“A dayhike, or an overnight trip? I used to much prefer the overnighters, but lately I've been leaning toward the dayhikes. For one thing, it is much easier to get people to go along on dayhikes. Now a longer trip is another story, but unfortunetly I don't often have time to spend a week in the woods.
Just wanted to get y'alls opinions on this.”

“if all you have time for is a day hike, that is great that you are still getting out there. i still prefer the extended trips, even if just a weekend. sometimes it takes more than just an hour or two in the woods to shake off all the trivial things that weigh on my mind while at home.”

“I love day hikes more than overnighters when the weather is questionable, and when there (regretably) isn't enough time in between work weeks.

Personally, though, I don't think anything compares to being able to spend a few nights in the backwoods. I'm going for a day hike on Sunday. When I get back from Italy in March, I'll start planning my first overnight of the year.”

“dayhikes are great to get your motivated for more...but they always leave me just a bit unsatisfied. I always want to see whats further, whats ahead and i always hate having to make myself stop. I remember my first backpack trip ever...i would see little dayhikers zooming bye...but hell, i was so proud that i was carrying everything i needed with me...totally self sufficient. It gave me a feeling i never had befor.”

“One advantage of a dayhike is you can have a cold beer and hot shower at the end of every day.”

“likes being stinky”

“It is hard to go home at the end of the day hike. More than once I've been tempted to just stay. As long as I don't take enough food to do so, I can usually resist the temptation.”

“I think it takes me more than 1 night to unwind and get fully into the widerness experience, to totally stop thinking about the "real" world...so unless I have a long weekend a dayhike lets me just escape for awhile and still get things done over the weekend. But anytime I can I like to get out for at least 2 nights. Working nights doesn't facilitate that though...D'OH!”

“over night all the way and if I can more then just one night many.....:)”

“I'll take the overnighters. It gets me out, and I usually do a dayhike on Sunday before coming out.

If I only dayhike, I carcamp and hike both days. I drive 3-5 hours to get away on weekends, so I try to get the most out of it.”

“Dayhike only in the neighborhood. It's not worth driving to a dayhike. Even if it's a simple 24-hr. overnight, enjoy a night in the mountains or woods (and longer trips of course, also) get wrecked. Leave a spotless camp and enjoy the workout that you can only get while carrying overnight gear.”

“I really enjoy dayhikes but I prefer overnights. Usually I only have time for a dayhike. The overnights take more planning and time commitment and a thus more difficult. Why overnights? I enjoy cooking dinner on my stove and using all my gear and watching the sunset and sunrise in the outdoors - and knowing those are my only commitments for 24 hours.”

“I love dayhikes and most of my hikes are dayhikes, but I crave bagnights like an addiction.”

“I take the boy on dayhikes every Sat & Sun, and usually sometime during the week also. I feel fortunate that there's a place w/in a 1/2-hour drive so that I CAN dayhike. It's certainly better than nothing.”

“Yep, I'll take whatever I can get!”

“I like both. My overnighters only consist of 2-3 day trips, but get to go places 4-6 hours away from home. This puts me in N. Georgia, the Smokies, Asheville area, or Roan if I push it. I can go to Cheaha/Pinhoti, Sipsey, or Little River for a dayhike. For dayhike I tend to go at least 12 miles. That way I get to see almost as much an overnighter, and still get to spend the evening with wife and kids. I think there is a place for both. My preference for one over the other depends on how I'm feeling at the time.”

“I like both. I do at least one day hike a month and try to do at least one overnighter a month. But with school, daughter,work and side work I dont always get to.”

“I love overnights... but to me there is something magical about a dayhike (even if it's during an overnight) during sunset, maybe having to walk back in the dark”

“Overnighters are my favorites !!!
But if I only have time for a dayhike so be it! The whole point is being there. Little or alot it's all good. :)”

“In choosing a day hike or overnight depends on nothing but mood. I like day hikes and so does Khatru. anytime we can get out, is great. sometimes its only for 2-3 hours. There are some floodway ditchs nearby, we hike in @ 1 mile to an old RR trestle. he gets to run around and eat dead things, I climb the trestles. sometimes that is all it takes to get the tension out.”

“I agree with Big Coop about overnighters. Also, If I hike in somewhere, I want to stay a while and enjoy it.

Dayhikes are great when I am in the mood, but they don't relieve as much stress.

I am starting to take more dayhikes while on overnight hikes. It is neat discovering things off trail.”

“Day hikes are sure much easier on the environment. I also like them because I can go much further without a full pack. Not to mention the hot showers and cold beers.

That said, I love being out for a week or so and not seeing cars or tvs or newspapers or so many other things.”

“It all depends on how much time I got, and who I'm with. I do them all, dayhikes, overnighters and multidays (3 days max so far). Wish I had more time to do a week or more.”

“I dayhiked today. It was really beautiful out there, but all along the trail I kept looking at nice spots and thinking about how they'd make a good campsite.”

“took a day hike today too with my visiting folks.... i thought the same. Would of rather been back packing. they didnt even like the tiny little mud puddle tho...so backpacking with them is out of the question”

“I like 'em both. Here's some thoughts...

My big goal is to know the hiking within 200 miles better than anyone on earth. So, I look at little patches of public land that are just big enough to support a good 10 mile hike. Then, I start to break the place down looking for routes. I can get out for a couple of hours after work to see if there is a trail connector someplace. In an hour, I can check if a swamp is crossable. Every once in awhile, I put it all together and hike 20 miles or so in a day.

Backpacking is cool, but it's just an extention of hiking. I don't particularly care to cook much. I'd rather drink gatorade, eat gas station sandwiches and keep hiking. And, to be honest, I like to be comfortable. Deprivation might make some feel good, but I know that in the great scheme of things, I'm pretty soft. And, shoot, I'm Catholic. I go without lots of things. Why not feel comfortable while hiking?

The other thing is that I really like the towns and cities along the way to great hiking spots. Yesterday, I was filling up my drink at Boston Market after hiking and an African-American woman with a Southern accent was slowly, very slowly, filling hers up. She started laughing, said, "I'm 85, it's takes me awhile." I said, "At 85, you can stand wherever you want to, ma'am." We were laughing and talking together while we ate. And I thought about what an honor it was to share a moment with a woman who had seen so much good and bad in the world. That wouldn't have happened while backpacking.

But, I get out once in awhile.
rl”

“You can't sleep under the stars on a dayhike. Or have a campfire at night. Or wake up to the "strange" absence of traffic and other city noise in the morning.

And you can put some wine or other spirits in your backpack.”

“That said, a dayhike is better than nothing if time is hard to come by. Ditto with car camping.”

“I see dayhikes as a consolation prize.”

“I don't get any satisfaction from dayhiking. There is no real challange either. The only reason I'd ever dayhike again would be if I were pressed for time and wanted to get a feel for an area before a long trip.
Plus, If I were on a dayhike and passed a dude toting a backpack, I'd feel like a wuss. Any chump can put on a pair of boots and take a stroll in the woods. It takes a stronger person to go for several days at a time. I'm not a wuss.
It would be like a Navy Seal playing Paint Ball.”

“So, it's kind of like driving a run down Buick and parking next to the guy with the red sports car - it's all about keeping up appearances. Peer pressure is a tough thing, ain't it?

And you are right. There is no challenge to a 20 mile loop with hills, water crossings, etc. Just a stroll in the woods.

And, of course, spending a day and a half in the woods on the weekend and a week there in the summer is definitely much preferable to hiking every night after work. Makes the hiking experience "special", rather than an every day part of one's existence.

And certainly the best way of determining "strength" in a person is whether they can do their best imitation of a pack mule.

Dudes. It's a hobby. It's fun. It's exciting. It's adventurous. But we haven't yet cornered the market on virtue by acting as walking billboards for The North Face.

Chumps of the world unite!”

“Your exactly right except for one thing.
It's not "adventure". Backpacking is not insane enough to be "adventure".”

“Hi walkingdude! Just messing with you. I always love your posts. And I'd be glad to take you on a crazy dayhike - or backpack - if you are in these parts.

rl”

“I must admit... Dayhiking does suck. I mean, why go out hiking for just 2-4 hours once in a while after work, when you know you're just going to have to go back home and prepare for another day. Even on weekends when prior plans keep you from backpacking, dayhiking is senseless because it's just a tease, and you don't get to sleep under the stars. Backpacking is much better because it gets you out of the house once a month for a few nights, rather than getting out in the woods for 2 hours 3 times a week, or more like 15 times a month. I mean come on, this is a no brainer, I'd rather stay in the house and wait a month rather than go out for a few hours more than a dozen times a month.”

“Hey Buddur!

That makes no sense to me. You would stay in the house rather than go hiking? Going on a dayhike one day won't stop you from backpacking the next weekend.

This ain't rocket science. For a few hundred bucks and with a little effort any schmuck can go backpacking. I like to hike AND backpack. And I don't get any self-congratulatory feelings when I've got a pack on and I see daytrippers.

Dayhiking is cool. Elitism sucks.”

“i believe there was sarcasm dripping from buddur's last post.”

“A dayhike=joy
Going backpacking=compleat bliss,happeness,one with god....should I go on.”

“:) sheepish grin”

“"Your exactly right except for one thing.
It's not "adventure". Backpacking is not insane enough to be "adventure"."

Hey WD - you just haven't made it up north here to go backpacking with crazy mike yet. Now that's an adventure . . . lol!”

“Well if I must say backpacking is a adventure and when you go with me it's a blast.”

“When July gets here Montana here I come.....:)”

“Carry a full pack on your day hikes
then you won't feel like a wuss.”

“Now that is good advise.”

“To me an "adventure" is kinda like an epic.
The defination is: An undertaking that involves Risk or Danger.
I've been out in some pretty harsh conditions and I've had other hobbies like Caving and Rock Climbing and I still don't consider anything I've ever done "adventure".

Yo Reformed Lurker
I'm mostly just tugging a chain myself. LOL
Truth is, 99% of all my hiking anymore is backpacking. I've dayhiked the sh!t out of everything within a 4 hour drive of me. If I go out to see new places then I like to stay out at least 3 days to justify the drive.
You know the saying, "Hike your own hike".
BTW, I'm planning to take you up on that offer and go in your stomping grounds someday. It'd be great to meet new people and see old friends.”

“Well put.”

“I'm just not to hip on the "a" word.
Actually Sarabelle says it best. "Walking in the woods and sleeping in the woods".
It's that simple.”

“I like that.”

“it's all about getting out,, most of us will never go to exotic places, or be able to take the time to go for months at a time,, it doesn't mean we don't enjoy ourselves as we are. I make it a point to spend as much time outdoors as I can, some hiking, some carcamping, some hunting, some fishing,, it's all good, just different.”

“Ok for some but for me it's backpacking all the way.”