A long training day on foot from Settle to Skipton with heavier bags to make it feel closer to the John Muir Trail. The route covered 30.99 km with 1088.4 m of ascent, with a well-timed café stop in Malham breaking up the day.

Quick Summary

We treated this as a proper training hike rather than a casual walk. Carrying more weight than usual made the day feel more realistic and kept the focus on steady time on our feet.

Day 1

The aim was simple: get used to moving for a long stretch with loaded packs. That extra weight changed the feel of the day straight away and made a straightforward point-to-point feel much more purposeful.

We walked from Settle to Skipton at a steady pace and kept the effort controlled rather than worrying about speed. Malham came at just the right moment, and the café stop there gave us a useful reset before the second half of the day.

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Highlights and Learnings

The biggest takeaway was how much the heavier bags changed the day. It was still a walk from Settle to Skipton, but the added load made it feel much closer to the kind of effort we wanted to practise.

A few things stood out: - Extra pack weight made this far better training than a normal light-pack day. - The café stop in Malham was well timed and helped break the route into manageable chunks. - Steady forward progress mattered more than pace.