This company's stuff is pricey, but I would love to try some of them. They are about 1.5 hours from where I live so I plan on checking them out some time...
http://www.quoddy.com/
I have a pair of light leather ankle boots that I retreaded recently with a very thin sole so they are very much like a moccassin. They weigh 12oz each. I treat them with beeswax once a year for wet snow conditions, hand let the treatment wear off through the rest of the year. I love the way they manage moisture, like a thick layer of skin, and I like the fact that you can dry them with fire should you ever need to. Shouldn't need to, but if you have a fire going you can really dry them out and get them toasty, and treat them with more beeswax or in a pinch and fat or oil. Some other fat or oil might eventually go rancid and cause trouble with the stitching, but it will get you home. Love leather.
If you had ninja shoes you could stealth hike to your stealth campsite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_DX...eature=related
LOL, not nija...but...
I've gone through 4 pairs of these taekwondo shoes in thge last 15 years. Great for Florida hiking , supper light and just enough to keep the thorns out. I go barefoot in the woods often when not carrying a load a load so it's a step above that.
I'm too much of a rock kicker to trust my toes to them on the AT or Blue Ridge trails. Then they become camp shoes.
I use to have a connection to the company and got them for free, now I'm at a lost as the last pair is worn out. First thing I do is pull the shoe strings out.
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The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
You never know which one is talking.
My dad had a can of that nasty smelling stuff too...got it from the PX (navy store) but I used the old fashoned white lard because it didn't smell bad...figures we would remember the same stuff, we are the same generation! Nowadays I use hot beeswax on all my leathers (biker chick and hiker) and it works great. Maybe it is time for a new pair of mocs for the woods.
I wear mocs just like those around the house and had thought about taking them as camp shoes instead of my flip flops since they are lighter and more comfortable. I never even considered wearing them to hike in even though my ancestors did. If you read accounts from the 1700's you'll notice white explorers and settlers spent a lot of time making new moccasins. They aren't very durable.
"You're a nearsighted, bitter old fool."
What many folks call moccasins are really just made-in-China slippers. The slippers make good dry weather camp shoes.
Teej
"[ATers] represent three percent of our use and about twenty percent of our effort," retired Baxter Park Director Jensen Bissell.
Just two words for you. Stone bruise. I wore mocs made of elk & bison for years at Virginia's Explore park, the most comfortable camp shoes ever, when it's dry, but walking on a stone strewn path was murder! Good luck you you!
"If you push something hard enough it will fall over."
-Fudd's first law of opposition.
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i love mocassins at home, but aren't they slippery?
" It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid." ~Clint Eastwood, High Plains Drifter
I guess running around in bare feet all the time makes it less painful to wear mocs when hiking...my driveway is coarse gravel and I walk over it all the time barefoot...can jog dowm the tar and gravel road with no problem too!
Sounds like Mink Oil.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000PS...dir_mdp_mobile
Backpacking light, feels so right.
I hadn't planned on bringing camp shoes at all, but what people said about fording rivers and dirty showers...I guess I probably should. Have people considered regular ugly old crocs? I hate the things personally, but for bummin around camp and stuff, maybe they would make sense?
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Grew up wearing Walter Dyer moccasins - super comfortable, but if they were the least bit damp and you hit a tile floor it was all over!
[QUOTE=fiddlehead;1250657]I think it's a good idea.
More suited to western trails but, the rocky AT could be hiked (with care) in those I believe.
QUOTE]
Ditto what fiddlehead said. I hiked down Mt. Madison in trail runners, would have given anything for a pair of hiking boots by the time I reached the bottom. The AT in that area is totally made up of very sharp rocks, which cut holes in the sides of my trail running shoes, can't imagine what mocassins would have looked like.
I used to wear moccasins all the time when I worked at an outdoor flower market. The trouble with them is, if the ground is wet your feet get wet. Plus they wear out pretty fast. I don't think your moccasins would last very long on a long hike. I hike in the Tarahumara sandals quite often. I made some with Vibram soling material. The trouble with sandals is if there is a lot of brush with thorns and stickers, either you'll tear up your skin or you'll get a lot of stuff embedded in your socks. The other problem is that being relatively thin and flat, you really can't walk as fast as you can in thicker shoes. I have to actually run to keep up with my friends. It's not a huge issue, but it gets annoying. I solved it by making cushioned Tarahumara huarache sandals, an abomination to the whole "minimalist" running shoe thing, but I don't care. I can walk really fast in them.
Some knew me as Piper, others as just Diane.
I hiked the PCT: Mexico to Mt. Shasta, 2008. Santa Barbara to Canada, 2009.
I think alot of mocassins used to be made to be waterproof, especially the soles. Makes sense considering the woods used to be alot wetter, back in the day. I think moosehide was used versus deerhide when it needed to be tougher and more waterproof, also the way it was tanned. Not sure whether woodland caribou were used, when they were in this neck of the woods. I know sealskin was used my the Mikmaq an Passamaquoddy, for some applications. The stuff made my Quoddy look pretty tough, and they appear to blend traditional with updated quite well. Looks very functional.
These would be my pick. $350. ouch.
http://www.quoddy.com/tracker-boot/
Here is their waterproofing...
http://www.quoddy.com/quoddy-organic-waterproofer/
Bear fat and beeswax. $20.
I believe the stuff you are talking about is Dubbin, made from pig lard, bees wax and something else. Works great, not sure you can still get it.