A friend has asked if I want to do a 70 mile walk over about 2 weeks, ~5-8 miles per day on minimal training and fitness (me) and arthritic flaring knees (them), and I agreed without thinking. 5 miles is a piece of piss for me, especially after a week or two of getting back into the swing of things, but I'm thinking the numbers don't add up well for my friend.
Assuming an average walking speed of 2.5mph, that's only 2-3 hours of walking before stopping to camp. That's ridiculous being that I don't want to hang around in a fucking field for a further 12 hours a day, but I fear pushing further will become a significant issue for my friend who's often keen on looking further than they can leap.
I'm hoping someone with experience, or at least common sense, might convince me there's more to consider for these type of activities - otherwise it's looking like I'm gonna have to confront my friend with the likely possibility that their health is unsuitable for the pursuit and we'll have to re-plan to accommodate that.
I went camping once, but other than that I have no experience. I think you should assume a slower pace, because you will have someone to talk to, and you will probably be stopping to admire the view unless you really are just traipsing through the woods for a fortnight. If there are hills, or if you are walking through mud, you will be even slower.
However, if you don't want to hang out in a field with your friend, perhaps you should go with a friend who isn't too crippled to keep up with your walking. If the walk is tough enough to slow you down, it will be too tough for your friend. It does sound easy, but that's perfect for your friend from what you're saying. If you don't like walking slowly, or spending time with your friend after three hours of walking, then the distances don't matter; you're going to hate it. It's not even about the walking at that point.
>>6294 Surely the sensible thing to do is a go on some test walks with your pal to see if they can hack it? Doing a walk on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then maybe the same again next week, would probably be a decent way to test the waters.
The question I have is this: do you have a way of bugging out if your friend's knees go to pot? If you're walking along the Manchester Ship Canal it's not a huge problem to return to civilisation (well, Greater Manchester), but it's much bigger problem if you're in the middle of the Lake District, like pic related. Mountain Rescue will save you, but they will also judge you.
My other concern would be clothing, and relatedly the time of year. It's already pretty cold and wet, so if this is planned for the remainder of 2024, you'll need to wrap up warm. However, how exactly are you planning on carrying two weeks of clothing on you? Depending on how much you'll be simply hoboing around, you're going to end up honking and damp quite quickly, no matter how many clothes you pack.
Regardless, my advice would be to at least do some trial walks before embarking on a two week holiday. It'll be pretty shit if your mate realises they can't walk more than a day without waking up in agony.
Sounds like pre-walking is the way to go. We've got 6 months until we agreed to set off, which is plenty of time to test the waters and that. Though I'm already reluctant to start the 5 mile practice route I've planned for myself.
Our route and general location would not require Mountain Rescue - we'll beable to bus home at a moments notice throughout much of the walk.
As for luggage and hygene, we intended to travel extremely light with little more than bedding, water and a single change of clothes. Our route would offer ample bathing opportunities and I figured we could dry off the previous days clothes by simply hanging them overnight. A bit of vaseline for chaffing.
We'd eat from cafe's and corner shops whereever possible.
Maybe you can arrange it so you end up at a pub rather than a field in the middle of nowhere. Many pubs will let you camp and shower there, especially on popular long distance routes (like the coast to coast, which is my favourite long distance footpath in the UK).
>>6299 >(not trying to stalk you)
I am a bit too paranoid to mention it but I assume you could find some likely locations from what I've already shared.
• 70 miles
• buses at a moments notice
• ample bathing opportunities
Although I suppose this could be almost anywhere, really. Blame the 'tism.
>>6300 I'm not from the 'Gland, so if there's common knowledge among your countrymen of a 70 mile long walking trail with loads of shower cubicles and bus stops all along with way I'm afraid it hasn't entered my conscience yet. However, I do know big if disparate chunks of this island pretty well so I thought I might be able to give some suggestions depending on the location.
