View Full Version : Stats for average daily mileage
Pooja Blue
12-29-2004, 18:22
Is there an online source for this? The best I could find at the ATC site was 8-10 mpd for novice hikers, but I need a source for an overall average, not just at the beginning (obviously, you don't remain a novice hiker over the course of a thruhike).
SGT Rock
12-29-2004, 18:30
Go to Trail Journals and find a hiker with similar gear and experience. The Trail Journals' software breaks down that information for each hiker under "stats". It can give you an idea of how a hikers mileage changes and such.
Pooja Blue
12-29-2004, 18:39
I need an overall statistic, not an individual hiker's experience. I have that already.
SGT Rock
12-29-2004, 18:41
None that I know of. My guess is you will have to get as many complete stats from that site and determine the average on your own.
The "Appalachian Trail Workbook for Planning Thruhikes" has a good table in there about what type of average you should make based on start times, direction, and expected time on the trail. It's pretty simple math though. If you are expecting to finish in 6 months, you'll need to average about 12 miles a day. If 5 months, it'll be about 14.5 miles per day. Now that is an overall average. At the beginning 8-10 miles a day is about right, but you'll start to pick that average up as you go along. For example - when I started out I was averaging about 10 miles per day. By the time I reached Damascus it was more like 13-15 miles a day. When I finally reached my destination in Pennsylvania I was doing 18-20 miles per day. My overall average was about 15 miles per day though over my whole trip. These numbers would probably be different for each person. I hope this helps you some.
Sarge
Pooja Blue
12-29-2004, 19:05
I could have sworn the ATC site said something about 12 or 14 mpd average, but I can't find it anywhere now.
Jack Tarlin
12-29-2004, 19:19
Pooja:
The present Trail is 2174 miles long. In that most hikers seem to take in the neighborhood of six months to hike the Trail in its entirety, this means that an average daily pace of just over 12 miles a day is required (180 x 12 = 2,160).
In point of fact, you'll probably have relatively few 12 miles days. You'll have many that are shorter (i.e. in the beginning of your trip; in difficult areas like Southern Maine; when you are entering towns to re-supply, or on your first day out of a resupply town, when you're likely to leave in mid to late morning and thus have an abbreviated hiking day). Plus there will be "town" days or days off, when you don't hike at all. Obviously, if you're on a twelve mile a day pace, if you take days off, which you surely will, then you'll have many days when MORE than twelve miles a day is required in order to maintain your
"average."
I think you'll discover that except for the beginning of your trip, where you'll be smart to start slow and build up your mileage, and then again towards the end of your trip where the terrain might force you to slow down a bit, in most cases, you'll be hiking somewhere between fourteen and eighteen miles a day.
If you're willing or able to give yourself more than six months for your trip, this of course means that your daily "average" will be somewhat less than twelve miles per day. Likewise, if you're attempting to do the trail in leass time, say five or five and a half months, then you'll either have to limit your
time off or zero-mileage days, or you'll have to be increase your daily mileage.
But all things considered, most hikers, for most of the trip, seem to cover fourteen to eighteen miles a day, depending on their health and conditioning, their pack weight, the weather, and most of all, on the difficulty of the terrain. While fourteen to eighteen might seem like a lot, there are many sections of the Trail where this is surprisingly easy to do, especially if you start early in the morning, rest as needed, and are willing to hike til the end of the day.
Many hikers find the Trail maps particularly useful for their daily planning, as a careful study of the "elevation profiles" of the Trail will provide you with a good idea of what the terrain is like ahead of you. In many cases, this will help you know when to go for a "big mileage" day because the terrain is easy, and when it'd be foolish to over-reach. The elevation profiles are your best resource in telling you what your next day's hike is likely to be like (i.e. mostly flat; lots of little bumps; several really steep climbs; extended uphill sections, etc). The better informed you are of what lies just ahead of you, the better off you'll be in knowing when to go for a "big" hiking day, or when it'd be smarter to take it easy and go for shorter miles til things get a bit easier.
Pooja Blue
12-29-2004, 20:04
Hm... I guess I wasn't specific about what I was asking for, judging by the responses.
I don't need general information about average daily mileage or explanations about what it is and what determines it or how to calculate it. I just finished a thruhike. I understand all that - believe me.
What I need is a URL for a reputable online source (like the ATC site, not just Jane Shmane's Thruhiking Page) that I can link to that states an overall mpd average for thruhiking the A.T.
Maybe I'm not asking on the correct board but I was hoping it was a pretty straightforward Q&A-type question.
SGT Rock
12-29-2004, 20:07
Have you read "Long Distance Hiking: Lesson's Learned From the Appalachian Trail"? That has a lot of stats and data of every sort.
Pooja Blue
12-29-2004, 20:20
Is it online somewhere? I need something I can link to. Thanks.
Jack Tarlin
12-29-2004, 20:21
Pooja:
Sorry I misunderstood your question.
If the info you're looking for is found on-line on an "Official" website, I'm unaware of it; you might want to contact the ATC with this question to see if they can help you.
SGT Rock
12-29-2004, 20:22
No, the data isn't on line, it is in a book. You could possibly write up some of the data and reference the book if you have a copy. I'm not sure of the rules on that but I think it falls under fair use.
swamp dawg
12-29-2004, 20:26
I recall a very wise hiker giving me a few words of advise when I asked a similar question many years ago. He said listen to your body and the trail will let you how far you need to travel. Enjoy your journey and the miles will come, it will really suprize you. Life is good on the trail....Swamp Dawg
Pooja Blue
12-29-2004, 21:01
I've already thruhiked, I just needed an online source I could link to. Thanks, anyway.
The book Sgt. Rock is making a reference to is
Long-Distance Hiking: Lessons from the Appalachian Trail by Roland Mueser (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Roland%20%20Mueser/104-9855768-9635949). The author passed away this past year I believe.
The link on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0070444587/qid=1104381189/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-9855768-9635949?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Anyway, the book has all kinds of stats. The stats are some what outdated as it was published in 1996.
If you want a snapshot of 1998 hikers, check out Datto's graph:
http://friends.backcountry.net/datto/pic/HIKES03.jpg
Finally, Sgt. Rock's other idea is the best bet: compile your own stats from trailjournals.com.
It will take work but the raw data is there from 1998 - present. It has a ton of different hikers in terms of age, hiking style, equipment, etc. It will take some work on your part, but you will get a very accurate snapshot of MPD average for thru-hikers.
Here's an example of the STATS section for a journal on trailjournals.com for well know white-blaze person. Hope he does not mind I purloined his stats!
Trip Miles 2174.20
Total Number of Days 147
Total Number of Zero Mile Days 11
Total Number of Hiking Days 136
Average Miles per Day 14.79
Average Miles per Hiking Day 15.99 Average Miles per Week 103.53
Again, with some work on your part going through the journals, you will find the stats you need. Up to you if you want to do this work.
I recall a very wise hiker giving me a few words of advise when I asked a similar question many years ago. He said listen to your body and the trail will let you how far you need to travel. Enjoy your journey and the miles will come, it will really suprize you. Life is good on the trail....Swamp Dawg
An excellent reply and excellent advice.
Despite all the words on this and other forums, and all the many books, both best sellers and vanity-published, the Appalachian Trail remains a very under researched phenomenon. All we know is 99.9 percent anecdotal. I can think of a hundred potential doctoral theses that could be written.
Weary
Rain Man
12-30-2004, 23:21
Have you bothered to contact the ATC at all?
:sun
Rain Man
.
What I need is a URL for a reputable online source
The guys that have answered your question on this thread are reputable. Why not link to it? I don't think I've ever seen daily mileage stats on the type of website you're looking for.
You could ask Leif and Zipdrive from Trailjournals to put together a query that will average the daily miles on all the AT hikes in their databases. Don't know if they'd do that for you or not. But, you still have the problem of the average not being on a web page.
Good luck in your search.
Is there an online source for this? The best I could find at the ATC site was 8-10 mpd for novice hikers, but I need a source for an overall average, not just at the beginning (obviously, you don't remain a novice hiker over the course of a thruhike).
6 months hiking= BEST POSSIBLE ESTIMATE:
12 miles per day avg.
average miles per day may vary for everyone,due to combo of elavation,pack weight
how long you stop and so forth also a factor is how many hours a day you hike
i spend a minimum of 12 hours a day hiking,i average 20 to 25 miles a day and i hike at an average speed,i just hike longer:sun neo
Roland Mueser's survey of 64 thru-hikers in 1989 showed:
Average: 171 days, or 12.7 miles average per day
50% took betwen 161 days and 184 days, or the averaged between 13.5 miles per day and 11.8 miles per day.
His overall average, not counting days off, is reported at 14.5 miles per day.
Now, before people blast me for quoting Roland, put your money where your mouth is. I'd like to do an updated survey. Give me a donation, and we will make it happen.
There are as many answers as there are hikers starting out each year. When we (the Grayhounds) started in 2003, we started out doing less than 10 mile days and were beat up doing that. Slowly as we got into shape , 14 and 15 mile days became the norm. As we were sitting around one of the shelters in the Shanandoahs in late June, one of the other hikers said that if averaged 13 mile days we would finish on Sept 15th. We had been doing some 16 and 17s at that point but it was then that we realized that it going to be easy. We took no more "zeros" (zero mile days) after that but going into and out of towns took some neros (those would be almost zero days) If you arrive in towns at noon and get your mail, do your laundry, resupply, get something to eat (that you didn't have to cook or carry) and a good night's sleep, we never felt the need for a zero day. By the time we had breakfast the next morning, we were raring to go.
Go at your pace. whether slow or fast, it matters to no one. If for some reason,you find yourself falling behind, and feel you won't make Katahdin by Mid October, then take a bus north and hike back down. You will now meet all the hikers you were with previously, coming at you.
It will do wonders for you mentally to see all the familiar faces again. No one ,believe me, no one will care what you hike each day. It is your hike and most of all have fun and do it at your pace.
Gimp