[pct-l] Shoes/Boots/Whatever

[Bighummel@aol.com]

Could all of the whining over blisters in Southern California be actually 
related to the fact that NONE of these people have feet that are used to 
carrying any extra weight any distance further than the grocery store to the 
car?  Vonhof's points are well taken, even someone who has trained 
extensively, tried out numerous combinations of boots, shoes, socks, inserts, 
powders, magic spells and whathaveyou and even carried substantial weight 
over many miles in preparation, still don't have feet that are used to the 
day in, day out beating that your feet have to adjust to in the first two the 
three hundred miles of a long distance hike.  

Are all of you AT'ers and CDT'ers really leading us PCT'ers on that these 
kind of foot problems don't happen in the first few weeks of those trail 
hiker's experiences and this is just a phenomenon of Southern California?  
Maybe it's the water!!

I started off with light weight boots back when there wasn't much choice in 
that line of foot wear.  They tore my feet apart, or maybe I should say, I 
tore my feet apart in them.  I switched to a heavy weight pair of Vasques for 
the Sierras and after a short breaking in period (primarily associated with 
climbing into the Sierras) I had almost no further problems throughout the 
hike through snow and extensive rain.  Yes, I got a few minor blisters from 
soggy feet after nine straight days of rain in Nth Washington, but somebody 
tell me how to avoid that.

I buy heavy duty steel belted radials for my car that I commute in and put 
several thousand miles on per year because they are tough and last and 
provide the traction I need in rain or 110 degree heat.  What kind of tire do 
you want on your car?  A light weight, low mileage one?  I think not.  I wear 
heavy weight leather boots on my feet when I hike for similar reasons.  IMHO.

Greg "Strider" Hummel
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Cc:            pct-l@backcountry.net
From:          Jeffrey Olson <jjolson@uwyo.edu>
Date:          Sun, 28 May 2000 21:51:40 -0700
Subject:       Re: [pct-l] what works
Content-type:  text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Isn't it funny how worked up we can get around issues that are important to
people hiking for longer that a couple weeks.  I began hiking in the late 1950s
when I was eight years old.  I wore Sears work boots.  I remember how cool I
felt.

My first pair of hiking boots were Vasque Whitneys, which I got in 1969 when I
was 17.  I think they were $65/  These must have weighed 5 pounds.  They let me
throw my feet onto the trail without having to pay attention.  They lasted
until 1986 when I had them resoled.  The resoler should have told me they were
too far gone, because after that they hurt like hell.  He'd had to make the
boot smaller.  I called them my "torture racks."

In preparation for my first section hike in 1991 I got a pair of Scarpas - the
model I forget.  They were a nice boot, but I didn't know about insoles, and so
had intense footpain the whole trip.  It didn't help I was carrying 72 pounds,
quit smoking the morning we hit the trail, and hurt a tendon that got
increasingly painful, until I had to quit after 30 days.

I got a pair of Nike light-weight hikers in 1992 that lasted for two years, and
were wonderful.  I was sorry they wore out.

I then got a pair of Merrell Guides, which I wore yesterday to scale Medicine
Bow peak in the Snowys, a granitic range 45 minutes east of Laramie, a walk-up
in snowshoes.  But after ten days on the PCT in Oregon in 1994, I realized the
boots weren't going to make it.  My feel constantly swam and the blisters were
awful.  It took at least 20 steps to pound them into submission, and I hated to
stop because of the pain in that 20 steps.

I called a shoestore in Klamath Falls from Crater Lake and had them ship a pair
of New Balance 580s to me at Diamond Lake.  I wore my Tevas on that 30 mile
stretch, and really think that on most sections of the PCT I could hike in good
sandals.  I had to watch the little stones, the ones a quarter inch and
smaller, to make sure they didn't wedge themselves into place and generate
friction/heat.

The 580s were perfect, and I have not had a blister on any of my section hikes
since.  I did tend to fall of inch and a half rocks in the trail and go down
rather than sprain one of my ankles.  But I was carrying a Jansport D-3 with a
base weight of 28 pounds.  Now the base weight is closer to 18, and I haven't
had to hit the trail with my body in a couple years.

Two years ago I got the thickest insole from Redwing they had, much to the
salesman's misgivings and warnings, and tried it in the new 580s I'd just
gotten, sized 13EE, a half size bigger than usual.  A perfect fit.

I have mild plantar fascitis from being 25 pounds overweight, having hamstrings
and gluteus minimus muscles so tight they sometimes don't work, which causes
the heel pain, and a disinclination to do the two stretching exercises the
sports medicine shaman gave me.  The insoles take care of almost all the heel
part of the foot pain.  The stretchs will take care of the rest.

I don't take a stove anymore, and just purchased a SD Light Year, which I'm
sending back because I can't tell the difference in weight between it and my
Clip Flashlight.  I'm sticking with my 25 year old North Face rainfly and one
of those bug tents adventure 16 (?) makes.  I've used the tarp for a couple
years now and it does just fine.  I really think that my next big change will
be to Tevas or some other good sandal with a toe protector.  I really like the
air.  And I really like the sense of dancing along the trail as opposed to
clomping along...  Even big guys can be graceful...

Jeffrey Olson
Laramie Wyoming...







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