How fast do you hike?

I've determined I hike at a rate just a little faster than the NASA Crawler.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/crawlers.html

If I ever hiked well-graded and smooth trails, I could double it.

Cheers,

Rick

On a recent trip I did record day 1 stats. It represented my personal comfortable hiking style (longer days) and pace. Stats for modestly hilly (not mountainous) terrain:

54 y.o. (don't know how that happened)
205#
Relatively fit – jogging 5k is fine, 25k not so much
Pack weight with food and water = 19 lbs
23 miles in 11 hours but probably 9 hours of walking. Avg walking pace ~ 2.5 mph. Still, the breaks were needed so my effective pace was 2.1 miles/hr.

Passed by two trail runners carrying Camelbacks only. They were doing effectively the same distance. They figured 3 hours. 8 mph. Sigh.

Paul

from my experience, the typical trail runner does a 23 mile training run at a pace between 4 mph and 6 mph.

if those runners were really doing 8 mph you were passed by two high end champion trail runners.
or
the trail was all down hill :-)

I used to have a lawn mower that had a throttle with a turtle at the bottom and a rabbit at the top.

My hiking throttle is set to turtle.

I tried runners high once but it made me sick to my stomach.

I get no gratification from doing X miles. I just like being in the woods and meditating on everything around me.

is not champion level for that distance

my friend, who was 2nd in world 100K champs, did 50K at 10mph on pretty flat but very muddy trails (3:06:31)

i was way back at about 8mph (just over 4 hours, so 7.8mph or something like that)

Heck, even at 100miles on very difficult terrain (western states 100m), the winner averages 6.25 mph

They had the lean look of longtime runners. Plus the colorful racing clothes (never understood the neon clothing but hey). They did not seem boastful nor like they exagerating so I had no reason to doubt them. They were moving fast so that made for one quick conversation.

Anyway, back to the point, looks like ambling is 2mph and moving pretty good is 3mph. My guess is epic would be between 3 – 4 mph over harsh terrain for 14 hour days. Seems there are some that put in close to 40 mph. They could estimate mph for given terrain.

Curious what the numbers would look like with a 50 lb pack.

Cary,

Surprised no one commented on the fact that you consider yourself to be "half-fast". Don't be so hard on yourself. :)

Well, I'm not the same guy who ran that 50K a few years ago. Much much slower now (and unable to even consider the possibility of covering 50K in a day without some kind of vehicle). Right now I can barely do 8mph for one mile (as per a recent trial).

On the plus side (actually wrote "size" there first), there's more of me to love now. And I'm a better writer.

3.2mph is my most common pace. I've got my GPS on all day this summer, so I have lots of data on this. When it's flat, and I'm speedy, I'm going 3.6mph. Slow is 2.8mph. That's all moving average.

Did my record distance yesterday. 56 miles, overall average pace of about 2.6mph.

who has kept ahead of his expected itinerary since March! He blew through Southeast Alaska so fast I couldn't cancel a meeting to meet him across Lynn Canal

See http://www.andrewskurka.com/AK10/routemap.php for the route and dates.

I averaged 2 mph actual walking speed with a 60 lb pack. However, about 8 miles was the max for one day. And we several breaks.

With a 60 pound pack, I was going about half your speed, but I'd do between 9-13 miles a day. I think I've done a 17 mile day, but it was downhill, and I'd have to check my journal to make sure. I had to take longish breaks to dry out my socks and cool down my feet because I was wearing hot leather boots.

Nice thread. My sons call me Yoda on the trail so I'm guessing I'm not fast. Can't wait to compare times on my next hike.

My wife and I average 1.5-2 mph for every hour we're on the trail, depending on terrain. This includes stops for lunch, birdwatching, photography, navel-contemplation, everything. Sometimes we're only on the trail 5-6 hours, though more often 7-8 hours per day.

We don't plan to change a thing…we are very process-oriented, not goal-oriented. "Just being there" is what it's all about for us.

While hiking the PCT I consistently hiked 2.5 miles an hour. I was so consistent I could mark my chances to arrive at any destination within about 5 minutes.

Flat ground, clean trail, when acclimated to the elevation: 3mph

Ups and downs, rocky trail, insecure footing, being unacclimated knocks it way down. The only time I ever did better than 2 mph over felsenmere was trance walking. Then I did better than 4, but that was just crazy and I'm lucky I didn't break something.

Over the long haul, I think it is better to think in terms of mileage per day (or per week on long trails). There are just too many factors that affect instantaneous speed.

I'm with Cary. Start slow and taper off. What's the hurry? I'm on vacation.

I vaguely recall a good quote or anecdote in an otherwise average book about Randy Morgenson, The Last Season, where Morgenson asks a hiker who boasts about his hiking speed to describe what he saw while racing along a trail. When the hiker has a tough time doing this because he was traveling so fast, there is some observation about hiking not being a race. At any rate, I usually worry about "making good time" when I'm driving on the highway, but not so much while in the outdoors.

One thing I'm going to do to improve my speed (hopefully) is switch from heavy boots to mid-height trail runners. I'm looking at a number of them right now but I'm really intrigued by the Roclite 370s