What would you consider a moderate length day walk or hike?

[thedogmademessagain]

I'm curious what people in general would think is a moderate/medium length day hike or walk? I'm just asking because when I told the physiotherapist what I thought a medium length day hike was, I got a funny look. Not sure if that means I was under or over estimating moderate.

8-10 miles

About 4 miles for a medium/average walk

I walk a lot and I’d say 10 miles. it does depend on terrain as well. A 10 mile mountain hike will feel a lot more strenuous than a 10 miles coast path walk.

edited to say it also depends on fitness. I walk all the time so 10 miles is moderate to me. But for my mum who doesn’t really exercise it would be almost impossible.

Yes, definitely. I've done some 2 mile walks that were more effort than some 8 mile ones. All about gradients, whether it's involving rock scrambling or climbing, water crossings, that sort of thing.

Around 8 miles - but it's subjective.

I'd agree with 8 - 10 miles. Just 'going for a walk' would be 2 - 4 miles.

I'd also say around 8 miles.

Going for a walk for us is about 2 -3 miles, a hike would be planned day out so 10+ and countryside.

10-15 miles

4-5 hours hiking... so maybe 8-10 miles of fairly easy terrain with regular breaks, 5-6 miles if lots of ascent and descent.

Once I get past 5 miles I generally start to think I'm on a hike, but terrain is everything! A 5 mile hill walk will always be far more arduous than 8-10 miles on even terrain.

Moderate to me would be 8- 10 miles, easy 6 miles and long day 15 miles

I’d agree 8-10 miles on easy terrain, 4-5 on challenging.

Maybe time taken would have been a better way to frame the question.

The kind of terrain we typically walk would involve up and downhill, often quite steep in sections. Sometimes rock scrambling or climbing. But the terrain does vary and I know that is more important than the actual distance.

Obviously it depends on someone's fitness, but I would say 7-15 miles.

It's not something you can objectively define because what's moderate to one person is an easy stroll or impossible challenge to another.

But if I saw an organised walk or one in a magazine/on the OS website described as 'moderate', it would probably be about 6-8 miles and a bit hilly but no scrambling or extended steep up and downs. Timewise - 3-4 hours so a half day walk.

When I was younger and walked a lot it was 10 to 15 miles on hills. Now a day hike would be max 8 to10 miles, fairly flat. Hoping to build up again when I retire.

Though I have to make this observation after getting an iron infusion last year, that your ferritin levels can make a whole lot of difference independently of fitness.

Long time hiker and I would agree about 8 miles, but as stated terrain is everything. Longest hard hike I ever did was 21 miles in The Peak District, what I wouldn’t do to be young again so I could do this and not have a crap back and heart condition. I don’t care about wrinkles.

In my walking books they usually say moderate for walks around 5/6 miles

It depends on the terrain. In the mountains 8-10 miles. More gently undulating 10-13 miles

Out for 5 hours.

Good question. Short hike maybe 2-3 hours, medium 4-5? On the other hand I saw an article about the benefits of a long walk and it was defined as 10 minutes or more 🤣

In my head the difference between a walk and a hike is that a walk is on easy flattish clearly marked out paths/tracks and a hike is up and down, steep and scrambly.
I don’t do hikes (or what I think a hike is!), I do walks of up to about 10 miles and to me that’s a long walk!

Depends a lot on the terrain and incline as PP have said. I would say 8 to 12 miles is a medium walk, not a whole day walk, assuming a straightforward terrain and no serious inclines.