I was given a couple of pedometers last month, and adjusted them to my stride. Day One: an average day, a non-hiking day and I wanted to see -- on a somewhat sedentary day, how many steps I took. (around the house, out shopping) The pedometer said almost twenty thousand steps. I doubted I'd taken that many steps. I tried the higher tech pedometer on another "sort of sedentary day" and it was over twenty thousand steps. So I don't need a pedometer, I'm walking plenty, even on days when I'm around the house.
Fourteen miles one way? Not a problem. Although lately I've been hiking by *my old childhood method. Walk for 2-4 hours then turn around and come back. I never get bored walking.
Hiking all day ( ten hours let's say) isn't hard for me since I've been a dedicated walker since I could toddle. My feet don't hurt and my bones don't creak. I wake up feeling physically and mentally great, and I've come to the conclusion that walking, strolling, and hiking is really good for me.*When I was a little kid, I was often on my own on summer days. My parents both worked and I'd get up with them at dawn, have breakfast with them. My mom would pack a nice lunch for me to take to the park. But instead I'd walk off into the day, walking across the city, trying some new routes, for 3 or so hours, stopping to observe whatever, eat my lunch, then slowly walk back the way I came. That took care of my 6-8 hours of being on my own. Walking became addictive and I became a collector of maps. On weekends my dad would take me on strenuous hikes-- he never got tired, but was a meditative sort of person, so our hikes were blessedly quiet ones, with stops to look at a particular tree, enjoy a view, think about nothing,
