[pct-l] Boots on the PCT

[kbrandt at cats.ucsc.edu (Karl Brandt)]

On Thu, 5 Feb 2004, Robert B Smith wrote:

>
> I would like to hear from any one that hiked the PCT in boots and would
> they wear boots again on the PCT. I am torn between what I read about
> wearing Trail Running shoes, sort of makes sense but I have always had
> good luck with boots. I sure don't want to start a argument about boots
> vs trail running type shoes.
>
> Anyway I guess what I would like to know if anyone wore boots through
> the southern section and how did it work out.

I wore Vasque Clarion Impact through out the PCT with good success. These
are a light boot with canvas and leather uppers. I have narrow feet and
have been told that these work well for narrow feet. My experience
confirms that. I had much less trouble than people around me with
blisters. I seem to remember one minor blister as I went through Mt.
Laguna but that was it for the first pair. The second pair gave me a
little more trouble but that was because my feet had grown over the course
of the first 1500 miles. I went down to only wearing liner socks and the
troubles went away after ~100 miles. Later I went back to double socks
when the boots were thoroughly broken in.

On average, people seem to go through more pairs of shoes than people
wearing boots. I managed fine on two pair for the whole trail. People
wearing shoes replaced them as often as every 500 miles, although I've
heard tails of hikers using one pair for the whole trail.

My feet didn't get particularly hot, even in Southern California. The one
thing I did religiously was to take them off whenever I took breaks. Not
only did it feel great, it let my feet air out. I highly recommend it.

The fact is, you're going to have to figure out what works best with
_your_ feet. I knew from past experience that those boots had served me
well and was right. If you can afford it, I'd try buying both a pair of
boots and a pair of trail runners now and start experimenting. It's never
a bad idea to get some trail miles in ahead of time just to get accustomed
to backpacking.

After my thru-hike, I talked to a podiatrist. He said that I had lose
ankles due to underdeveloped joints. He said this was fairly common. I'd
been prone to sprained ankles while playing sports as a kid so that sort
of matches. It might be worth it to talk to a podiatrist just to see what
they say. Take their advise with a grain of salt as they seem to always
believe that ankle support is needed. Doctors in general tend to be
conservative like this.

I hope this doesn't make it sound like I think boots are _the_ right
answer. They're right for me but a lot of other folks have had very good
success with trail runners and even sandals.

-Karl

*********************************************************************
Karl "Birdman" Brandt PCT97 LT98
http://people.ucsc.edu/~kbrandt/