When referring to hiking trails you’ll hear about a few different types. Three common ones you hear about are out and back, point to point, and loop trails. In this article I’m going to answer the question “what is an out and back trail?”.
An out and back trail is a trail that goes from point A (generally the trailhead) to point B then back to point A along the same path. If the hiking trail is 2.5 miles, and it’s an out and back trail, then you know your total hike will be 5 miles. If you take a different path on the way back then your distance will be different, so keep that in mind.An out and back trail may also be referred to as an “in and out” but the terms are used interchangeably.
How are out and back trails measured?
If the trailhead sign says 2.5 miles one way then the total distance for the hike is 5 miles, we’ve covered that. However when looking up an out and back trail total distance for your hike on websites such as alltrails, the distance is going to be listed as round-trip distance. So when you look up an out and back hike and the distance is 5 miles, that’s for the total hike which includes out and back.
How long is an out and back trail?
There is no set distance on an out and back trail. It’s simply however long point A to point B is times 2. Generally though, most out and back trails do refer to day hikes so with that in mind an out and back hike will to be a distance that can be completed in a day in most cases. A long distance hike that involves backcountry camping could also be an out and back, when you hear the term out and back hike though people are generally referring to shorter trails.
