[pct-l] [Fwd: Re: Boot Wear Patterns]

[Rick Ostheimer]

Eric Lee wrote:
Handlebar wrote:
  I wore boots on my 08 PCT thru and on my 06 AT thru.
 
How'd your feet do with the boots in the desert heat?  For stream 
crossings,
did you remove them or just wade straight through and wear them wet?

Eric

Desert heat:  I actually think they might have been better in the desert 
heat as they have thicker soles.  I had 3 changes of socks and a couple 
of safety pins.  Early in the hike I changed out my socks after about 
every 3 hours of hike time, but toward the end I just swapped out the 
socks at the end of the day.  The wet one rode pinned to my backpack to 
dry.  One thing I noticed with my 280 mile trail runner (Montrail 
Hardrocks) experiment was that my feet got very dirty, while, in the 
boots they stayed quite clean.  I did wear gaiters, OR Mountain lows, 
but they wore very poorly.  After 2 pairs, I switched to a pair of Dirty 
Girls around Sierra City.  They were much more breathable and held up to 
the end.

Stream Crossings.  With the OR low gaiters, I often did rock hops where 
the rocks were submerged in the water.  If the ford was deeper, I 
switched to crocs and crossed in those.  I had a couple pieces of bear 
hanging cord that I used to secure the crocs to my feet.  I tried to 
avoid situations where the boots were submerged and filled with water as 
they do take a very long time to dry as the lining absorbs a lot of 
water.  A trick to drying them if they do get wet is to stuff socks into 
the boots, let them set a while, pull out and wring out the socks, and 
repeat until the socks don't absorb any more water.

I'd used the make/model of boots on previous hikes and therefore knew 
what size to get.  Even though I did a lot of training hikes,  I did get 
a few blisters at the start of the hike.  Once those cleared up, no more 
blisters.  Because I knew the size and that, with LaSportiva Makalus, 
one either loves them or hates them, I was able to get a barely worn 
pair (used only for snowshoeing) on EBay for $75.  Compare that to 
$320-400 for 4 to 5 pair of trail runners.  Plus, I got that pair 
resoled for another $75 and expect to get another 2000 miles.

Handlebar

Eric Lee wrote:
Handlebar wrote:
  I wore boots on my 08 PCT thru and on my 06 AT thru.
 
How'd your feet do with the boots in the desert heat?  For stream 
crossings,
did you remove them or just wade straight through and wear them wet?

Eric