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Having not hiked a long hike in a while, I got to thinking. Last fall, when going for my year's big goal, I had to routinely hike over 20 miles to achieve my desired AEG goals. I realized that hiking 20+ miles, isn't that great for me, because it takes so long, and if you want to stop to explore or relax, it eat eats precious daylight up, and so the hike isn't as fun. A hike should be fun, and that distance as a routine weekend hike is simply too great. This isn't to say that from time to time I wouldn't hike 20 to 25 miles or so, if conditioned and interested, but my weekly "event hike", or interesting main hike of the weekend, as you might think of it, has an ideal length of about 10 to 15 miles, with some wiggle room depending on a number of factors. For example, a 17 mile hike isn't really pushing that too much, where as a 20 mile hike is, as it is at least another full hour, or more, over my ideal hike length. A 8 mile hike might seem like too little, but depending on what is interesting about it, it might be ideal for the other factors.

Keep in mind, for this survey, I am not asking about your routine or training hikes, as those tend to be shorter and probably are done after work, or in that fashion. This would be your main hike that you budget a day to enjoy, not what you fit into your schedule. If you backpack, choose based on what you feel is your preferred distance to average a day, not the entire hike.

My ideal, as answered is 10 to 15 miles, and it has about 3000 to 4000' of AEG, but unless very steep, I find that doesn't affect my speed as much, so I am not including that data. However, if you feel strongly, you can always say what you think is your ideal AEG. My ideal training hike, such as Elden and Pusch, falls in the middle 2,000' range. Less isn't enough, more is too much. While AEG isn't a hard fast criteria for length of hike, I do prefer to stay over 3000', as a really solid hike, for me, will be a challenging one, but not too much over 4,000', or so, as that can be too tiring for the day. Obviously, rare special exceptions come up, where I want to do 5,000'+ a day, but it can be very hard on my body, and it does take some of the fun out of the hike. My ideal training hike, is about 4 to 6 miles, depending on other criteria, but that isn't intended for the poll.

10-12 miles, 1500-2000 AEG. That allows me to get up at a reasonable hour, drive two hours, hike, drive two hours back, and get home at a reasonable hour.

Not really into backpacking and I'm pretty similar to Kingsnake. Like to drive about 2-3 hours max and keep it under 20 miles. Also depends if I plan to run the trail or hike the trail. But whatever the distance is, after about 7 hours I start to lose interest. Though 2-3 times a year I don't mind going out for an all day death march in order to knock something challenging like C2C. I also go through spells where I get obsessed with AEG and every outing needs a lot of it. I was trying to hit 20,000 AEG last month and the last week of the month I chose my routes to max out on AEG. Doing things like Mt Ord where I could get 4100 AEG in 15 fairly easy miles.

With a full pack on, I don't like to go much more than 11 miles, or much less than 8. I'll stretch that by 2-4 miles if the terrain and trail are favorable. I'm willing to push 15 miles on a day hike if I get a few good breaks.

4,000'-6,000'... 18-24 miles

All hikes are 10% longer than they should be.

Totally dependent on trail conditions (or lack thereof), AEG, and weather conditions.

I agree with Eagle, that it has some factors to depend on. I prefer more challenging hikes (bushwhacking, rock-hoping, climbing...) that are in the area of 7-10 miles total.

Just want to know why the last two miles back to the car seem like they take forever?

@SpiderLegs
Because you know theres beer in your ride and you just don't want to wait any longer to get it, knowing its cold.

@Widowmaker

We've never met, yet you know me so well.

I almost always hike on trail, or close to it. One of the few exceptions I make, is on the Peaks, or used to be. Cactus, nasty shrubs, and so on, detract from a nice day. So far, I'm surprised at the number of people saying they want a hike over 23 miles. If that is honest, I am surprised.

Totally a miles guy. 25+ miles a great way to spend a day, 30+ a bonus. Don't enjoy the AEG as much tho, whatever is necessary ;)

I put 9 to 14.9 which is less than I would have put in years past, but the problem with my hurting, burning feet does persist, although I have overcome the problem somewhat. I am leaning more toward cycling and kayaking because those activities don't hurt my feet. However, I have done one 12+ mile hike in the past month or so, and a few 8-9 milers over the past couple of months.

Like a few others mentioned, there are a lot of factors. I put the 9 to 14.9 because that seems to be in the sweet spot for me for getting a good long dayhike without pushing me way past my level of physical comfort. I have some issues with my knees/ankles so I really start feeling it once again up in the 10 mile range, and 14/15 is about the most I've ever done in a day which I consider to be my upper limit currently. That range is typically for something of mostly on-trail hiking with a bit over 4000' being the limit on AEG. If it is something really pleasant where I'm stopping a lot for pictures and such (most recently Horton Creek for me), the 5-8 mile range can be great as well.

Backpacking adds a whole new dimension when you have considerations for overall trip length and packweight among others. Currently I try to limit the mileage of any given backpacking day to 10 or 11 miles, at least as far as walking with the full pack. Lately when I'm been planning backpacking trips, I always try to make sure the first day isn't too grueling or you might just wipe yourself out too much to have the rest of the trip be pleasant, so maybe an 8 mile cap on the first day, unless unavoidable (such as hiking into Havasupai). For backpacking trips, I also don't necessarily want to be hauling the big pack all day every day the whole trip, so I prefer to have a day that has a short amount of pack hauling (3 to 5 miles), or even a layover day if possible. A short day or layover day will likely involve exploration "dayhiking" which could easily push that day up to the 10 mile range. If it is a single overnight trip, it's probably gonna be a consideration of I am willing to pack into such and such destination that I've picked out, which once again is probably not going to be much over 10 miles. For me, at least currently, backpacking is not necessarily about covering massive miles, but having a lot of time to enjoy being out in the wilderness with some physical challenge thrown in there to varying degrees.

Since I'm doing much more off-trail and peak bagging distance doesn't factor near as much as the anticipated length of time and effort, paying particular attention to the temperature, humidity and difficulty of terrain including steepness & amount/type of vegetation. In general with higher temps/humidity I've been keeping within 4-6 hours for a day, which might mean 1-3 separate hikes.

Lately it's been how much time and effort it takes me to lose 4-6 pounds of body fluids while consuming 1-2 gallons of fluid.

My body and fitness level impose limits of about 11 miles and 2,000 AEG, so I try and respect that. But it's purely a physical limit and it's still expanding, so the numbers will grow with each passing month. I feel silly doing less than 7 miles for my weekly weekend hike.

In the past, 9-11 miles has always been my "comfort-zone" although I've pushed the limits on several trips to 18-20. However after I blew out my ACL in May 2014 that has drastically changed. I'm managing 5 or 6 miles after 4 months of physical therapy and daily exercises.

For me, it depends almost 100% on temperature. Am I physically willing/able to carry the amount of water needed to safely complete the hike?
That said, off-trail I want at least 5 miles (or a goal), or it seems silly. On-trail, probably at least 7 or 8, unless it's extremely difficult.
A really short hike doesn't seem worth the drive, unless there's something amazing you can spend a long time enjoying.

Backpacking, the 10-11 mpd seems to work really well for me. That way, there is enough time to look around and stop for snacks.

Distance for a day hike is ideally over 7 miles but under 14 for me. I like to spend lots of time looking at flowers, plants, bugs, rocks, vistas, more plants and such. And photoging it. I find keeping myself at around 10 miles means I feel like I've gotten a good workout, but I'm still able to enjoy the outside.

Throw a backpack on and there's a whole different set of variables, same thing with getting off trail or being on a road. I've done some 3 mile hikes that took all day, and I've done some 3 mile road walks that made me want to shoot myself, and I love a good 6 day backpack that really puts the miles under your feet. I can certainly hike longer, too, in the summer when days stretch on into infinity. That's the tough thing about the desert - the best hiking weather gives you the shortest days

@Autumnstars

A really short hike doesn't seem worth the drive, unless there's something amazing you can spend a long time enjoying.

Absolutely - I've done really long drives for really short hikes, and no matter how sexy the hike is, it makes me feel a little cheated. The solution: camp! :GB: