thanks Jerry, years of teaching (unrelated subject) may be the reason..

there are no hard and fast rules about adjusting pace count although I've found rules of thumb. Don't trust any formulas or typical percentage adustments either. don't use any charts! you need to calibrate your own paces. I chose to do 1/10 mile increments because I could use a handheld GPS to track 1/10 mile while I counted paces a bunch of times to get an average. The reason I chose 1/10 is that i use 1:24000 scale maps and my compass base has a scale for 1:24000 maps in 1/10 mile increments. When I'm doing shorter walks, I just assume 1/2 my normal paces for 1/20 (0.05 miles) and use the same compass baseplate scale to plot on the map. you follow me? your pace count on the street with no backpack is your optimum pace, your numbers will increase depending on trails, conditions, pack weight. its easy to adjust/check in the field by pace counting from say a trail head to a river where you can measure the distance on the map. knowing how far you travelled, and how many paces it took you will allow you to calc your pace count under those conditions. over time making adjustments becomes second nature.

Every once in a while when I'm off trail and I know I'm going to hit a trail or a river, I'll pace to calibrate. Lets say the map indicates I'll hit the trail in 0.35 miles. I'm pace counting and I hit the trail when I'd only tabulated -.25 miles. This means I was actually travelling further with each pace than I anticipated, so going foreward that day I should adjust accordingly, counting fewer steps per 1/10th (or 1/20). Conversely, if I did not hit the trail until I'd counted 0.45 miles in beads, that means I was travelling a shorter distance with each pace than I thought. I should adjust by counting more paces per 1/10 (or 1/20) from there on.

one other option to practice in different terrain, trail conditions, steep ups, steep downs, bushwhacks etc. is to watch the trip counter on your GPS while pace counting - whatch it tic 1/10th of a mile and see how many paces you took. Do it a couple times and average. take notes for future reference about that sort of terrain (and whether or not you were carrying a heavy load or not).

its may sound complicated, but in reality its just plain fun!