tandempower

I went out for about a 12 mile walk today. While walking it occurred to me that if you don't have a place to camp or sleep for the night you have to return home at the end of your walk, so that sort of puts an upper limit on how far someone can travel by foot in a day.

So how far can you walk a day? How far do you walk on an average day? What kinds of errands can you run purely by walking, without biking or transit? And what about combining walking with transit and/or biking? How do you combine them and do you find it pleasant or stressful?

350htrr

The most I have ever walked was 25 miles a day... It wasn't fun for the last 5 or so miles... Oh, and it took close to 8 Hrs.

Machka 

I can cycle for a full 24 hours and can cover 400 km in that time.

I have never walked that long, but presuming I could, based on my usual pace of 5 km/hour, that would be ... 120 km. But chances are I'd slow down so maybe 100 km. Maybe only 80 km if my feet really started to hate me.

Given that I've walked 1130 km so far this year, that means I walk 21.7 km/week, and usually only for 5 days which amounts to 4.34 km/day. That, of course, varies. Some days I might walk 10 km ... others 2 km.

I cycle on the other 2 days each week, and sometimes also on the days I walk. This year I've cycled approx. 5 times the distance I've walked.

I work in the middle of the city. I do a combination of transit and walking to get to work, but once there, I can run out and do most of my errands. Most of my lunch walks are errand walks.

See this thread for further information: https://www.bikeforums.net/living-car...alk-today.html

jon c. 

The difficulty for most folks is footwear, I believe. You can walk five miles in anything. And most well fitting shoes intended for athletic type activities will get you ten. But unless your feet are well conditioned, once you hit the twenty mile mark it tends to be hard to avoid sores or blisters.

badger1

No idea. Did this (west coast trail Vancouver Island British Columbia) in six days, but that was a few years ago now. I'd imagine I'd be a little less quick, now, at age 65 were I to try it again!

Locally? I typically will walk about 6 kms./day in winter, if not taking transit when the temperatures go below -10C. Above 0C, I'm on my bike.

gregf83 

Longest hike for me was about 28km with 1750m elevation to the top of Black Tusk a few years ago.

I don't usually walk very far unless I'm hiking.

Machka 

I'd like to do something like this one day ... Ultra Challenge ... but so far, my cycling gets in the way.

tandempower

Yes, I have holes in the balls of my feet of so many socks! If I wear thicker socks, my feet get too hot, But the ones that give the right amount of insulation wear through. : (

tandempower

That's amazing, Machka, and maybe a bit insane. Do you get sick from lack of sleep when you do that?

Whether I'm hiking with a pack or without I really notice all the different joints and muscles that I don't when I'm cycling. I find cycling better cardio vascular exercise but I think walking/hiking is so important for conditioning legs, feet, knees, joints, etc because there is more weight bearing involved. Probably not as much as weightlifting but you can't really lift weights for a period of several hours continuously unless you're hiking with a pack.

Come to think of it, doing grocery shopping on foot is a good way to add weight to your walk. It also gives your arms and back more to do. Just don't forget to double or triple bag (Or even bring heavy duty reusable bags) to be sure your groceries don't end up on the ground halfway home!

Machka 

Nope.

But then I sleep before and after. A normal day for me is awake and active for 18 hours, and sleep for about 6 hours, so being awake for 24 or slightly more hours isn't that much of a stretch.

tandempower

I've been walking more in the evening this holiday this year because I'm in a city with lights and sidewalks instead of on a trail where I have to sleep once it's dark so as not to miss the blazes. I like the natural rhythm of sleeping when it's dark and being awake in the light, but it's amazing how much extra time and distance you can get out of the evening hours. Whenever I stay up all night, though, I get some kind of cold; or I just feel bad all day and it throws my sleep cycle off.

tarwheel 

In my backpacking days, 20 miles a day was not unusual. My longest day was about 35 miles in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, but that was 40 years ago.

Machka 

I sleep for something like 12 hours after a big ride like that ... so that helps.

Roody

I'm regularly walking 7 or 8 miles now. In March 2015, I could barely walk to the bathroom. So I feel good about this progress, but hope to do more when the weather is nicer.

The last time I was into walking, I would go more than 20 miles a day. Then cycling took over, and for a while I hardly walked at all. I finally forced myself to get off the bike once in a while and walk a mile or two.

B. Carfree

I walk two to ten miles on a typical day, sometimes to visit with people (both business and pleasure) and sometimes to do grocery shopping (I like several of our small grocery stores). I have a regular twenty-five mile loop that I do five to ten times per year along our local river and what is called our ridgeline trail. It's quite pleasant and involves a minimal amount of on-road walking. Where I used to live we had a fourteen mile loop along a different river and a different ridge that my family would do at least weekly. On a good walk, we see more elk and deer than cars.

Over the past couple of years, my wife has had some hip issues so that she can't go for extended walks. Lately, the physical therapy she's been doing has helped immensely and she's able to walk five to ten miles without discomfort. Prior to this flare up, we were planning to walk from Eugene to Truckee. If she continues to progress, we'll start planning again.

However, we now have a four year commitment to stay home because our not-actually-adopted daughter is starting osteopathy school this summer and needs us to watch our grand-daughters in the afternoon until their father gets off work. We're more than happy to delay some of the trips we have planned in order to help out. Besides, we have a great time with the girls. I suspect that at some point the girls' grandparents in Japan will come for an extended visit and we'll just do a trip then.

As far as the longest walk I've ever done, I had a few fifty mile days, but those were at the end of some longer backpacking trips years ago when I had to get out of the mountains and back to work. I'm much happier loafing along and doing just half that distance these days.

B. Carfree

I think you had a heart issue, IIRC. I'm not having anything so serious, but I've been absolutely sedentary for nearly three weeks with bronchitis. Yesterday I walked about four miles and then collapsed again. This getting old stuff really ages you.

Chris L

I covered 26km by lunchtime one day a few months ago, which included a mountain climb (and subsequent descent). That was after riding 40km to get there (and riding another 40km to get home). Not sure what I could do in a day if I really put my mind ot it on easier terrain, but then, I'd probably get bored in the city.

Roody

Yeah...But at any age, do as much as you can, then just a little bit more. And make sure you're going a little farther or a little faster every week. Of course, when you're sick it will set you back for a while.

Roody

Boredom can be a problem on the bike or walking. I like to try different routes every day. Also, sometimes I will take a bus far from home and walk back, so I get to see different parts of the city.

fietsbob

I hiked (with a military surplus back pack) , in the Boy Scouts as a Juvenile, with my troop-mates, in the High Sierras of Yosemite National Park..

Currmudge

My PR is only 7 miles on foot; not a big walker. Without a bike, I may be in a bit of trouble. My last long(?) walk was 4 miles. Couple weeks ago, I did a mile and a half with a bag of groceries in 12F temps. Flaked on cooking that night, adult nephew handled it.

After the last couple years' challenges, even my pedaling distance is shortened; no more 50-milers for me any more.

wolfchild

I am capable of walking pretty far if it ever became necessary... Most of my daily walking is done inside a large factory building where I work... If I absolutely had to, I could run all my errands by walking because all the basic necessities of life are within walking distance... When I was car-free I often combined biking and walking...In the past I was big into hiking and almost every weekend I would drive out of town to a hiking area and spend a couple of hours hiking trails, and in winter I would either snowshoe or XC ski, but I don't do hiking too often anymore, it's an occasional thing for me now...I regularly take walks around my neighbourhood on the weekends, usually for about 1 hour.

Worknomore

I averaged 20 mpd for 135 days on my Pacific crest trail thru hike last summer. Longest day was 37 and shortest was 12. Average weight carried was 22 lbs. I was 61. As much as I love cycling this trip was the best time I've ever had.

cooker

Well, it does limit how far they can go from home by walking, but for most people there is probably lots of stuff to see within a half day's walk from home. So they could walk out to someplace different and back home the same day quite a few time before they "saw it all".

Plus you are not limited to walking. My last dog started to balk,and dig in his heels as soon as you got a block or two from home, and I found it very frustrating because I couldn't take him for long walks, but my daughter (being smarter than me!) solved the problem by taking him some distance from home on the bus, and then he would happily walk home.

It would be unusual for me to walk more than about 5 km. However that distance doesn't bother me much, so I assume I could walk a lot farther. As a teen I did a 35 mile charity walk two years in a row - almost 50 years ago!

cooker

Also, that reminds me of this story related to how far someone could walk in a day:
How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Leo Tolstoy