[pct-l] Shoes...How is everyone doing the shoes thing?

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Mar 12, 2009, at 5:23 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> I am wondering how people do the shoes thing? I mean how many pairs  
> are you
> going to buy..Or have you bought when doing a thru hike?  Is one  
> pair of
> shoes good enough until I get to the sierras? Then will one pair  
> last me
> from then until Ashland? California is the main thing I am  
> wondering about.
> I will know more about what i am doing and what I want to do once I  
> hit
> Ashland. For the rest of the trip..Thanks everyone..
>
> Sean C.

Some people buy their shoes in advance and others don't. I didn't  
because I had heard my feet would get better and I didn't want to buy  
a bunch of shoes that turned out I didn't like. My feet did grow and  
I didn't like my first pair of shoes sure enough.

You have ample opportunities to purchase shoes as you go. There's an  
outlet mall in Cabazon. You might be able to find something in Big  
Bear Lake, but I am not sure. You should be able to get a ride to REI  
in Agua Dulce. Check the Hiker Heaven web site for how they'll handle  
that this year. There's a great outfitter in Bishop. No doubt you can  
buy shoes in Ashland. And there are opportunities to hitch out to  
Portland, too. And there's always the Internet if you can ship your  
shoes to a real address. I shipped things home and had my home person  
ship them to me GD at the post office.

Your time-table of shoes sounds pretty good depending on how good  
your shoes are and how fast you tend to wear shoes out.