We are at the end of application season, and it's an exciting time of the year. We are all planning for our fall hunts and have hopefully drawn some awesome tags. If not, there’s still over-the-counter opportunity and some secondary draws and leftovers that will be available soon.
Nothing is more exciting than getting into the weeds of e-scouting and absolutely tearing your unit apart with more waypoints than onX can handle. There’s a lot of information out there on e-scouting, but what goes most overlooked is time. Time is the biggest factor, as most of us don’t have all season to get it done.
So how long is that hike going to take? You mark a trail to get to your main hunting area, then mark another to get over to a different area that looks promising as well. Your marked trail is one mile or maybe three—not hard right? Just an easy pop over, and “I’ll be there in no time.” I bet most of us have planned out routes to areas we never even got to hunt because we bit off more than we could chew. We just didn’t understand the terrain and how physical the area really was. After many years of compiling hiking data from myself and other members here at Huntin’ Fool, I have created a formula to share with you all. Hopefully, when e-scouting, this will help you figure out how long a hike will take you. All you need to do is map out a route and plug in the mileage, elevation gain, and elevation loss into this formula:
Hike Time = (0.55 x miles) + (0.00126 x Gain(ft)) + (0.00021 x Loss(ft)) - 0.21
Then, refer to the table in this article and determine the type of hike you will be doing. Multiply your result from the formula by the factor listed beside the hike you are expecting or run it through all the scenarios to get multiple outcomes.
The final result will be a number with decimals. Take the decimal and multiply by 60 to convert it to minutes. As an example, let’s say your formula gives you 4.68.
0.68 x 60 = 40.8
Round that to the nearest whole number. Continuing the example above, that gives you 41 minutes, so the total time for your hike would be 4 hours and 41 minutes.
The table lists the “factors” to take into consideration when calculating your time. The base factor (1) will result in the same number you get from the formula itself. This is a basic heavy-pack hike. It is slow-paced, and you’re taking multiple stops to catch your breath. The time you get from this base factor is what a normal meat pack out will take. The table lists other scenarios and describes when to use each factor in finding your time.
|
Factor |
Type of Hike |
|
0.6 |
A fast hike to a glassing knob. You are busting it to get to your destination without stopping. You may have a lightweight pack. |
|
0.8 |
This is a typical pack-in hike. You have a loaded pack but aren’t worried about anything other than getting to your destination to camp. You may stop a couple of times or slow down, but in general, you keep moving forward; or you’re day hunting and moving slowly but not necessarily stopping to glass or take extended breaks. |
|
1 |
This is the base hike time the formula will give you. It’s geared towards slow-moving hunts or packing meat: hikes where you’re just chugging along with periods of stopping to break. |
|
1.2 |
This is geared towards still-hunting slowly and stopping to glass, taking extended breaks. This is a more methodical approach and one you may consider when planning a day hunt to a different location or when doing a nice loop. |
|
1.4 |
This is for the miserable hikes. You are going over deadfall and cannot cover ground fast enough. You’re scaling steep terrain or are having a hard time finding a route to where you want to go. |
Now if you wanted to figure out how long a hike would take you if you got an animal down and went through processing it and packing it out, just double your time from the base formula.
This formula isn’t perfect, but it will get you close to an accurate time. Everyone is different, so start tracking your hikes and adjust the factor with this formula to suit you. But as a starting point, running these numbers will get you very close.
Let me walk you through an example of a real hike I did while hunting. This was me packing into an area I was going to hunt:
Hike Time = (0.55 x miles) + (0.00126 x Gain(ft)) + (0.00021 x Loss(ft)) - 0.21
= (0.55 x 2.7) + (0.00126 x 1664) + (0.00021 x 37) - 0.21
= 1.485 + 2.09664 + 0.00777 - 0.21
= 3.37941
Now I will apply the factor for the type of hike. This was a pack-in hike with only a couple days’ worth of items in my pack, so I was lightweight and did not stop. The factor for that is 0.6.
= 3.37941 x 0.6
= 2.027646
Now I will convert that to read hours and minutes by taking the decimal and multiplying by 60 and then adding my hour number back in.
Minutes = 0.027646 x 60
= 1.659
≅ 2 min
Adding my hour number (2) back in gives a total of 2 hours and 2 minutes. The actual time it took me to do that hike was 1 hour and 59 minutes.
Here is another example of a hike I did early in the morning in the dark to get to a glassing knob in order to spot a big buck I’d glassed the evening before. This hike ended up being rough, as the tail end was thick, and I had to climb over a lot of deadfall. However, I was traveling lightweight since I was doing a day hunt from camp. My pace was steady but very slow, so the base formula covered the hike:
Hike Time = (0.55 x 1.6) + (0.00126 x 483) + (0.00021 x 812) - 0.21
= 1.4491
Minutes = 0.4491 x 60
= 26.946 (or 30 minutes)
Hike Time =1 hour and 30 minutes
The estimated time to do that hike was 1 hour and 30 minutes, and the actual time it took me was 1 hour and 20 minutes. Again, not perfect, but it gets you very close.
When e-scouting prior to your hunt, it’s wise to build out routes in advance and make notes of how long those hikes should take. Mark hiking trails as well as off-trail routes. You will have a better understanding of what it will take to get around and hunt the area instead of guessing and potentially ruining a day or more of hunting. Do the planning now so that, when the time comes, you can be the most efficient hunter you can be. No wasted time, just straight business.
I have this formula, the factors, and the hour-to-minute conversion in an excel sheet. All I have to do is put in mileage and elevation gain and loss then select a factor, and it spits out my result. Much quicker than doing it all by hand. So, if you like to nerd out a bit like me, throw this into excel, and you’ll have a quick way to estimate hiking times.
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