[pct-l] shoe sizing - questions thereof

[greg mushial]

To all those which replied - Eric, Chuck, Tortoise, Diane, Rick, Ned, 
Yoshihiro, etc and for the quality of the content/replies: mil gracias, 
domoo arigatoo gozaimasu and/or thank you!

For a couple of decades after having the foot put back together, and given 
the 9 months, and series of casts + adjusting pressure screws, I was pretty 
protective of that foot - as such walked mostly in mid-weight leather boots. 
But in my warmup/training hikes of late, getting ready for a section hike in 
a couple of weeks, which should be a trial run of a thru for next April... 
it bacame clear that the boots, if possible, had to go. Given Yogi's notes, 
and the feedback from my question...  I dropped some $'s on a pair of Nike's 
this morning...  yes; a half size longer than my multi-decade long standard 
10.5, and went with the EEEE width vs the std D, again the norm of multiple 
decades. I had time to do a quick 3 miles this afternoon before dinner... 
and I must say, the sensation of floating in them is different, but not 
unpleasantly different. In the morning I'll do one of our local 8 mile 
loops, with a good amount of up and down, before work and see how they do. 
[One of the advantage of living 20 miles out of town: the trails start from 
the front porch  :-) ] Early on I was very concerned about reshattering the 
foot, but that has diminshed over the decades...  ie, these light runners, I 
think they just might be appropriate.

Diane: w/re walking in sandals - given that I've lived in them for several 
decades, other than snake questions, and burrs, I could easily imagine 
hiking in them, easily.

Yoshihiro-san, Ned: I do appreciate the notion of fine fitting boots - they 
were what allowed me to hike, return to my beloved backcountry while the 
bones re-knitted. Though the way I found/made fine/custom fitting shoes was: 
put them on, unlaced, find a garden hose, fill the shoes until overflowing, 
then lace them tight and do 10 miles; repeat if necessary...  after a couple 
times, they'd fit absolutely conformally. After which one would SnoSeal 
them, so that they wouldn't be affected by water again, and they'd be good 
to go for years.

Yoshihiro-san: would you believe the PCT is a warmup for Shikoku...   and 
the 88 temples, while all dressed in white (a la henro)...  though I guess 
it's now more popular to ride the bus btwn the temples than walk (very sad) 
;-) but I'm old-school (as old as you), and will do it the old (honest) way.

again, many thanks to all,
TheDuck