Throughout my hike, I kept track of each day’s mileage, but I never did anything with that information until now. People have constantly asked me how many miles I usually hiked per day, and I had no idea since I seemed to just as frequently hike five miles as twenty. Plus I took plenty of zeros. The zeros and low mileage days caused many people to question whether I would finish the hike on time. I don’t know how many times I talked to my dad on the phone and he started out with, “I’ve been doing the math…” I eventually forbade him from doing any more math. So here it is, my mileage per day, amount of zeros, and even how many nights I spent in tents, shelters, etc:
Lowest Milage Excluding Zeros: 1.5
Average Mileage: 10.4
Median Mileage: 10.7
Average Mileage Excluding Zeros: 13
Median Mileage Excluding Zeros:13.3
Highest Mileage: 43.3
Zeros: 43
Neros (Less than 8 miles): 32
Less than 15 miles, more than 8: 72
Less than 20 miles, more than 15: 51
Over 20 miles: 13
Nights slept in shelter: 27
Nights slept in tent: 96
Nights slept in motel: 28
Nights slept in hostel: 21
Nights slept in private home: 28
Nights slept in vehicle: 11
Hiking Days: 168
Slackpacks: 26
Total Days: 211
Total Miles: 2187
The total mileage of the trail is actually 2185.9 but I am not going to go through every cell and check for typos to find the 1.1 difference. It doesn’t affect the averages. And of course, I actually hiked much farther than that between side trails, towns, etc.
You can also check out the entire spreadsheet here.
See some places I stayed at night in the map below.
View Wayfarer on the AT in a larger map
So what now ???
Next is a trip to the Grand Canyon.
Fun facts!