HikeArizona.COM

So, I am clicking around Wikipedia while eating breakfast and happen upon an article about something called "Naismith's Rule", which apparently is a method of determing how long a hike should take:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naismith%27s_rule

Seems like a lot of math to me.

I simply figure two miles per hour, then add a half hour to that. So, 8 miles becomes 4.5 hours, taking into account picture taking, route finding, etc. -- not just straight line speed.

@kingsnake
So, what part of "Alternatively, the rule can be used to determine the equivalent flat distance of a route. This is achieved by recognising that Naismith's rule implies an equivalence between distance and climb in time terms: 3 miles (=15,840 feet) of distance is equivalent in time terms to 2000 feet of climb. That is, 7.92 (=15840/2000) units of distance are equivalent to 1 unit of climb. For convenience an 8 to 1 rule can be used. So, for example, if a route is 20 kilometres (12 mi) with 1600 metres of climb (as is the case on leg 1 of the Bob Graham Round, Keswick to Threlkeld), the equivalent flat distance of this route is 20+1.6×8=32.8 kilometres (20.4 mi). Assuming an individual can maintain a speed on the flat of 5 km/h (walking pace), the route will take 6 hours and 34 minutes. The simplicity of this approach is that the time taken can be easily adjusted for an individual's own (chosen) speed on the flat; at 8 km/h (flat speed) the route will take 4 hours and 6 minutes. The rule has been tested on fell running times and found to be reliable.[5]" don't you understand?

@SAMBA You lost me at the first comma ...

I'm no mathematician either but if I follow the guidelines my hike last week up to the radio towers in the White Tanks was about right. Little over 3.5 miles plus 2000 AEG and we did it in around 90 minutes. I don't take many pictures, so hiking 20 minute miles works for me.

@SAMBA "Keswick to Threlkeld" that's my former stomping grounds A long way from Tucson's bars ;)

@kingsnake
Yo KS,

What was the stopper; the comma or the word "so"? If "So" is the culprit, then I couldn't explain the usage any better than Mark Liberman did in his ground breaking article titled "So new?", http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2570.

Egads, that was worse than an Army field manual ...

kingsnake wrote:I simply figure...

... each hike will take as long as it takes, no more, no less.

And best of all? There's no math involved!

When working as Forest Service Volunteer at First Water and Peralta, I'm often asked "How long is this hike going to take"? I always tell them that it depends on their abilities but to be safe, estimate a hiking speed of 2 mph. I'm generally pretty close with that one.