Barefoot Hiking

[Wise Old Owl]

You could always go this route...

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

I saw those on a hikers feet last week before the snow storm, she was hiking in some muddy conditions. I don't get it.


I have done 15 + miles in vibram sandals from keen - very comfortable.

[JAK]

I find it therapeutic to do for a few miles now and then, on soft spruce needles or whatever. When I tried it the first time I wish I had thought of it sooner, as my feet were blisteredm, because I was trying out something new that didn't work.

[wrongway_08]

The five toed socks I tried (with normal shoes) wore out within 1 week, they are comfy - none of the toe-stick from sweaty feet. Just wonder how well the shoes would work, if they would be prone to the same rub wear areas?

[Pedaling Fool]

http://www.world-science.net/otherne...footprints.htm

[RITBlake]

Passed a hippie looking thru hiking girl somewhere in Vermont who was hiking barefoot. Her eyes were totally glazed over, didn't look like she was having very much fun.

[Tipi Walter]

Is this a Straight Forward thread? And if not, why muzzle the audience?

[RITBlake]

Is this a Straight Forward thread? And if not, why muzzle the audience?

settle down, off topic is off topic.

[High Life]

The Barefoot Bushman...

PIRATE is a tough dude ... lol

[Vagrant Squirrel]

We don't have to go back to the prehistoric caveman in order to find an example of how people survived without shoes... Let us not forget that somewhere in the world at this exact moment there are still some tribes of indigenous people who run around the forest or jungle wearing nothing but loin cloths and hunting wild animals with spears. I imagine that in order to hunt a wild animal in the woods or jungle, barefoot and with only a spear, one must be acutely aware of their surroundings and run with the speed and grace of a gazelle.

Still, I would rather attempt to walk on water than to hike barefoot in the cold/snow.

[Rain Man]

Still, I would rather attempt to walk on water than to hike barefoot in the cold/snow.

For what it's worth, just saw a guy on the news last evening, running in the snow. He had had knee problems and learned his shoes were causing him problems with how his feet landed. Some years ago, he switched to running barefoot and says his knees are now fine.

RainMan

.

[Vagrant Squirrel]

For what it's worth, just saw a guy on the news last evening, running in the snow. He had had knee problems and learned his shoes were causing him problems with how his feet landed. Some years ago, he switched to running barefoot and says his knees are now fine.

RainMan

.

It seems that a better solution may have been to have specially designed orthopedic shoes to correct for the misstep caused by conventional footwear. Though I suppose that news viewers need some form of entertainment

[JAK]

Why not moccassins?

[4eyedbuzzard]

Antropologists have deduced from human footprints that human foot bones began to become less robust at least as early as 40,000 years ago, suggesting that at least in the colder climes where these were found, that footware was likely already being used both for protection from cold and terrain. Given that many of us are evolved from those humans, it is unlikely that humans will regain the more primitive robust foot bones of early humans that had not yet developed footwear. While stressing the feet and bones by going barefoot can certainly toughen and strengthen bones, ligaments, muscles, and skin, it can also lead to injury. No amount of forced stress is going to make up for what has been passed down to us genetically as a species. Early humans didn't develop footware out of some concept of unnecessary consumerism, they did so out of the need to survive and make what was a very harsh life less painful.

[Wise Old Owl]

The Barefoot Bushman...

Ripe for photoshop!

[Old Spice]

I was something of a nomad as a teenager and went barefoot for over two months while living in a national forest in Mississippi. By the end I was running through the woods without looking where I was stepping. As stated above, it's strange how you just intuitively learn to walk.

[sbhikes]

I lead Sierra Club hikes. I'll never forget this young woman who came on one of my hikes barefoot. It was our most difficult hike. It was not a good trail. It was rocky, primitive, bushwacking through chaparral and boulder-hopping up a very steep mountain. By the afternoon on the way down, the hot and sandpapery rocks always hurt my hands and I have to wear gloves. I took one look at her feet and knew she could do it, and she did! She did have to put on her flip-flops on the way down because the rocks and dirt were too hot and were burning her feet. Otherwise she was able to walk over the most difficult stuff!

I have tried to hike barefoot but it's just too much sensory stimulation. I would love to be able to do it, but I doubt I ever will.

At this time I've been working on making my own hiking shoes so I can at least hike in minimal shoes. Something with more traction than moccasins but still with the basic simplicity of them. It's a remarkable feeling to hike with such minimal shoes. Feels great.

[Driver8]

Not sure where you got your info but the sisters did in fact cover every inch of the AT in barefeet, in one continuous journey. They walked over the rocks of PA, and thru more miles of snow, in bare feet, than any 10 nobo's will see on there entire hike. That's not something I heard, that's something I saw.

According to their own account in their SOBO book, which I just finished, the Sisters donned shoes once winter asserted itself in Virginia and took them back off for good when things warmed up south of the Smokies. I've not read their NOBO book, but given the better weather they likely encountered, I wouldn't be surprised if they went shoeless the whole way.

They were persistent in their shoelessness, but they were true to the motto they adopted early on, in Maine, on the Southbound journey. "As long as it feels good. As long as it's fun."

The taller of the two sisters, jackrabbit (Susan Letcher) injured her left leg, I think it was, pretty severely descending Wildcat Mountain's shoulder into Pinkham Notch, incurring a pretty foul bruise on the sole of her left foot as well. She persisted through the Whites and all the way to Hanover, hiding her injury until just before the college town, but she had to get off at that point and take about a month to recuperate, rejoining her sister in Great Barrington. She had some problems late in Maine, which ensued in the Pinkham Notch injury.

After her return to the trail, she did suffer recurrences of the hip/leg problem, but not with her feet, from about halfway through Virginia to Springer. She insisted the leg/hip injury had nothing to do with her barefootness. I'll just say that I greatly admire the sisters and love the book - it's a superbly account of a thru-hike, the best I've seen - and I am dipping my unshod toes into the pool of barefoot hiking and running, but I don't see taking a long hike through the Taconics or the Whites, much less PA, unshod.