What is the difference between a "walk" and a "hike?"

I'd say that a "walk" is comparatively short and is usually made without any special preparations. A "hike" is longer, and usually you'd make preparations beforehand, such as putting on walking boots, packing food, a tent, etc.

To me it is more of a difficulty factor, although there are different connotations. Obviously, a short distance is a walk, but I wouldn't say, "take a walk in the mountains". In Boy Scouts, you go on a hike, even if it is only a few miles away. When my mother and I would go hiking, she would walk slowly, and I could barely keep back with her. I considered what I did as hiking, and what she did as walking.

I agree with Sean. I walk 2 miles each day, but it surely isn't a hike. I think of a hike as being under more difficult circumstances, other than the streets of my quiet suburb.

BTW, you'd never say to anyone when you were exasperated, "Oh...Go take a walk!"

quote:

BTW, you'd never say to anyone when you were exasperated, "Oh...Go take a walk!"

It seems odd that you'd tell someone with whom you're perturbed to go do something healthy! People are the crrrrraiziest people!

I would say that a walk is just that but a hike is walking across countryside.

But, Erik, you even said that a hike is a walk across the countryside. Couldn't a walk in the countryside be just that...a walk? But it could also be a "hike" if the countryside were full of rocks, hills, streams, etc.?

quote:

Couldn't a walk ... also be a "hike" if the countryside were full of rocks, hills, streams, etc.?

Hmmmm... You been in the wrong part of Chicago lately, Kalleh?

"hike" to me implies the outdoors in a more natural setting. "Walk"s can occur anywhere, even on indoor tracks or around the mall (like I did yesterday with my dad).

I just realised - I would take a walking stick on a hike . . . but not on a walk.

quote:

I just realised - I would take a walking stick on a hike . . . but not on a walk.

On a walk you'd take a hiking stick?

quote:

"Walk"s can occur anywhere, even on indoor tracks or around the mall (like I did yesterday with my dad).

Nobody would consider a walk in the mall as a "hike" in the mall, I agree. However, the shades of gray lie in Erik's example...the countryside. I think you can walk in the country and hike in the country, and sometimes I think there may be an overlap. When I lived in SF, for example, my friends and I put on our hiking boots and "hiked" around the bay. Others might put on their walking shoes and "walk" around the bay.

To me the hike is the purpose. To get out into the countryside and certainly walk mikes over sometimes rough terrain. There's the Pennine Way over here of course. Hiking the length of the Roman Wall here in Northumberland- 76 miles-I know a few who've done it, surviving by occasional pints of ale in pubs nearby! You used to be able to walk along the top of the wall (along the existing bits anyway) but it's generally discouraged these days. I agree with arnie, a hike is a prepared walk using special boots and carrying equipment.

Oh, but I plan for my walks each day. I buy special walking shoes and plan out just where to go so that I get my 2 miles in. Sometimes I take my pedometer with me to measure the distance. I think there are shades of gray.

Hike or walk? There's the long and the short of it.
But anything except the dreadful, compulsive, health obsessed, pain-ridden joggers.

quote:

BTW, you'd never say to anyone when you were exasperated, "Oh...Go take a walk!"

Now that I think about it more, you might say, "Go take a long walk off of a short pier."

I find this expression slightly amusing; we use the term "dock" almost exclusively when referring to what should probably be called a pier; however, this expression is different.

On a completely off-topic note, I've decided to practice using semicolons this week.

Sean, whenever I use semicolons, I always wonder if I am using them right or if the grammar police have an all-points bulletin out for me. The rules for using them just don't seem that black and white.

I was raised in Wisconsin, and there the word was definitely "pier," though I've noticed it's "dock" in Illinois.

At most of the waterfronts in North America where precise English is spoken, the dock is the space occupied by the vessel while it's moored to the pier.

quote:

At most of the waterfronts in North America where precise English is spoken

From what I understand, waterfronts across the world are not exactly the places to go looking for precise language.

quote:

anything except the dreadful, compulsive, health obsessed, pain-ridden joggers.

They never look happy, do they? I can't imagine jogging now - even at my age my joints just couldn't take it. It has been extremely humid and hot outside lately, yet there are still some joggers out there. What makes them do it?

It gives me some ghoulish satisfaction that the guru of jogging, Jim Fixx, died after his daily run of a massive heart attack. OK, he took up running only at 35, when he weighed 214 pounds and smoked two packs a day; still, his case provides a neat parable on the evils of jogging, even if he would have died even earlier if he hadn't got fitter through jogging.

quote:

What makes them do it?

In a word, endorphins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorphin

Don't you think some people say that about us..."talking about words and language on a forum??? What geeks!"

People, fortunately, like many different things. Michael Jordan, for example, just loved basketball; it wasn't his endorphins, I am sure.

I can think of lovelier ways to get that endorphin rush.

Ohhhh, you wanna make endorphins with Michael Jordan? Just remember: basketball players usually dribble before they shoot, so it could get messy!

Re. "pier" versus "dock", US usage seems to be interchangable. Over here a pier is a long thin construction that goes out to sea sometimes as a breakwater, sometimes as a leisure facilty such as the Victorian pleasure piers. It is distinctly different from "dock". A ship may dock at a dock near the dockside but doesn't usually dock at a pier though sometimes it can!