I had to laugh at myself when I first read the post. I read it 5 or more times trying to find out where you called the hike "long-ish" and then realized it was in the post title.

I don't have a fit bit, but I do see how it could produce a 30% greater distance reading. I've done some map & compass work and orienteering in the past, and for my natural pace measurements, I'm consistently 11 paces for 10 meters, and 110 paces for 100 meters. Of course that's like your track reading... nice even flat ground.

Any type of uphill slope is going to shorten your steps a bit, but not by 30% unless it's a really rough steep climb. So why would the fit bit ready 30% further distance? Well, I think it's more subconscious than anything. If I'm consciously pacing my distance, and trying to maintain a natural stride, that stride length will be longer than a normal hiking stride would be. I would be willing to bet that if you set your fit bit distance based upon a fully geared hiked trail distance, it would be more accurate in the end.

For me, I could see me doing 15 steps for 10 metres in hiking conditions compared to the 11 when pacing. That with ups & downs along a trail would get me to 30% more steps easily, which a fit bit would read as 30% farther.

Then again, maybe I'm way off because I haven't had my coffee this morning yet. All I can say is, 804 miles, 53 days... nice. Really, really nice! I'd love to be able to do something like that someday. I'm still trying to fit in a 5-7 day hike into my schedule. 2 months though, what a vacation that would be!