Multi-Mode Hiking

I just got a mountain bike that I found in the trash up and running.  It's in perfect condition.  Even with the old cables, it's still shifting right.

Today, I want to write about "multi-mode hiking."  It pertains to solo and multiple hikers with only one car.  If their intent is to eventually complete a distance hiking trail, using only one car, the hiker would have to either hike out and back, or loop on an off agency trails and roads.

The bicycle has a drive train.  And here in Ohio, it's more efficient by 3 or 4 times.  Off-road trails can have some prohibitions, so bicycles aren't always permitted.  But you can drop one off at the end of a route and chain it to a tree.  But with those prohibitions, just make sure that the wheels never come in contact with that trail (pick it up to lock it somewhere off that trail).

When I mentioned three or four times, it's as if the hike to bike has a ratio.  Here in Ohio, it's generally 1:3 or 1:4 in stamina.  I don't pedal up some hills to conserve it.  Here's how that works for me... Based on those ratios, if I was hiking the Buckeye Trail in NE Ohio, it would be a 1:4 area.  That means that if I was 20 mile per day hiker, in most circumstances, I could hike 16 miles down trail.  The route back on road would probably only be about 12 miles.  By this ratio, 12 miles on bike equals 3 miles hiking.  3 + 16 = 19, so it's within the 20.  If the loop back's mileage ends up being more, then the distance down trail hiking would need to be shortened.

With the out and back, that 10 miles out and 10 miles back.  Here on the Buckeye Trail, the Circuit Hike Patch is somewhat based on it's total mileage.  That means that the 10 miles back doesn't can't count towards that because that portion of the trail was already covered.  And looping mileage isn't covered anyways, but the multi-mode mitigates that by having a faster, less strenuous mode of travel.

A 16 mile hike in Ohio would take about 5 - 6 hours.  With a bicycle, the loop back would only take about one.  Another way to put it is that it enables the hiker to put 75% of their stamina down trail and 25% on the loop.

Here's the way that lesser loop mileage works.  Roads are better engineered than trails.  The trails have more grades and turns.  Therefore, the road is usually tends to have more level surfaces.  Federal Highways are usually better engineered than state highways.  State highways are better engineered than county roads.  County Roads are usually better engineered than township roads.  And township roads are often better than forest roads.  So, there's a hierarchy to it.

On one route that I did in a more remote part of Ohio, the loop back was longer than the distance of that day's hike.  But the state highway that it was routed on was more efficient, so this was exceptional.  And I don't have any experience in any mountainous areas.  It might work in some low mountainous ones?  But there are some kits that could be bought to convert a bicycle into a motorized one.  Otherwise, mopeds, motorcycles, kayaks or a second car.  That car could be lightweight vehicle dollied to a truck or some kind of motorhome?  Even public transit has several forms.  One of those could be "dial-a-ride," "curb-to-curb," and "demand responsive" type transit.  Unlike a city bus line, these vehicles pull into certain places, even homes for boarding and disembarking.  Those methods might enable the hiker to put 100% of their daily stamina down trail?