well. la di da. forgive me for having a well adjusted moment!
Lazarus
I never said you're not well-adjusted! You're just faster than I am. (Except maybe on bushwhacks. I suspect my navigational skills are a bit better, I get more practice.)Originally Posted by 1azarus
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
Hey you two: Play nice!
"It's fun to have fun, but you have to know how." ---Dr. Seuss
That's always a good thing....means you're not dead yet.
Hiking at any speed is still staying ahead of the couch potatoes at home.
Getting lost is a way to find yourself.
You said 1-1 1/2 with breaks. You are probably right around the average 2 mph which does not include breaks. Have fun, if you are worried about covering more ground hike longer not faster.
if you want your numbers to go up , think in kilometers'
it doesnt matter what speed you hike. what matters is understanding your pace so that you can plan your hikes, and be able to figure roughly how long it will get from point a to point b.lets say its 4pm and you get to a site, and its only 5 miles into town. if you know you can do 2mph, youll be in town by 7.if you hike 1mph, you would probably decide to just camp there and hit town the next day.as far as day hikes go, it makes no difference at all. ive had days i was out all day and covered just 4 or 5 miles.
Maybe you understand the world at 1 mph.
Maybe you understand the world at 1 mph.
I heard someone day that once. Sounded profound.
Oh, don't get me wrong...I'm impressed. You can't tell from where you're sitting, but I'm bowing before you performing the "We are not worthy" bow.
"Maybe life isn't about avoiding the bruises. Maybe it's about collecting the scars to prove we showed up for it."
When I am on the trail it's vacation. I have come into a resupply with a breakfast of a shared sninkers bar & bag of pudding for breakfast knowing we had 17 miles to do before the next meal. We laid over a day due to fog & didn't want to miss the beauty around us. To me time in the woods is about quality time. While doing a LASH filling in part of the PCT I skipped due to a bad snow year it was pretty common for me to pull out my sleeping pad & book at some beautiful spot for lunch, relax & mabey even nap. I hiked with one thru that year that got giardia & had to abort his hike & was hiking what he could after his recovery. When we departed ways due to different resupplies his last word to me were, "Thanks for reminding me how to hike civilized again." It's not the miles you hike. It's the memories you make hiking them!
You probably take lengthy breaks if you are average 1mph.
There is nothing wrong with it.
Enjoy it and HYOH.
Hiking without a schedule to adhere too, is preferable. No rush, no worries.
When I started my thru (flip flop), I was doing about 1.5 miles per hour in central Virginia. I remember being so excited that I did a 2.5 mph section one morning in the Shenandoahs, about week 4. I mostly hovered around 2 mph. Maine was more like 1 or 1.5. I stopped a lot to pee, look at views, take photos, have snacks, change my layers a zillion times (I refuse to sweat into a layer, but I also get cold fast, so I am regularly adjusting my clothes) and it all worked out. I agree with all the previous posters who note that what works for you is fine. When my husband and I go out for a hike these days, we probably average .5 miles per hour because he stops so often to take wildflower or insect photos. I've learned to just sit and relax and take in the view. I find that really hard to do if I'm going too fast - that's me personally. I like being in the woods to soak in the woods. I don't mind getting up early and hiking late if I need to cover a bunch of miles. And now that I've done the whole AT, my fave thing to do is go out for really short sections where I hike the shortest possible day - no more than 10 miles for sure, and stop a lot to rest, stare at the trees, snack, journal, take photos, etc. That is my kind of hike! Enjoy your pace!
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver
http://wildandwhiteblazing.com
1mph is 1.6kph.
Sounds better like that.
Top runners go to great lengths to improve their form, gait, cadence, all in the interest of becoming more efficient. I'm not suggesting you videotape yourself hiking and analyze your walking form like runners do! But you could try increasing your cadence - which means taking shorter steps faster. That often results in an increased speed without more energy expenditure. We all have a gait or hiking form that we have settled into, but that doesn't mean it is the most efficient one or even the most comfortable one. What you wear on your feet has a lot to do with it, as does the balance of your backpack and the amount of weight you are carrying.
Anyway, increasing your cadence is an easy way to experiment with changing your speed.
Swing your arms - this happens naturally if you use hiking poles. Swinging your arms helps your balance and gets you moving quicker.
Also, when the going is easy, speed up! This is obvious, but I see so many people lollygagging in easy sections, and then hear those same people complaining later about not covering the miles they wanted to. Downhill or level - speed up. Easy treadway - speed up. Rocky, rooty, or steep - slow down. Rocky climb - crawl!
Yeah steep upslopes and downslopes really do slow you down a lot. I think the most efficient speed on a flat surface is roughly 6 km/hr for a 6 foot tall person, and perhaps 5 km/hr for a 5 foot tall person. There is an article out there somewhere on the most efficient slope for elevation gain and loss, so there are some non-linearities. Roughly speaking a 10% slope takes twice the energy of a level surface, but a 20% slope takes more than three times as much. I hate perfectly flat surfaces like converted rail beds. A 20km stretch on the Confederation Trail in PEI kicked my ass. Part of it is expectations but I think it also has to do with muscle groups. Anyhow, I use cumulative elevation gain to manage my expections. If I can do 25km per day over a section of 5% cumulative elevation gain, which is sweet escpecially if gentle and rolling and winding, then a section of 15% might only get me 15km/day, and if there are a lot of really tough spots that are really steep with switchbacks or Jacobs ladders and such, that same 15% will knock you back to 10km/day, and yeah some parts I have to work hard to average 1 mph. There are quite a few sections of the Fundy Footpath where you get slowed to 1 km/hr, and the entire 24 km takes about 24 hours of hiking over 3 days. Then there is ground conditions which will slow you down further like puddles, muck, snow, ice, darkness. Extra weight will slow you down fairly linearly to a point, then beyond that like a steep slow it will just kick your ass.
Sorry. Fundy Footpath is 42km or 26 miles, not 24km. It takes about 24 hours of hiking for most people, over 3-4 days. I think the cumulative elevation gain is something like 5km or 5 miles but I'm not sure which. I know from personal experience I like to do it with no more than 240 pounds total weight on my feet, and if my total weight on my feet is under 200 pounds I am comfortable mixing in some trail running on the flat sections. So ideally if my body weight is under 180 pounds I am good to go with a 20 pound pack. If my body weight is 220 pounds, and I want to carry 40 pounds, I will be hitting a lot of walls, and the down slopes will be even more painful after the first day. There is a breaking point. You don't want to go there. Best to do moderate sections until you get the body weight and gear weight in check.
The fact that you’re asking makes me believe that this is not just a question of curiosity of where you stand; it probably bothers you a little.
However, that’s OK, it should, there is nothing wrong with pushing yourself, despite what others say. Taking it too easy in life is the leading cause of Decrepit-broke-dick-old-man disease; if you don’t want to push yourself in hiking, then find something to push your limits in, such as cycling, running…
I don’t know how long your breaks are and not totally clear in the area you’re hiking, but I think it’s a safe bet to classify your hiking pace as slow. I’m assuming you’re hiking around the Pawling NY area.
Enjoying life too much is bad for your health.
It depends. If comparing yourself to others is going to make you get discouraged and quit, then don't do it. It's better to get out and enjoy yourself and not get out at all. You might not believe it, competitive soul that you are, but there are some people - me, for instance - for whom competition is a demotivator. And we're drawn to hiking, because it's an athletic pastime that we can do without having constantly to stack up our performance against others.
At this point in my life, I'm never going to be anything but a slow hiker. But at least I'm a hiker. And at the moment, I get more out of pushing myself with bushwhacks, or Class IV scrambles, or snow, or peak-bagging rather than in trying to rack up a certain number for the mileage.
For me, the only reason to get the mileage up would be to avoid carrying as much weight when I do some of the hikes I'd like to do someday. There's one hike that I'd like to go on sometime in the next few years that is about 50 miles, with no resupply opportunities (although there's a crossing of a logging road at about mile 36 where others have managed to arrange a pickup). A modest increase in my usual miles/day could translate to a couple of pounds less of consumables in my pack. That's a stretch that the people in thru-hiker shape can do in three days, while the guidebook says to provision for six. The book recommends a day's reserve to deal with the inevitable washouts, bridge collapses, and beaver activity. It is possible to have to spend an extra day negotiating that section. It's a pretty wild place, and the trail maintenance is also limited by the distance that the trail stewards have to travel, so problems with the trail tend to stick around for a while.
And around Pawling, NY -- well, the A-T through there is pretty easy, but some of the local trails are not easy. Breakneck Ridge south of Beacon is tough, and if he makes it across the river into the Catskills - still only about an hour drive for him - he gets to some seriously nasty trails. I'd put the Devil's Path up there with, oh, say, a New Hampshire section like the Wildcats. It never breaks out above the timberline, but it's got everything else. A typical puzzle from there (click through for a bigger version) is below. The three ladies in blue are coming down by the most plausible route. The genrleman in white is waiting for them. Most hikers were taking at least several minutes to recover their composure after this pitch, which was one amongst many. If you're not used to climbing, the routefinding alone in this sort of terrain can consume a lot of time. Yes, that's a red blaze on the tree at left.
Rock scramble by ke9tv, on Flickr
Almost immediately above that section there's a nice vertical chute, with a four-inch red disc screwed into the rock to mark the trail.
Rock chimney by ke9tv, on Flickr
And a claustrophobic boulder crawl that I cannot squeeze through without taking off my backpack:
Boulder crevice by ke9tv, on Flickr
Anyone who would call this sort of trail, 'easy,' is either lying to make a point, or else has gone entirely mad. So don't assume that pawlinghiker walks only easy trails.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
Agreed. I've already had some pretty steep climbs and decents.
Can't wait to get out this weekend
Happy Thanksgiving
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