Day Hike vs. Overnight Backpack...

[BrentD22]

Other than for trail crew almost every single hike I've done in 10 years of this stuff has been an overnight backpacking trip. Obviously I have much more wieght than a day pack and what not. I notice when I read others trip reports it seems like they do so many miles on day hikes that I would never think about doing backpacking with 40+ pounds. I'm also out of shape and it seems the wieght of my pack bothers me more now than it ever used to. In your humble opinions how much easier is day hiking on your body and how many more miles can you complete with a light-wieght day pack on vs. a full size/wieght backpacking pack on? Please give some examples. THNX

 

[AntlerPeak]

I never gave this question any thought but now that you ask and I consider it I'd say you should be able to do half again as much without that heavy stone on your back. Especially climbing up and down ridges. Like I said it is only a guess.

 

[DougPaul]

Kind of hard to quantify how much harder it is to carry an overnight pack than a day pack. Depends on weight, altitude gain, trail conditions, your conditioning, etc.

Day hiking, unlike overnighting, requires one to get back to one's car (or at least another trail head) so it can force one to go farther in a single day.

My best suggestion is to try some of both and develop your own feel for the differences.

Doug

 

[Rick]

Brent,
I started backpacking in the late 80's when a 40-45 lb pack was the norm for 3-4 day trips (or even for weekend trips). I used to do a lot of trips and I think I probably averaged 10-12 miles per day on most of my trips. There were some trips with 14-16 mile days, but they were the exception rather than the rule and based more on finding reliable water, sticking to a schedule or finding an open campsite.

I then started ligthening up in the mid-late 90's and started following some of the ultralight principles while backpacking and found I could add a few more miles per day on my trips.

I usually don't get started on the trail until 8-8:30 and usually try to take 5- 10 minute stops every hour with a half hour lunch break and try to make camp by 4:30-5:00. This leaves me with about 8 hours of which I travel not much faster than 1.5 miles per hour, slower uphill, faster downhill. (Trail conditions can cause variations in overall speed, but I would say this is a broad spectrum average)

Since 2000 when my son was born, I have done a lot more dayhiking (section hiking the AT) with a daypack that usually weighs around 10-15 lbs depending on the water I'm carrying and find that I can do as a rule 2.5-3 miles per hour. I also find I need fewer breaks, can wear lighter footwear and feel wonderfully untethered, allowing me to adjust my hiking speed up or down. As a rule, many dayhikes are 16-18 miles for a full day hike, or easily get in 10-12 miles during a morning or afternoon dayhike.

When we used to live close to the AT, I would drive to one trailhead and have my wife pick me up at another trailhead at a predesigned time, (it's how I did much of PA and NJ) so I learned to watch my speed and judge my time carefully.

As a rule, I dont' feel wiped out after a dayhike, whereas lately, I usually feel tired after a day of backpacking.
Hope this helps
Rick

 

[Double Bow]

Kind of hard to quantify how much harder it is to carry an overnight pack than a day pack. Depends on weight, altitude gain, trail conditions, your conditioning, etc./QUOTE]

Doug's points are right on the money. All that anyone will be able to give you is their anecdotal reflections. Here's mine, being fresh off a week-long trip...

Most of my hiking is day trips up to 20mi and, while I could probably be a "speed hiker", that's not my style. I take it easy and generally finish hikes in 75% off what the WMG says it should take and I generally am carrying a 15lb load unless I'm preping for a backpacking trip, in which case I'll carry extra weight.

When backpacking (almost always for a week or preping for a week), my pack weighs about 45lbs and I do move slower over the same terrain. How much slower varies with the grade. In general, I would say .5mph and my backpacking miles per day have been, on average 14 miles per day in VT and 12 in NH.

Of course, this is just my experience, you'll really just need to try it out yourself.

 

[mudhook51]

Summer day hiking with a 10-15lb. pack, i figure 2.5+mph is an average speed. With a 30-35lb pack this drops to 2mph. or less. In the winter, day hiking with a 20-25 lb pack, snow shoes, again under 2mph. As a rule of thumb, i plan on 2mph for summer day hikes, with lunch, breaks for views, water ,and getting wet somehow,and winter day hikes an average of 1.5 mph, with breaks, but no swimming. This way I can plan on how late or far i can go safely without geting caught in the dark and still have a margin for error.

 

[askus3]

Mileage dayhiking VS backpacking? I seldom backpack - don't enjoy it and don't have the equipment to make it lightweight so only do it if I have to complete my objective. Like I have figured out a way to hike the AT thru Maine with only one twoday/one night backpack, so yes i do backpack on a rare occision. I can do a 20 mile dayhike slow and steady. I did Jay Hui's Escape the Escarpment and what i make a point of doing is trying to stretch a dayhike into the available daylight. I can always eat dinner, drive and shower after dark. Where if you backpack you tend to want to do most camp chores in daylight, so that takes time out (thus distance) from your hike. A negative about dayhiking is you are limited or forced to go from point A to point B whose distance is sometimes more undesiraable than you'd like. The other thing is that sometimes you are forced to do a humongous car shuttle before you can even continue on with your evening activities. And after a 20 mile hike, a 40 minute car shuttle on top of two hour car trip can be outright exhausting. When I do my AT trek thru Maine later this month, evryday I am pushing 13 miles with over 3500 feet elevation gain so I think with all the car shuttling, this trip will be one of my most agressive and most challenging hiking trips I have ever scheduled. And I have plotted out numerous trips including one going up Madison, Adams & Jefferson each from US 2 on consecutive days, but the mileage wasn't as great. But I like a bed to sleep on not an ultra-thin mattress. So like everything in life there are trade-offs.

 

[TCD]

I do both, although I do a lot more day hiking (too many other activities to eat the whole weekend on one trip).

DougPaul is right. It depends on some factors. The biggest factors are how heavy the pack is and how much up and down there is on the route. The other factor is how fast you prefer to travel. If you like to run, or speed hike, that will be hard with a full pack even on a level route, so the pack will make a bigger difference for you. If you like a steady walk, the pack will not change your mileage as much.

 

[sapblatt]

Depends

DougPaul is right about the quantative thing...tough to call.
I find that 15-20 pounds on my back is hardly noticable to me, while 30-40 is a killer. I can handle the heavier weight on an easier route, like Franconia and Lincoln Brooks, but it will slow me to about half of book time on something like the Wildcat Ridge Trail. This past week was a breeze going over the bonds in a day with a daypack. I like both ways, but they are so different on the body.

 

[jfb]

My summer backpacking load weighs about 25 lbs. without food and water, so for a weekend trip I'll carry about 30-35 lbs. On a dayhike, it's about 8-10 lbs. I've noticed that the first day of a backpacking trip I can hike at my normal dayhike pace. By the second day, I think I've exhausted the glycogen that is stored in my muscles and my pace slows to about half of my dayhike pace on uphills but stays about the same as my dayhike pace on flats and easy downhills. I've learned to conserve energy (especially on the first day) by monitoring my heart rate and slowing down on steep uphills.

An example is with a 35 lb. backpack, I've hiked from Mizpah to Lakes in 5 hours; with a daypack, I've gone from the Highland Center to Mt. Washington summit in 6 hours.

 

[KayakDan]

Primarily winter overnight trips for us,so I don't know if this is relevant for you.
My pack-40-45lbs, hers 30-35 for 1-2 nights out
Maximum distance 4 miles ow,and 1850ft of vertical gain-and that's a bit of a push.
We are trying to do more winter base camp and day hike from base,to broaden our possibilities.
My thing isn't the hiking ,so much as the winter camping,so I'm not big on pushing the mileage,as much as finding a good off trail location to camp.