[pct-l] shoes

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

I;m gonna write on this topic again. Sorry.
On Nov 21, 2009, at 2:56 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> When people talk shoes, it would be useful if they include their foot
> style or last type.

I have morton's feet. I even have morton's neuroma in one foot. My  
feet are wider at the end, like duck feet. The widest part of my feet  
and the widest part of a shoe do not match.

The brands I wore or tried included Columbia, Brooks, New Balance and  
Montrail.

The Columbia I bought in Cabazon. By accident I bought a mens size 10  
(thought they were 9s). I wore them happily, with some blisters on my  
pinky toes that I always had anyway, until they wore out in the  
Sierra. Then I bought Montrail Hardrocks. Everybody else loved them,  
so they ought to be good.

The Montrail Hardrocks destroyed my feet. I had to leave the trail by  
Castle Crags. I had nerve pain and it felt like the bones were  
breaking in my feet. I could barely function. It took about 6 months  
for the pain to go away. I learned from that experience that I need  
flexible, flat shoes. No motion control, no support, lots of padding.

The other thing I learned was that due to the strange shape of my  
foot and deciding I was no longer going to dream of one day being  
able to afford having my pinky toes cut off, that I would forever  
more wear shoes several sizes too big and try to wear wide widths. I  
now wear shoes that have about two inches above my big toe.

For width, I tried a pair of New Balance because everybody raved  
about them. 811s, I think. They were awful. Not only were they ugly  
and more cheaply made than a pair of $40 shoes I got at Sports  
Authority, they hurt terribly. I could only hike about 8 miles before  
the bottoms of my feet felt like they'd been pounded to death. Adding  
cushy insoles didn't seem to work, either. They felt hard and were  
shaped all wrong on the bottom. I donated them to the auction at the  
Kick-off last year. Someone got them for $5.

Next, I went to the running store and told the guy that I wanted wide  
shoes, at least two sizes too big and without a lot of support or any  
hindrances to the natural movement of my foot or to the ability to  
feel things underneath my feet (i.e. no shanks) but also be cushy.

He produced the Brooks which I tried and liked so I bought a few more  
pairs on close-out online. I wore them with a combination of thin  
flat spenco insoles, 2oz miracles and some flimsy insoles I pulled  
out of a pair of Nikes in the trash at Mazama Village. With several  
insoles to choose from, I could switch them around and make various  
layer combinations when my feet were getting sore, keeping them  
guessing. I really liked my shoes.

Later, by Washington, my feet had enlarged once more and the Brooks  
no longer fit (I was stubbing my big toes and pinky toes on rocks and  
holes formed within two days on a brand new pair) so I bought another  
pair of Brooks (as a coincidence) just because they were a size 4E.  
Men's size 8 4E. My feet swam in them, but with thin wool socks they  
did not slip around. (With nylon socks they did slip around horribly  
so I donated my nylon socks to the hiker box at the Dinsmores.)

At first I had a huge amount of pain in the 4Es. It felt as if I had  
been a Chinese footbound woman whose feet had been let out. The pain  
of them uncramping. After a while, they felt fine. I like the full  
width and the feeling of freedom to just walk. I didn't realize how  
much I walked around wincing that I might stub my toes.

I wore them to the end and they are still like new. But alas, those  
shoes are hurting me lately, too. There is something about the  
Pacific Crest Trail that leans to one side or something. It feels  
like the left side of my left shoe gets worn out along the outer  
edge. Then it hurts to walk on level ground because you end up  
limping or shifting your gait off funny and then it's like a cascade  
of problems.

The cascade of problems is a really big problem on the trail for lots  
of people. If your shoes give you even the slightest trouble, it's  
going to be magnified by the repetitive motion of day after day of 20  
or more miles. The PCT is a repetitive injury machine. Tons of people  
get sidelined with knee problems or shin splints or whatever that  
were actually caused by something else. Maybe a seam in their shoe  
rubbed funny so they started favoring that foot which caused them to  
walk crooked which caused stress on the knee which resulted in knee  
problems. Maybe it wasn't the shoes. Maybe it was just that for a  
couple of days, the trail mostly leaned to the left as it spent 10+  
miles switchbacking to nowhere.

This giant tome has all been just to show you that there is no one  
right answer for some of us regarding shoes, some of us are always  
searching. The best advice (to make a very long story short) is in  
the Ray Jardine PCT Handbook. He says don't be afraid to modify your  
shoes or throw them away. No matter how much money you paid for them,  
bad shoes are not worth it. Get rid of them quick and move on to the  
next new pair.

Diane