Quoted By:
I did 27 miles or so in one day on the Ozark Trail. This was low elevation, but hilly. Good dirt trail. Mid-springtime, so the bugs weren't biting, it wasn't too hot, and there was a fair amount of daylight. This was enough hiking to wear me out, but didn't beat me up too bad. I did three days in a row over 22-25 miles like this, and at the end of the trip, I was ready for another 25 miles. I had a light backpack, trail running shoes, hiking poles, and a positive attitude, and I think all of them helped a lot.
I did 22 miles in the So. Rockies with an even lighter pack not too long afterwards, although the total elevation gain and loss was probably the same. Again, not enough to completely wear me out, but I was more tired at the end of the day because the entire hike was above 9000 feet than because of my body being worn out.
All the rest of my hikes have all been <20 miles per day. I'm not the most fit hiker, but doing this many miles isn't really about fitness, IMO. It has more to do with mental endurance than anything else. If you can convince yourself to keep hiking (without stopping) for 1 hour, and at the end of that hour, if you can take a 5 minute or shorter food and water break and convince yourself to hike another 1 hour again, and do this again, and again, then you can hike all day. Learn to eat lunch and drink water while moving. If you can keep your body moving forward down the trail throughout the entire time the sun is up, even if you hike VERY SLOW, you will find that you have hiked over 20 miles by the end of the day, possibly more if you are a faster hiker. Having a lightweight pack, hiking poles, light shoes on your feet, and a positive attitude really do help, though.
I really don't do many long hikes anymore, but the only reason is simply because most of my hikes in the past few years have involved a fair amount of fly-fishing. I tend to hike half the day and fish half the day.