[ketanmaheshwari]

Hey I understand the spirit of your message but you don't really have to be a professional hiker. The OP says it takes three and a half hours to walk 12 miles but could be easily squeezed to 3 hours. Then, it could be split. Half of this could be done in the morning and the other half in the evening.

I would kindly urge you to consider this and give walking a fair try. It made a lot of positive change in my life. Best wishes.

[rootusrootus]

> could be easily squeezed to 3 hours

The fraction of the population that can sustain a 4 mph pace comfortably for three hours is probably small. That's a pretty good clip. 2.5 to 3 mph is much more realistic.

[phendrenad2]

Yes. I've been walking for a LONG time and 12 miles takes me about 4 hours. That's a lot of time out of your day, plus you likely won't have a lot of energy left for errands or whatever else needs to be done afterwards.

[wrycoder]

At that pace, you could leave San Francisco in March and arrive in Boston before the snow flys.

[mordechai9000]

I'm a pretty fast hiker most of the time, and I find that my pace almost always works out to 2 mph once I figure in breaks and miscellaneous stops or delays. Like fishing out sunglasses, taking bio breaks, removing or adding layers, or enjoying the view for a few minutes. (Granted we're not necessarily talking about hiking.)

[rootusrootus]

On an unrelated note, this is the one detail that always bothered me about the Long Walk. It doesn't seem plausible. 2 mph I could believe.