[pct-l] Sandals

[Hiker97 at aol.com (Hiker97@aol.com)]

Just to follow up with some sandal comments and questions.  Yes, Bite sandals 
are not the only good sandals out there. And the large toe guard is not 
mandatory for a hiking sandal.  The two things I recommend for consideration if you 
use hiking sandals are -- one, a good insole glued into the sandal foot bed 
and two, use hiking socks/use a foot cream on your feet to keep them from 
chapping and drying out.  Take care of your feet everyday on the trail.

You can also use a heel cup under or over the insole to provide a little 
extra cushion for the heels.  They take a beating banging down the trail mile 
after mile.

By the way, my latest experiment is to convert my new Light Saber bivy into a 
bug tent using my umbrella and some bug netting.  Looks promising so far, but 
I still have some development work to do.  It is very light, but I have to 
make sure it is okay in the wind and rain too.  One of funny things I am going 
to do is use the tented head area of the bivy for a gear storage shed.  I will 
just sleep "outside" on the bivy under the bug netting.  Also, I attached a 3 
ounce Tyvek sheet under the bivy using some large Velcro patches.  This works 
great. The ground sheet is always in place.  Neat.  This idea will work for 
tents too.  You must use some seam sealer for extra "glue" for the underside of 
the Velcro patches, since the sticky back does not adhere well to smooth 
nylon.  It is no problem, just let the patches dry and then it is ready to use.  
Very simple.

Cheers, Switchback