Unfortunately, Venu is terrible watch to log such a basic outdoor activity as hiking.. (these watches are mainly for city folks. Shame, that Garmin does not annouce it clearly). From my experience, Venu are unusable to track hiking.. Your options are:
record a walk: There is serious problem that Venu will not record properly elevation change when in rough mountain terrain, where your pace is very slow (as is very usual in mountain terrain). Check it in web interface in newsfeed when clicking on map of an activity - when there are straight lines, your Venu stole elevation meters and other statistics of your activity. See https://ibb.co/gZ4rtjW (no, I am really not such a super hiker that I move in such a rough terrain in a straight line). Logical solution could be to rurn off auto pause -- no matter that your HR is 160, you gain elevation 800 m / hour, if ridiculous Garmin's auto pause algorthm based on poor gps reception says you don't move, you don't move...! It is unfornutely a not solution. Venu has most likely some sort of algorithm that falsesly detects that there is nothing to record and then it stops calculating and recording your progress. There is another "feature" called smart data recording. Unfornutely, if you turn 1 second recording, the issue will still be present. Anyway, I still recommend to turn auto pause off and set data recording to 1 s to improve the hike statistics, but be aware that even though you will most likely loose many elevation meters (and other metrics too) when you will move in a terrain where your pace is slow. Another issue with record hike as a walk is that it will underestimate your VO2 values. Another disadventage is that you cannot pause an activity.
use third party app: You can use 3rd party app like Hike2+. Not sure, but it seems to me that it does not suffers with these annoying issues. But there is huge disadvatage - it drains your battery about 3 - 4 times faster than native walk activity. On longer hikes you will have to recharge you device during you hike (while walk activity drains about 50% on 10 hours walk).. You also does not have access to widgets - SPO2, garmin pay, ...
Anyone who is considering buying Venu (or Venu 2) and who suffers with an illusion that these watches are also for outdoor acitivities, do not buy it. It is waste of money.
You can use 3rd party app like Hike2+. Not sure, but it seems to me that it does not suffers with these annoying issues. But there is huge disadvatage
If you go to the menu in Hike2, there is a "save battery" setting, where it slows down screen updates to preserve battery. You can also use something like a battery based cell phone charger to top off the battery when you stop for a break. Some of the dozen or so screens (like the bread crumb trail) will burn more battery, so you may want to avoid using them for long stretches.
The reported battery drain is with "save battery" feature. Further I think that update screen is not an issue with Venu, where the default setting is to not have always on display. Recharging the battery during hikes is something that I really don't want to do. It breaks one of the biggest advantages of Garmins watches - the long lasting battery.
