[pct-l] Re down bootie advise

[Georgi Heitman]

Yo, Monty.....    Your post caused me to go out to my cold garage and dig through my winter camping gear, which was in the lowest of six bins of seasonal clothes and camping equipment, thank you very much...
But, there they were...my fiber-filled-run-around-outside-with-care-booties.  First, please understand that these practically perfect in every way booties are roughly 30 years old, and my faulty memory recalled that I'd made them from a Frost-line Kit.  For the uninitiated, Frost-line Kits were the thing in those days, if you could sew and had a sturdy sewing machine, one that could sew tin cans comes  to mind, you could make anything from a Frost-line kit.  On Berkeley there was a big store where there must have been 100, maybe more styles of kits, from these simple booties to backpacks and tents.  Great way to teach your kids, both sons and daughters how to sew.  But I digress.  The label sez I purchased them from REI.  Mine are ripstop nylon, Dennie's are not, just nylon.  Mine are older than his by a year or two, his are better insulated, not down, but both are fiber-filled.  Both have Cordoba cloth 'soles'  that rise an inch above the ground.  Dennie and I have used a seamsealer on the Cordoba, and any seams in the nylon and my recollection is that unless we went wading, they were pretty water/snow resistant.  We used them snow camping, not if we dug a snow cave unless we used a ground tarp, but in our tent, and they were very comfortable.  They are machine washable on  short cycle, low suds soap, cool water, and machine dryable, again on warm for 15 minutes (the label is very specific on that), or they can be hung by the laces to dry.  Hope this gives you some place to start looking.  Oh, while the F-L kits are no longer popular, tho I can't understand why, they were listed in Backpacker Mag. up until a few years ago.  The copy some hiker left here last summer no longer carries their ad but I haven't checked on-line.
Good Luck....
Georgi
Trail Angel w/o a Trail Name