A ranger in the White Mountains told me my 12 mile days were the reason I kept getting hurt | Backpacking Routes

Hannah Kim · 2026-09-14T06:20:03.779874+00:00

I used to plan every trip around big mileage, like 12 to 14 miles a day no matter how steep the trail was. Last June I was coming down the Franconia Ridge loop in New Hampshire and a ridge runner stopped to chat while I was sitting on a rock rubbing my knee. He asked how many days I had been out and when I told him, he said most of the injuries he sees up there come from people treating miles as the goal instead of the terrain. That stuck with me because I had been blaming my shoes for two trips in a row. So on my next route in the Greens I capped it at 8 miles a day with the same total climb and my knees felt fine for the first time all season. Now I plan by feet of gain and how rough the trail is, not by the number on the map. Does anyone else here build routes that way, or am I just slower than I used to be?

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A ranger in the White Mountains told me my 12 mile days were the reason I kept getting hurt | Backpacking Routes - The Design Community Hub