[Cdt-l] Wet foot/Cold Foot - Footwear Choice

[RICHARD OSTHEIMER]

I'm with MtnEd on this one.  I wore my LaSportiva Makalu's on both the AT and PCT.  Yep, they're heavy compared to trail runners, but at the end of a 25 or 30 mile day coming out of town with 30 lbs, my feet aren't sore.  On the PCT, I tried a section north of Ashland, OR using trail runners, Montrail Hardrocks.  These were well broken in.  After the initial bout of blisters that kept me down to 7 miles the day out of Crater Lake, I started noticing that my mileage fell off and that my feet were sore after about 22 or so miles.  The blister issue with the Hardrocks was much worse than I had starting out on either the AT or PCT with the Makalu's.  Plead, successfuly, with the post(master/mistress) at Cascade Locks to forward my bounce bucket back to Sisters and switched back to my boots.  What a relief!

However, for this year's CDT, I'm still planning to give the trail runners another try for the Gila River section.  Who know's, I might just become a convert.  I just can't see stopping at every river crossing to doff the boots and put on the Crocs.  When wearing boots, I make an effort to keep stream water from overflowing into them as well as to prevent rain water from running down my legs and filling them up.  If the ford looks over the top of the boots, I stop and switch to Crocs held in place with a length of bear back line.  Although my boots don't have goretex and aren't waterproof, once they are wet, they do take a lo-o-ong time to dry, and while they are wet, they weigh several extra pounds each.

One other point, although the boots have an expensive price tag, overall they're more economical.  My LaSportiva's did all of the PCT except the Ashland-Sisters section and, after a visit to Dave, The Cobbler in Seattle are still going strong.

Handlebar
AT06, PCT08
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