IMind you, hiking is not exploration, that is you do not discover hidden secrets and snippets of the world gone by, but you simply cross the terrain.
You lost me there.
I'd think for anyone the whole enjoyment of the hiking simulator factor in a game is what you emergently encounter (especially fight) and discover.
May I ask a question: Have you ever hiked, IRL? Cus a big thing about it
is exploration. Going your own way, even if differently along the same trails and trying to discover new stuff you didn't notice before. Heck, last month I went to some local falls I'd never heard of until this year and found the trip too easy, so decided to follow the river to see if it emptied into a lake I'd never been to. It did and I realized the ravine I'd gone through following the river had been the exact same one I'd noticed while at a mall looking out at our nearby mountain it flows down.
Even a damn walk around town is exploration, even if you walk the same damn route, you'll notice things have changed here and there.
I'm logistically challenged (ie. can't walk too far on my own)
Which is why I play games right
Unless you've got some major problem you can't change like fucked up knees or some disease that messes with you, like a friend of mine has Crohn's like symptoms, wants to walk but going more than 100 feet at a time results in him shitty blood for a week, then the only thing keeping you from walking it you're not used to it and that will change.
I ran into that being sick myself and unable to walk in my teens, but in my 20s I got into it, then lost access to a car and began carrying groceries home, walking from place to place sitting to rest, until I finally was able to make the distance in one go. After that I got into the habit of wandering around town finding new roads and alleys I'd never gone down to explore inbetween trail hikes.
It takes time, and my health still isn't that great, but with enough food and water I've reached that stage where I can walk for as long as I want, even if I'll have trouble and pay for it tomorrow.
Start, see what you can do. If it's weight fucking with you, lightening the load to pull it off is a good goal to use to lose it for. My brothers friends wife ran into that walking with them, and even losing like 20 pounds made the difference on her knees.