Long distance hiking veterans! Question from an amateur.

I haven’t done any really long walks, but I’ve done a bunch of 2-7 day ones and I wouldn’t have a consistent answer to any of your questions.

Distance vs days depends on the state of the track - e.g you can do 30k or more in one day on boardwalk, but might do less than 5 offtrack with scrub and steep terrain.

Time on track has also varied wildly. It tends to be more about distance between the two camps or weather than personal preference - e.g sometimes we’ll be forced to just walk for a few hours, sometimes have to do over 12 hours. Those things also really affect whether I’m rushing or not too, though generally it’s nice to get a good time, so I would say there’s usually some purposefulness.

And generally breaks are more focused around drinking/eating/peeing or checking out a view than consciously resting - except on those difficult long days. So I would say a few mins stop per hour of walking, on average, with a longer, chiller stop for lunch.

/r/OutdoorAus Thread