul will decide to venture to and bite off way more than they can chew. so maybe the hiking there is really THAT tough? but i digress...
so is hiking here really that hard? if i plan on doing even 12 or 14 miles in a day i'm going to fall over unable to continue at the 9 or 10 mile mark for some reason? is doing 12 miles here somehow harder than doing say.... franconia notch to galehead in 1 day? or grafton notch south for 10 or so miles? or kinsman notch to franconia notch?
thanks for any insight.