[pct-l] Boot Wear Patterns

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Mar 24, 2009, at 6:22 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

>  If you wore boots on a through hike please share! How much did  
> your feet swell on a through-hike?
I didn't wear boots, but my feet did not swell. They actually got  
larger. In my old Birkenstocks my toes go all the way to the end now  
whereas before they had a good half inch or so of space. My toes are  
fully separate from each other now, and I imagine that is probably a  
sign that I wore too narrow shoes in the past, but the length of my  
shoes pre-hike was more than adequate. My guess is that part of the  
reason for my feet getting bigger is the relative sedentary lifestyle  
I was living for so long pre-hike. Pounding away for months with all  
that extra weight on my feet must have stretched them out. This could  
happen in boots, too, unless you like your feet crammed in tight like  
Chinese foot binding.

If it were me considering boots, I would buy them larger than I'm  
used to and find socks that don't let my feet slip around inside  
without adding too much bulk. But that's just me. Other people can  
buy the size they are used to, the ones that shoe salesmen say are  
the proper fit. I can't seem to do that. My feet just aren't normal.  
The wrong toes are too long.