Another Milage question

[V Eight]

I've hiked from Springer to Wesser, NC (NOC) half a dozen times. The question is, if I have an average daily mileage rate of 14.5 miles on this section. What would be a comparable average for SW Virgina? I'm just starting to look at my first hike here in VA in a few weeks. Looking at AWOL's guide and the elevation profiles, I would think I should be able to pull at least 16 - 18 mpd maybe a little more, with the same load.

[kayak karl]

how many hours per day are you hiking ?

[V Eight]

9 or 10 hours in decent weather.

[Slo-go'en]

SW Virginia is a lot harder then it looks on the map. There's a lot of up and down, much of it doesn't show up on the profiles. Microbumps is I what I call them and they can be relentless. The climbs are short, but often pretty steep and there can be a number of them in a day. Your cutting across the grain of the ridge lines there, not going along them until you get to Pearisburg. And if your looking to go in a few weeks, that's the beginning of February so all bets are off as to the kind of weather you'll get.