How long does a thru-hike take?
Pick a trail or type in any distance, set the daily average you expect to walk and how many rest days you plan per month. The calculator returns the number of days you would be on trail and the date you would finish — plus how much that changes if your pace is a little faster or slower than planned.
Hiking days
133
Rest days
13
Total days on trail
146
Finish date
2 January 2027
If your pace is different
- One mi more per day → 140 days, finishing 27 December 2026 (6 days sooner)
- One mi less per day → 154 days, finishing 10 January 2027 (8 days later)
This calculator does arithmetic on the numbers you entered. It does not predict your pace, and it does not account for terrain, altitude, weather, injury or trail closures. Preset trail lengths come from the organisation managing each trail: Pacific Crest Trail Association, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Continental Divide Trail Coalition, Te Araroa Trust.
Want to see what your real numbers look like day by day?
How the estimate is worked out
Hiking days are the trail length divided by your daily average, rounded up. Rest days are your rest days per month applied across those hiking days. The finish date is the start date plus both together. There is nothing else in the model — no assumptions about terrain, fitness or season are added on our behalf.
Why the plan and the reality differ
A single average hides a lot: climbing days are slower than flat ones, the first weeks are usually slower than the last, and unplanned town stops add up. That is the reason HikerStats exists — instead of guessing one number up front, you log each day and see the average you are actually walking, how it changes over the hike, and what conditions go with your best and worst days.
You can browse an example hike and its report to see the format. That example uses generated sample data, not a real hike — it is there to show the tool, not to tell you what your trail will be like.