Hikers

[Frosty]

Just curious, what do you guys that are regular hikers hit for mile times? My best so far has been a 14:35, this is on my second mile, it’s generally the flattest, I understand terrain plays a big roll in this, I’m just looking for some idea of how I’m doing. I have managed to consistently lower my mile times and increase my distance.

 

[Nugget]

Just curious, what do you guys that are regular hikers hit for mile times? My best so far has been a 14:35, this is on my second mile, it’s generally the flattest, I understand terrain plays a big roll in this, I’m just looking for some idea of how I’m doing. I have managed to consistently lower my mile times and increase my distance.

This is actually an interesting question. Wife and I hike quite a bit, but we've never really timed ourselves. We're usually either too busy looking around at nature or swatting skeeters and deer flies to pay attention, I think.

 

[Hop]

Totally terrain & gear dependent.
<15min/mi is perfectly fine on light hilly terrain around here. My 2nd & 3rd mile are usually the quickest.
Running clothes & water bottle @ Ft Ben, I try to get under 11 min / mile.
Fully geared up in Alaska with a 44 Mag, I've gone as slow as ~30 minutes just to go 100 yards. That was some VERY rough terrain.

 

[Frosty]

This is actually an interesting question. Wife and I hike quite a bit, but we've never really timed ourselves. We're usually either too busy looking around at nature or swatting skeeters and deer flies to pay attention, I think.

Those deer flies are ruthless!

 

[Nugget]

Those deer flies are ruthless!

Yeah, and the worst part about them is the distraction they provide, which typically results in walking right through spiderwebs when you're the first one down a trail early in the morning. Hiking would be a lot more fun if it wasn't for all the damn nature out there!

 

[Frosty]

Yeah, and the worst part about them is the distraction they provide, which typically results in walking right through spiderwebs when you're the first one down a trail early in the morning. Hiking would be a lot more fun if it wasn't for all the damn nature out there!

I ate my share of spider webs this morning, I’d take the spiderwebs over the stupid deer flies though!

 

[Frosty]

Totally terrain & gear dependent.
<15min/mi is perfectly fine on light hilly terrain around here. My 2nd & 3rd mile are usually the quickest.
Running clothes & water bottle @ Ft Ben, I try to get under 11 min / mile.
Fully geared up in Alaska with a 44 Mag, I've gone as slow as ~30 minutes just to go 100 yards. That was some VERY rough terrain.

Yes, my second mile is always my fastest, but it’s also mostly flat, the first has some long steep hills I sprint, but I still don’t make as good as time, I’d love to get down under 14 min/mile, but I’ve also found it’s totally weather dependent to, I was about 20 seconds slower today versus last Sunday when it was cooler.

 

[Dirty Steve]

I pay no attention to time when I am hiking but religiously walk 4 miles per day, 6-7 days per week and have since 2010. Some days with a pack on, most without. My time is considtently 15 minutes. I do it so I can continue to do it out west, fully loaded and carrying a rifle. There, it takes me whatever time it takes me, but as long as I'm still capable of doing it, I'm happy.
Dirty Steve

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Looking at Garmin records, about 20-30 minutes a mile.

Franklin Mountain was a slower one, lots of elevation change so 4 seasons in one hike:
El Paso Hiking
HIKING
8.32 miDISTANCE
2,050CALORIES
4:16:54TIME
126 bpmAVG HR
30:52 /mi

Low Gap with just a day pack:
Monroe County Hiking
HIKING
9.92 miDISTANCE
1,080CALORIES
3:20:09TIME
107 bpmAVG HR
20:11 /mi

Trail near Birdseye with overnight pack:
Dubois County Hiking
HIKING
12.28 miDISTANCE
1,438CALORIES
4:46:16TIME
96 bpmAVG HR
23:18 /miAVG PACE

Fisherman's Trail, just water but lots of photo/sight seeing stops with wife and son (in Spain):

Real Sitio de San Ildefonso Hiking
HIKING
6.43 miDISTANCE
950CALORIES
2:43:00TIME
120 bpmAVG HR
25:21 /miAVG PACE

When training for Bataan and actually being concerned about speed over distance:

Eagle Creek:
Indianapolis Walking
WALKING
19.76 miDISTANCE
6:06:50TIME
18:35 /miAVG PACE
93 bpmAVG HR
2,455CALORIES

 

[KittySlayer]

Looking at Garmin records, about 20-30 minutes a mile.

I don't use a Garmin but using a map and a watch I am in the 20-30 minutes a mile range with a 25 pound pack. For trip planning purposes when backpacking I generally use 2 miles per hour which allows for time to do a map check, take a quick snack break, filter water, empty water, take a photo, etc. If pressed because of incoming weather, meeting a ride, or other urgencies I can probably knock out 3 miles per hour.

 

[spencer rifle]

You mean walking? I stop WAY too much identifying plants and animals, to the point that SWMBO comments "Can't you just walk?"

Hiking to me means with 35-40 lbs in a pack, multiple miles, several days in a row. The only time I am concerned about time is for the wildland firefighting red card arduous test. That's 45 lbs, 3 miles, in less than 45 minutes. So those have to be 15 minute miles. They remind us that "If you come in at 35 minutes, you get a red card. If you come in at 44:59, you get a red card. Don't kill yourself."
One year a guy just behind me apparently ignored that advice and dropped dead. They always have an ambulance handy, and they brought him back.

 

[melensdad]

Just curious, what do you guys that are regular hikers hit for mile times? My best so far has been a 14:35, this is on my second mile, it’s generally the flattest, I understand terrain plays a big roll in this, I’m just looking for some idea of how I’m doing. I have managed to consistently lower my mile times and increase my distance.

I never looked at hiking this way.

Germans are, at least in my experience, some of the fastest hikers. I can't keep up with them. The English are also pretty quick. Spaniards seem to walk slower.

Took me 8 days to hike across England with a backpack on. Started at the North Sea, stopped when I got to the Irish Sea.

About 4 or 5 years ago my wife and I started hiking in Southwest France and hiked almost 600 to the Atlantic Ocean across Spain, again carrying a backpack. Took roughly 28 days. 3 mountain ranges. The Spanish 'desert'. Included several tourist days in places like Pamplona and Astorga.

Did some hiking in the Smokey Mountains about 7-8 years ago, even took time to climb Pilot Mountain on day.

My take on it is that you need to "walk your own walk" and not really worry about what others do.

I've had other hikers pass me on trails more times than I can count. I've passed hundreds of other hikers. I just do me. My way. If your goal is to pump up your heart rate to get more fit then just increase your pace, for as long as you can, and slow down when you need to.

 

[teddy12b]

You're moving at a great pace under 15 min per mile on flat terrain right now.

Terrain, loadout, and time of year determines everything. For example, at the mammoth event I train for every year it's 3 days two nights with rifle, pistol, ammo and all shooting gear and if you don't make the 16 minute per mile cutoff you're out. I live in a relatively flat area with next to no hills to practice hiking up so for my Fort Gordon has hills, other people would say it's flat. You can take whatever you want, but you have to carry it and you never know what that weather will look like in early January.

Years ago I went to the Isle Royale national park and we did a 17 mile stretch on the Minong Trail. To train for the backpacking trip I'd do 5 miles in about an hour and drink about 1 liter of water with my full loadout. That trail was more like an obstacle course going up over and around boulders and it took us 16 hours to hike it and we each drank 12 liters of water in mid September.

Earlier this year a friend and I did the southern half of the knobstone trail and stopped at 25 miles in two days in the spring.

Hope this helps some.

 

[wtburnette]

Never timed it. The wife and I used to go hiking a lot, just locally, but haven't so much in the last couple of years. Heck I haven't been doing much of anything since I had COVID back in January-February. Took the wind out of my sails. I never did any hardcore hiking, but 10 - 15 miles with a light pack on occasion, or 5 or so miles with no pack is my norm. I need to start again sometime soon. Was looking at hiking groups to join and saw there was one that does occasional hikes at Southwestway Park near me. My be just the thing to get my off my butt.

 

[cg21]

I just started ”rucking” as a useful hobby (being able to walk long distance and carry heavy things), training for bigger hikes/hunts and to get healthier.

WITHOUT jogging which is very hard anyways with all the weight (60#) my FASTEST mile was 15.20

 

[BehindBlueI's]

You mean walking? I stop WAY too much identifying plants and animals, to the point that SWMBO comments "Can't you just walk?"

That's meandering.

 

[Frosty]

I never looked at hiking this way.

Germans are, at least in my experience, some of the fastest hikers. I can't keep up with them. The English are also pretty quick. Spaniards seem to walk slower.

Took me 8 days to hike across England with a backpack on. Started at the North Sea, stopped when I got to the Irish Sea.

About 4 or 5 years ago my wife and I started hiking in Southwest France and hiked almost 600 to the Atlantic Ocean across Spain, again carrying a backpack. Took roughly 28 days. 3 mountain ranges. The Spanish 'desert'. Included several tourist days in places like Pamplona and Astorga.

Did some hiking in the Smokey Mountains about 7-8 years ago, even took time to climb Pilot Mountain on day.

My take on it is that you need to "walk your own walk" and not really worry about what others do.

I've had other hikers pass me on trails more times than I can count. I've passed hundreds of other hikers. I just do me. My way. If your goal is to pump up your heart rate to get more fit then just increase your pace, for as long as you can, and slow down when you need to.

My goal at this point is fitness, I’m not really worried about it, I was just looking for a benchmark to kinda judge my progress, several people pass me, and I’m good with that, I’m only competing with myself I would love to do some hiking in the Smokey’s, it’s such beautiful country!

 

[wtburnette]

Fitness and getting out to be in nature. I work from home so I'm almost always inside, sitting at my desk, or reading. Great to get out, do something that gets me moving and able to be in the woods.

 

[Frosty]

Fitness and getting out to be in nature. I work from home so I'm almost always inside, sitting at my desk, or reading. Great to get out, do something that gets me moving and able to be in the woods.

I work outside, or I’m driving, but it’s much better being outside listening to the birds than a noisy diesel truck! I’m really looking forward to fall, just being in the woods enjoying the beauty of it all, not so much winter, but I’ve made up my mind I’m going to be out there, maybe not going 8 miles, but I’m going to get a few in!

 

[melensdad]

My goal at this point is fitness, I’m not really worried about it, I was just looking for a benchmark to kinda judge my progress . . .

Good goal. I'm now out of shape and got a warning from my doctor, so getting back into shape. As I used to concentrate on long distance hiking, where we hike day after day after day, I now am working on my cardio health and it is somewhat different to "train" for health than for long distance. So it was more an endurance type of training to make sure I'd be able to continue the next day, that often had me slow down!

For health, I find that I am getting the best training from a treadmill rather than from a roadway. The programmable treadmill turns relatively F_L_A_T Hoosier landscape into hills and it also forces me to alter my speed, which does a lot to move me from a walk to a jog back to a walk and the auto incline changes the workout dramatically.

But for outside walking/hiking/trekking I always measured time on a set path that had a known distance. So my time was always an apples-to-apples comparison. Does no good to compare two different routes if the terrain is different.