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How every hike's time and its easy, moderate or strenuous rating are worked out.
Every hike shows a time and a difficulty. They answer different questions. Time is how long to set aside for the whole outing: the walking, plus the time its creator suggests spending at each stop. Difficulty is how hard the walking is on your legs, which comes down to the hills.
A hike's time is one total:
time = walking time + the suggested time at every stop
Hike cards and the top of each hike's page round the total up to the next whole hour, as in "5 hrs". Just below, the hike's page shows what that's made of, like "2 h 35 m walking + 2 h 10 m at stops". The printable kit shows the same total and split on its cover.
The Time filter in the hikes directory sorts hikes into four levels by their total:
| Level | Total time |
|---|---|
| Short | under 2 hours |
| Half day | 2 hours up to and including 4 |
| Full day | over 4 hours, up to 7 |
| Multi-day | over 7 hours |
A hiking day is 7 hours: time on the move, leaving room for meals and breaks. Nothing extra is added to a hike's time for meals; the shorter day already allows for them.
A hike longer than one hiking day says how many days to plan for, as in "14 hrs · plan 2 days": the total divided into 7-hour days, rounded up. You'll see it at the top of the hike's page, on its card (as "14 hrs · 2 days"), on the printable kit's cover and on trail mode's start screen. A hike that fits in one day never shows a day count. Trail mode remembers where you stopped, so you can pick up on day two at the same stop (see Trail mode).
The filter uses the same total as the time on each card, so a "5 hrs" hike always shows up under Full day.
Nobody types a hike's walking time. It's worked out from the route itself: how far you walk and how much you climb.
The walking time assumes a family pace of 2 miles an hour: 30 minutes for every mile. That's slower than a hiker striding along an open trail, on purpose. A walk through a historic town means street crossings, crowds, smaller legs and plenty of pointing at buildings.
Hills add time on top, following Naismith's rule, a rule of thumb hikers have used for over a century: an extra hour for every 2,000 feet of climbing, or half an hour per 1,000 feet. So a flat 2-mile walk is about an hour, and a 2-mile walk that climbs 1,000 feet is about an hour and a half. It's rounded up to the next 5 minutes.
With kilometers selected, the same pace reads as about 3.2 km an hour, and Naismith's extra hour per 2,000 feet is about 600 meters of climbing. The walking time comes out the same either way.
One stop is a quick look at a plaque; another is a museum you could spend an afternoon in. The person who built the hike knows which is which, so they choose a suggested stop time for each stop:
| Suggested stop time | Good for |
|---|---|
| Pass by | Something you see as you walk past |
| 5, 10 or 15 minutes | A marker, a statue, a view, a short story |
| 30 or 45 minutes | A small site, a church, a garden |
| 1 hour to 3 hours | A museum, a fort, a tour, somewhere to have lunch |
A stop starts at 5 minutes until its creator picks something else. Each stop shows its own suggested time on the hike's page, in trail mode and in the printable kit, and a stop set to pass by says "Pass by".
They're suggestions. Linger where you like and skip what doesn't interest you; the total is there so you can plan the day.
Difficulty uses the hiking rating from Shenandoah National Park, a standard used by many parks and trail guides:
rating = the square root of (feet of climbing × 2 × miles)
Shenandoah sorts ratings into five groups; HistoricTrails.org merges them into three:
| Rating | Shenandoah rating | For example |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | under 50 | a flat walk of any length, or 5 miles with 200 feet of climbing |
| Moderate | 50 up to 150 | 3 miles with 500 feet of climbing |
| Strenuous | 150 or more | 6 miles with 2,000 feet of climbing |
The rating is always worked out in feet and miles, whichever units you choose, so a hike's rating never changes with the switch.
Difficulty is about the hills only. Time at the stops never changes it, and because the rating multiplies distance by climb, a walk with no hills is easy however long it is. How long the day takes is what the time is for, so check both before you pick a hike for small legs.
The difficulty filter in the hikes directory uses the same lines, so a hike always shows up under the rating on its card.
For how distances with spurs and rides are shown, see Finding a hike.