Re: [pct-l] Dry Feet

[charliethorpe@worldnet.att.net (Charlie Thorpe)]

Hello All

Jim Batdorff asked

>> At some point most hiking shoes leak....

>John Vonhof answered

>There are several options available....

Very interesting thread.  I have always assumed that hikers were designed
to have wet feet.  I sweat a lot when I hike and my socks are ALWAYS
damp/wet when I rotate them every two hours (I choose to use Thorlo
Trekkings, but I have found Smartwool, Ragg, and other available brands to
be just as damp, but either less durable or less comfortable).

My boots stayed wet the last six weeks of my AT hike (southbound -
Nov/Dec).  Dried my morning startout pair of socks by putting them against
my belly as I slept.  They would dampen up as I hiked through the rain, but
at least I started out with semi-dry socks.  I still rotated my socks, but
they didn't stay dry long when it was raining all day.  The rotating seemed
to allow them to drain the water off as they hung on the back of my pack
under the rain cover...there was usually an improvement in loft when I put
a "new" pair on.  This was not a big problem on the PCT or the section of
the CDT that I have done, didn't have week after week of rain on either and
the usually very dry air made the "airwashing" technique work very well.

An AT friend loaned me a pair of REI goretex socks and I found them to be
useless on the trail (feet just as wet, but now hotter).  They proved to be
very comfortable over my sleep socks at night in the bag...improved the
temp range as the night temps got into single digits and made it a little
less obnoxious when I had to slip on wet/frozen boots for a quick trip out
to water the weeds.

Am I hearing that at least some folks have found a combination of
socks/boots that truly keeps their feet dry on long hikes?  Are we talking
drying out the socks/boots each night or are we talking "not getting wet
thru-and-thru" as we hike.  Has someone discovered a cheap operation which
diverts foot sweat (where it soggs up the socks) into knee sweat (which
cools the knees as it evaporates)?

- Charlie II  AT (MEGA'93)
             PCT (Mex@Can'95)
         Chipping away at the CDT



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