- Thru-hiking vs Backpacking (or day-hiking)

This is my interpretation of what makes a thru-hiker/Section-hiker/Day-hiker/Backpacker. If others have a differing opinion please do drop me a line and I'll change this definition if we agree but in the meantime, this is purely my understanding of the different terms you might hear.
  



Thru-hiker

Wikipedia explains thru-hiking as "... the act of hiking an established end-to-end trail or long-distance trail with continuous footsteps in one direction". Okay but what does that mean? 

A thru-hiker will typically carry their world on their back, aside from things they swap in and out at shops/drop points, for the duration of a hike. Imagine a hiker walking from Lands End to John O'Groats. At the end of each day they might pitch a tent, cook food, sleep, wake, pack up and keep moving towards their end goal. That is a thru-hiker. They will start and finish a trail in one go.

Section-hiker

A section-hiker walking the same trail as our thru-hiker will do the same trail but they will walk it in chunks. A good example would be taking a weeks holiday from work, walking for 5 days and then returning to work only to return to where they left the trail on their next walking holiday to continue to their end goal.

The same trail, just chopped into sections.

Backpacker/day-hiker

A backpacker/day-hiker is the same as our section-hiker but their sections will be a day long. The same as going for a walk as a backpacker. Pick a route and walk it. In our example the day-hiker will stick to the same trail but their hikes will not be consecutive days like the thru-hiker. They will walk the same trail but might break for days in between walks and their walks will only be for one day at a time.

The same trail, just chopped into daily chunks. 

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