Saw this in yesterdays comics:
"It does not matter how fast you go"
"As long as you don't stop"
Holy Mole
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Aren't we all supposed to hike our own hike? Fast or slow?
No, most of us are supposed to sit at our computers discussing it.Originally Posted by twinsinpa
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
The article defines 'fast' as a 5-7 km/h pace. I do that in town with a light pack, and I'm slow.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
like a failed shoot, its that sudden stop that’ll kill ya every time...
CYOC
Whenever possible...choose yur own chores
The avg pace for backpacking is generally given at about 2 MPH. For those that go big, from all that I observe, no matter what the fastest folks say, it's a combination of hiking faster at a more rapid MPH pace than avg - above 2 MPH AND hiking - actually on the move, longer hrs. Average 3 MPH rather than 2 MPH for a 12 hrs on the move per day you're looking at 12 extra miles per day alone. Be on the move 14-16 hrs rather than 10 hrs tack averaging a moderate 2 MPH you're in that 30 miles/day zone. It's not just about hiking longer hrs for those that consistently go big.
The older I get the slower I hike but I still hate to stop for anything. Then when I’m finished I think back to all the views, etc. that I missed and wish I had slowed down.
I can't believe how fast most people hike... Sure I could do over 15 mile days all the time but not if I actually want to enjoy myself a little... Most thru hikers won't take a 30 yard side trail to a view cause they just want to push on, its kinda crazy sometimes... I'm doing every view/waterfall or anything that sounds good within a mile... 3 months and 1 day on trail in Harper's Ferry, averaging just about 11mpd overall, right on track to get up north during the prettiest time...
Anyway point is nothing wrong with 10-15 mile days, HYOH... If the trails too busy just take a break and "smell the roses" letting everyone fly by and knock out the trail like it never even happened
Exactly. Too many times I've seen thru-hikers push right past a short side trail to a spectacular view. What's the point of completing the trail if you don't stop and enjoy the scenery?
I know I could do more than 12-15 MPD - but I don't. After I get to about 12 miles (6-8 hours with breaks), things start aching, I start moving more slowly and enjoying myself less. I did one 18 mile day on my last trip, the last 3 miles took over 2 hours, and I was miserable by the end. If I'm taking vacation days from work to hike, is it really a vacation if I'm pushing hard to make big miles?
It's all good in the woods.
I can't believe how fast most people hike... Sure I could do over 15 mile days all the time but not if I actually want to enjoy myself a little... Most thru hikers won't take a 30 yard side trail to a view cause they just want to push on, its kinda crazy sometimes... I'm doing every view/waterfall or anything that sounds good within a mile... 3 months and 1 day on trail in Harper's Ferry, averaging just about 11mpd overall, right on track to get up north during the prettiest time...
Anyway point is nothing wrong with 10-15 mile days, HYOH... If the trails too busy just take a break and "smell the roses" letting everyone fly by and knock out the trail like it never even happened
dont take this the wrong way, it isnt meant as an attack or anything, but i think its a good opportunity to highlight what i think is the real difference between "slow" and "fast."
lets start with your average, 11 MPD. lets say youre in an especially striking stretch of trail and you hike 3 miles in a day going to/from waterfalls and things.
that puts us at 14 MPD. we'll round it and say 15 MPD, total trail miles and side trip miles.
if you were to go hiking now, sunrise is at 5:24 am and sunset is at 8:28pm. thats roughly 15 hours of day light.
for sake of argument, lets say your pace while moving, be it either on the AT or on the 3 mils of sidetrails, is 1.8 MPH.
15 MPD/1.8 MPH is 8.33 hours of hiking time. lets round it to 9.
15 hours of daylight minus 9 hours of hiking leaves 6 hours.
my question is, legitimately, what are you doing with those other 6 hours?
whatever it is, i likely have no interest in doing it. thats why i "hike fast."
if you do enough of it it eventually gets easier and your threshold at which it starts to not be fun gets higher. thereby allowing you to have more fun in the long run for dealing with some discomfort in the short term.
And there are those for whom 12 mpd is a lot, and to them you are a mileage maniac.
Do what you like—the only one you have to please is yourself.
The Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter ~ Cam "Swami" Honan of OZ
Exactly. What ARE people doing when not hiking? Mostly sitting around in camp or at a shelter, that's what I see. I call some of these folks "shelter rats", because they get up early, hike a moderate pace for 7-8 hours, doing their 14 miles or whatever, then they sit around all afternoon.
Some of us are out there to HIKE, not sit.
It's weird how folks will diss us higher mileage folks, yet still say "but hike your own hike". Why the diss first?
For the record, I'm a s-l-o-w hiker, barely over 2 mph on average, but I just love to hike, so I'll be out there hiking for 9-10 hours, hence my 18-20 mile days on average. I see just as much as you supposed "smell the roses" hypocrites.
Further snarkiness: I think there is an absolute correlation between folks that diss higher mileage hikers and just plain being out of shape/fat/whatever. Get in shape. Maybe eventually you'll actually enjoy hiking.
a similar sort of hiker i see sometimes, but rarely, is a weird amalgam of the two.
they sleep in until 10, dont pack up until nearly noon and they quit 6, if not earlier.
and in between they tear off 18 miles like it was nothing.
ive mostly observed this in thru hikers who have been at it a long time.
I did this on a hike one year, hiking "with" others, we all stopped at the same location every nite. I remember a couple of nites that I hade several hours left over waiting on them and was bored to death. Looking back, I probly would have more enjoyed going on and leaving the group to hike my own hike.
OK - first off, my backpacking trips are usually in April/October, so let's cut that total daylight down to 12 or 13 hours. What about the other 4 hours, you say?
I get up at first light (~6-6:30), but it's usually 1.5-2 hours before I start hiking. I cook and eat breakfast, and I sleep in my tent, which takes time to re-pack. In general, I'm very slow packing up because my brain refuses to work until my morning caffeine has had a chance to kick in. Not that I'm in a rush or anything.
I try to get 8 hours of hiking in, which puts us at 4:00 PM, 5:00 PM at the latest. I average around 2 MPH without breaks. With breaks it's usually more like 1.5-1.8 MPH depending on how difficult the trail is.
Then I set up camp, get/filter water, cook and eat dinner, etc. That takes another 2 hours. So there's 12 hours.
The rest of the time? In order of importance, 1) Sleep for 9-10 hours, because a) I can (I have 2 small children at home), and b) my body needs more rest after a full day of physical activity, 2) read a book/study next day's hike, 3) socialize.
It's all good in the woods.
Exactly! You do it your way. Cool. Lots of folks do something similar, lots of other not. BUT, why do folks on here bad-mouth others' ways of hiking/backpacking?
It really is HYOH folks.
I do absolutely agree on your last comment, the sleep thing: Life on the trail is a fantastic way to really catch up on sleep. I sleep best on the trail. Well, not on the actual trail....
This is a wild rose I saw on the top of Sinking Creek Mtn, central VA AT. I stopped. I smelled.
rose.jpg
so youre taking more time to setup/break down camp, spending more time asleep, reading a book and socializing.
i submit that I, and probably many others like me who are often described as "hiking fast" or "being in a rush" simply greatly curtail or do not do those things. that doesnt mean myself and others like me are going too fast or are missing things or are just in a rush to get done.
thats why i hike alone. even the few times i attempted to hike with someone who was on (at least) my level in terms of time spent hiking and distance covered in a day, the dynamics of moving as a pair instead of singly is just different.
to cite a simple example- you arent both going to need to stop and pee at the same time. so if youre hiking together youre now making twice as many pee breaks.
same goes for getting water, stopping to have a snack, to take a picture.... you name it. i found it easily adds up to a couple of hours a day less time to spend hiking.
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