Miles per day?

[garminator]

Good afternoon folks, I'll be doing a section hike from Springer starting mid April and was wondering what the average mile per day works out to. I understand that there are several variable factors that play a role...ie: weather, fitness etc. So to give you an idea, I live an active lifestyle lifting weights as well as trail running approximately 12 miles a week. Any insight would be much appreciated

[garminator]

Oh and I plan on hiking sun up to sun down with a few reasonable breaks in between

[LittleRock]

Throw on a full backpack and see how far you can hike in one day on local trails. Then subtract 20-30% from that to account for terrain difficulty.

[CoolBobby]

The biggest factor here is the terrain. I am from Maine, where I averaged about 12 miles per day. I now live in Florida, where I average 20+ miles a day. On flat ground I can clip along at 2.5-3 mph...

[rafe]

Tough question to be asking from a diverse crowd. Only you know your fitness level, etc., and you may not know the whole story until you start hiking.

Beginning thru-hikers typically walk, 8, 10, 12 miles a day in Georgia. There's nothing technical about the walking there but the average elevation change per mile as actually pretty high, comparable to New Hampshire. There are too many variables involved to predict much more accurately than that.

[rafe]

The biggest factor here is the terrain.

Yes.

I am from Maine, where I averaged about 12 miles per day. I now live in Florida, where I average 20+ miles a day. On flat ground I can clip along at 2.5-3 mph...

Miles per hour doesn't count for much. Miles per week... now, that's more meaningful.

[CoolBobby]

Yes.



Miles per hour doesn't count for much. Miles per week... now, that's more meaningful.

Longest distance I have hiked in a week was 144 miles in 7 days. Averaged a little over 20 a day. I know folks that can crush that number though. I like to smell the roses...

[rafe]

Longest distance I have hiked in a week was 144 miles in 7 days. Averaged a little over 20 a day. I know folks that can crush that number though. I like to smell the roses...

Probably one hiker out of ten can manage that rate consistently on the AT. And north of Glencliff NH, maybe one out of fifty.

[Smoky Spoon]

How much elevation change do you think is involved in Georgia?

I hike roughly more than 7000 feet each day but I have asthma so trying to get a rough gauge at what I might be looking at altitude wise.

Thanks.

Tough question to be asking from a diverse crowd. Only you know your fitness level, etc., and you may not know the whole story until you start hiking.

Beginning thru-hikers typically walk, 8, 10, 12 miles a day in Georgia. There's nothing technical about the walking there but the average elevation change per mile as actually pretty high, comparable to New Hampshire. There are too many variables involved to predict much more accurately than that.

[colorado_rob]

People keep mentioning that "it depends on the terrain", and of course it does, but the OP already said what the terrain was, Springer heading north. Moderate terrain by AT standards, tougher than places starting in mid-VA and quite a ways north, much easier than places in NH/MA, of course.

I'm in decent shape but relatively "slow" (2-2.5 MPH on fairly easy terrain) but tend to hike all day (just like the OP says he/she wants to do) because that's what I'm out there to do, not to sit around in a camp or at a shelter. And there is a lot of daylight (and hiking time) starting in Mid April.

So for another data point, starting at Springer on April 10th, I basically averaged just under 18 MPD for my first 700 miles of the AT, including Neros (a few short days), but not including zeros, which I had two of in that 700 miles. It took right at 6 weeks to do 700 miles.

[Slo-go'en]

It's impossible to guess.

10 to 15 miles a day is fairly common for that end of the trail depending on fitness, experience and weather. Until you have some experience and can judge from that, best plan on lower mileage to start. Trying to go too far, too fast, too soon inevitably results in injury, sometime serious injury.

Putting on a 30 pound pack and climbing a 1000 feet in a mile with uneven and slippery footing a couple of times in any 10 mile stretch of trail slows you down a lot. The level of difficulty comes as a big shock to lots of people who thought they were in shape.

[rafe]

How much elevation change do you think is involved in Georgia?

I hike roughly more than 7000 feet each day but I have asthma so trying to get a rough gauge at what I might be looking at altitude wise.

Thanks.

A WBer named mapman has compiled loads of statistics on average elevation change per mile, state by state, on the AT. (Also data on typical hiking speeds, section by section.) If I recall correctly, Georgia was right up there with New Hampshire, only slightly less. Alas, I can't seem to locate mapman's files right now. They should be in the WB archives, ie., somewhere other than the forums. (Ie., click on the WB "Home" tab and start digging from there.)

[Slo-go'en]

How much elevation change do you think is involved in Georgia?

I hike roughly more than 7000 feet each day but I have asthma so trying to get a rough gauge at what I might be looking at altitude wise.

It's really hard to say how much elevation change there is, but I think somebody figured it out at some point. In any event, it's a lot. There are some pretty good climbs. Some are pretty good climbs (Sassafras and Justin always get commented on, even though those are relatively small climbs, but they are right at the start. There is a lot of little ups and downs that just wear at you.

When you say you hike 7000 feet a day, you mean linear distance with little or no climbing?

My daily work out recently is 1800 feet of elevation change in 3.4 miles (1.7 miles and 900 feet up then the same reverse). That should get me in shape for PA next month

[tiptoe]

As a section hiker, it's very useful, for planning purposes, to figure out YOUR average miles per day, because it allows you to plan town stops, food resupply, and, if you have limited time, to choose a hike that fits that timespan. After section hiking for many years, I use a conservative 10 miles per day south of the Whites, and maybe 6-7 miles in northern NH and Maine. I almost always hike farther than that, but as I said, it's a conservative estimate. So if it's 50 miles between resupply points, for example, I carry 5 days of food plus 1 (for emergencies). Probably you are younger and in better shape than me, so you can go farther, though it's always a good idea to start out slow to avoid soreness and overuse injuries.

[rafe]

Here's a link to at least one of mapman's reports:

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/cont...d-Schedules%29

and here's the first table in the report

TABLE 1 -- Days to Complete Various Sections

DAYS ~~~ TOTAL DAYS ~~ SECTION
8.0 days..........(8.0)............Springer to Georgia Border (7.7 days)
7.9 days.........(15.9)...........Georgia Border to Fontana (7.7 days)
24.4 days.......(40.3)...........Fontana to Damascus (24 days)
28.7 days.......(69.0)...........Damascus to Waynesboro (28 days)
11.2 days.......(80.2)...........Waynesboro to Harpers Ferry (11 days)
19.2 days.......(99.3)...........Harpers Ferry to DWG (19 days)
12.6 days......(111.9)...........DWG to Kent (12 days)
23.5 days......(135.4)...........Kent to Glencliff (23.2 days)
9.7 days........(145.1)..........Glencliff to Gorham (10 days)
9.9 days........(155.0)..........Gorham to Stratton (9.85 days)
13.7 days...... (168.8)..........Stratton to Katahdin (13.6 days)

Here's the report on vertical miles per section

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/cont...oss-by-Section

and the first table:

AVG~~SOBO~~NOBO~~MILES~~~SECTION
281.......285........276........31.4........Spring er - Neels Gap
334.......340........328........36.1........Neels Gap - Hiawassee
229.......216........242........40.0........Hiawas see - Franklin
311.......329........294........54.9........Frankl in - Fontana
302.......263........340........42.1........Fontan a - Gatlinburg
256.......305........208........33.7........Gatlin burg - Green Corner Road
276.......283........269........33.4........Green Corner Road - Hot Springs
273.......270........275........68.0........Hot Springs - Erwin
279.......273........286........70.6........Erwin - Dennis Cove Road
235.......241........228........50.2........Dennis Cove Road - Damascus
227.......223........230........75.3........Damasc us - Atkins
239.......244........234........87.8........Atkins - Pearisburg
251.......253........249........91.7........Pearis burg - Daleville
258.......263........253........56.7........Dalevi lle - Glasgow
270.......262........278........77.1........Glasgo w - Waynesboro
212.......217........208........107.1.......Waynes boro - Front Royal
219.......226........213........54.0........Front Royal - Harpers Ferry
154.......150........157........78.7........Harper s Ferry - Pine Grove Furnace State Park

Northern Half

AVG~~SOBO~~NOBO~~MILES~~~SECTION
138.......143........132........45.0........Pine Grove Furnace - Duncannon
130.......129........130........70.0........Duncan non - Port Clinton
132.......133........131........76.5........Port Clinton - Delaware Water Gap
154.......152........155........63.1........Delawa re Water Gap - Vernon
226.......229........223........45.8........Vernon - Bear Mountain Bridge
216.......214........218........63.2........Bear Mountain Bridge - Kent
199.......195........202........102.9.......Kent - Dalton
222.......217........226........81.8........Dalton - Manchester Center
228.......228........228........49.8........Manche ster Center - Rutland
282.......299........266........45.6........Rutlan d - Hanover
272.......265........279........43.9........Hanove r - Glencliff
343.......341........345........53.5........Glencl iff - Crawford Notch
364.......369........358........47.1........Crawfo rd Notch - Gorham
366.......360........372........51.5........Gorham - South Arm Road (Andover)
307.......308........307........58.6........South Arm Road - Stratton
347.......353........340........16.7........Stratt on - East Flagstaff Road
164.......164........165........56.6........East Flagstaff Road - Monson
172.......173........172........109.3.......Monson - The Birches (Baxter SP)
404.......404........404........10.4........Up and Down Katahdin

236.......237........236........2180.1.....Entire Trail (about 515,000 ft. -- 97.5 miles)

[rainydaykid]

Probably one hiker out of ten can manage that rate consistently on the AT. And north of Glencliff NH, maybe one out of fifty.

On my 2010 thru I had people keep telling me that the whites would destroy my daily miles. It did drop them, but not by much. I did 24-26 daily, dropped to 18-20 through the whites, just stayed at huts and did work for stay. It was a beautiful hike through that section, that is what I remember most, not the difficulty of it. For some reason, the first 14 miles of NY sticks out in my mind as being particularly tough, but maybe I was having a bad day. Mahoosuc notch or however you spell it was another section, though kinda fun.

[rafe]

On my 2010 thru I had people keep telling me that the whites would destroy my daily miles. It did drop them, but not by much. I did 24-26 daily, dropped to 18-20 through the whites, just stayed at huts and did work for stay. It was a beautiful hike through that section, that is what I remember most, not the difficulty of it. For some reason, the first 14 miles of NY sticks out in my mind as being particularly tough, but maybe I was having a bad day. Mahoosuc notch or however you spell it was another section, though kinda fun.

Very impressive. Still, mapman's stats: 9.7 days average from Glencilff to Gorham (almost exactly 100 miles.) And that's for thru hikers just a few hundred miles shy of completion.

When my buddies and I did our White Mountain meanders as twenty-somethings, we did so with 50 lb. packs and were glad to do 8-10 miles a day. I think our record was 22 miles in two days, and that was only 'cuz the second day was mostly dead flat (from Thirteen Falls back to Lincoln Woods trailhead.) I think my personal best for the White Mtns. in later years was around 15 miles in a day, and I certainly couldn't sustain that rate, not in those mountains.

[Malto]

Throw on a full backpack and see how far you can hike in one day on local trails. Then subtract 20-30% from that to account for terrain difficulty.

Then take off a third to account for doing it days after day.

My my rule of thumb is that you can start and maintain a daily average of 2/3rds your one day hiking distance on similar terrain. If that is a low number you will likely increase it over time. If you are in trail shape than that could be your long term average.

one more thought. If this is your first long distance hike then you really don't know that you will enjoy hiking sun up to sun down. If you have done long distance hiking then you know better than anyone what you can do.

[HooKooDooKu]

10 to 15 miles a day is fairly common for that end of the trail depending on fitness, experience and weather.

About in line with what I was thinking.

Not knowing anything about you, if you're not particularity over weight or out-of-shape, my educated guess would be an average of about 12mpd. You would likely start off at about 8-10mpd. If you where thru-hiking rather than just sectioning, I would guess that by the time you reached the Smokies, you'd likely be conditioned enough to be doing 15mpd. If you made it to Virginaia, I'd say you're a seasoned thru hiker and likely able to do 20mpd.

[MuddyWaters]

Depends only on pack weight, and how much walking per day you commit to do.Plan something you KNOW you can do. Somedays you will do more, then others you can slack IF maintaing schedule is important, it might not be. You can always change the plan, no biggie. Plan zeros too.

If you plan to carry 50 lbs, plan to average 8 mpd. If you will carry 20 lb, plan 15. Interpolate between the two. Change plan on day 3.