Adk_dib said:
I think you should only hike with people at or around your ability. I hate it when, as "SLI74" said, I hold other people up. I also hate it when I have to wait for other people (which happens less and less each approaching year
)
The trick then is to figure out who (or what groups) is (are) near your ability. Often group bicycle rides advertise a ride using a three-axis system: how long, how steep, how fast (60 mi, 3000' climbing, 22 mph) (this would be at or near road race speed).
Is there any such system for hiking? I've not seen it. You could always advertise
your average hiking speed, relative to some normalizing datum, like "book time". For example:
I generally come in at 80-85% book time, for 3-season hikes which are of average difficulty. I would rather plod along at a steady pace, then stop multiple times. One or two 5 minute breaks (eat, pee, add/remove layers) on a 3-4 hour ascent is plenty for me.
From the above statement you (you in the sense of the reader) can probably figure out whether we're compatible, in terms of speed anyway. Experience is probably another aspect, and maybe gear a third.
Or maybe we need a hiker code (like the geek code:
http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html)
Most advertised hikes go at the speed of the slowest person, or so I've heard. I've never done one, and I've never hiked in a party larger then myself + 2 friends, or myself + Mrs. BikeHikeSkiFish and 2 kids. The latter case we hike at the speed of my 4-year-old, obviously
Tim
