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.

pretty much in line with what most others are saying - 10 miles or so, depending on terrain. Doing eg a Lake District mountain would be more than moderate for me nowadays even though it mightn’t be that far.

Curious what you said, OP, which got the funny look?

OK, so we don't walk on easy terrain. Unpaved, often dirt, maybe gravel, steep inclines, uneven ground. Occasionally short rock climbs or rock scrambling involved. I'd say the terrain is often harder than your average terrain.

I told the physio that we'd cut back our distances (though did comment about the terrain mattering more) since one of our group was having some issues that made it necessary for now. I said something like, we're only doing 6-8 miles for a moderate kind of distance in the circumstances. Hoping the physio means we can get back to some longer ones.

"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.".
I'd say about 6 hours of that is a moderate walk.

If I've had a busy day doing errands and a run then I can do 8 miles going back and forth, but that's all urban and mostly flat.

About 15 miles or 5 hours depending on the terrain.

A moderate hike would be 4/5 hours for me.

It’s hard to say as it depends on the person. We do a lot of Lake District walking and some of the group aren’t as fit as the rest. When they come we keep it to 10km flat routes or 5/6km routes with hills/ steps. I would count those as mild to moderate. Loughrigg fell or cat bells etc

Walks that are steep from the start and 6km plus I would count as moderate to hard, like Coniston old man, scarfell etc

I'm waiting to see who comes in first with around 20 miles though in MN fashion 😂

That's about my ideal walking time, but depends on the terrain how good a work out that is.

haha, I think this is a fair comment :-)

I can get a lot of distance around home and doing errands, but that's very stop/start and urban terrain, so quite different to how we hike.

I would say 6-10 miles or about 5 hours.

10-15 mines, depending on terrain and elevation.

3 to 5 miles. I'd count easy as doable for kids then the next step up being moderate.

Up to around 10 miles or so. Or a shorter distance if lots of ascent.

EDIT: But that is because I walk with keen walkers. For someone who isn't particularly into walking, I would expect them to say something like four miles. So I wouldn't find it as all surprising that your therapist was surprised by your perceptions.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by a walk. I hate “going for a walk”, so boring. So a couple of miles would be “moderate” for me as it’s just something I’d never want to do more of really.

I would put 20 miles in range for moderate, yes. Not because I am doing that distance (more like 15 max) but all my hiking friends seem to quite regularly. For them, it doesn't become a long day until they are doing at least 30 miles, starting at the crack of sparrow's and finishing with the sunset.

Maybe I know odd people!

A moderate hike is around half a day surely? So however far you can walk in around 3-4 hours. For some that might be 6-10 miles, others less or more.

I've checked what the Rambers say and they have moderate walks at 8-10 miles. However, I think most non-walkers would consider a moderate walk as a much shorter distance - probably less than 5 miles. So I think the physio was surprised you were still walking such long walks (while injured?). Maybe you should have asked them what they considerate a moderate walk.

About six miles

Just looked at our local Hike Club at the moderate is 9 miles. Big is 20 miles.

And there we are 😂 No, ypu just know very fit, active people who do a lot of hiking! I think for the average person doing a bit of hiking from time to time, 20 miles is probably beyond a moderate walk - remember it's a physio asking, s/he will see a wide range of people with different abilities.

I would say 10 is long

I don't know anyone who could do 20 miles in a day. Over two days, sure. I know some very fit and exceptional hikers too. I could probably do it on the flat but nothing around me is flat.

I walk a lot. A moderate length for me would be 7-9 miles

I think what I said was something along the lines of, "We have had to limit our walks to 6-8 miles because of the problem, so just a moderate kind of distance." Maybe she thought I didn't look capable of that. 😁