[pct-l] shoes

[Eric Lee]

Jane wrote:
>
I talked go someonewho was wearing five finger vibram shoes. He said he had
beenwearing them for hiking and running for two years and they were great.
Any comments? I am planning on buying them as my next pair of trail shoes.
>

The Five Fingers are a pretty specialized choice of shoe for long-distance
hiking.  A few people use them and like them, but only a few.  It's probably
not something you want to jump into without extensive experimenting and
training first.  The two major considerations are a) your feet will need to
adjust and compensate for the lack of support and cushion, and b) you'll
have very little room for error about stepping on sharp sticks or rocks,
kicking rocks, and generally making mistakes as you walk.  You'll need to be
more aware of the trail tread and what you're doing.

Neither of those things are necessarily bad, but they'll take time and
effort to adjust to.  If you switch to the Five Fingers, you'll probably
want to treat it as a major project, not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Eric