Re: [pct-l] shoes

Hi!

I did an end to end hike of the Midstate Trail this summer in a pair of NB
802 trail runners.  The trail is definitely rocky, but the shoes and I got
along pretty well.  I got a few, managable, blisters early on, and rather
messed up my feet in the last two days.  I attribute that more to poor
conditioning than shoe problems, but I could be wrong.  It just isn't a good
idea to go from sitting at a desk to 15 mile days on rocky trail (my mileage
ran from about 10 to a long day of about 22 miles... the whole trip took
twelve days including a segment of the West Rim trail at the end).

I had a light pack (probably about 15lbs w/o food and water) and wore rigid
orthotics.  The rigid orthotics may have helped with the rocks, though I
mostly stepped carefully.

This was the longest hike I've done.  One of the interesting parts was how
adept I got at dancing over rocks by the end of the hike.  I just always
seemed to step in the right place without thinking about it much.

Jim and Ginny will appreciate this... on one part of the trail I noticed in
the trail guide that I was coming up to an old railroad grade.  I was so
happy... visions of an easy grade and smooth hiking filled my mind.
Well.... no.  That grade was made of rocks... big rocks.... little rocks....
all rocks.  There were more rocks on the trail than off it!  I decided that
the designers of the trail had gathered all the rocks together and piled
them up in order to preserve the MST experience!

Happy hiking.

-- Jim

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