Favorite Socks for the Trail

[Animal Man]

Hello Everyone, I was looking at socks today because I want to have the socks I plan on wearing when I go to buy me and my wife some new boots this spring. What I am wondering is what are some of your favorite socks to use, both for men, and women, and if there is any I should not consider.

Thanks for the help Animal Man :confused:

[Jack Straw]

smartwool socks are great

[MOWGLI]

I prefer Thorlos myself. Its about all I wear, 7 days a week. (gets pretty cold in the winter though - brrr :D)

[timhines]

I second the wool comment. Can't beat wool.
However WalMart has some wicking "wool looking" socks for $1.00 a pair. Can't recall their content, but they are comfy. Not sure how long they last either.

[Marta]

Coming from a completely different direction...I prefer thin nylon socks (such as liner socks) because they are easy to rinse out every day and they air dry quickly.

[verber]

I want to have the socks I plan on wearing when I go to buy me and my wife some new boots this spring. What I am wondering is what are some of your favorite socks to use, both for men, and women, and if there is any I should not consider.

If you are actually getting boots, then I would recommend following conventional wisdom: heavy wool sock (merino is nice), with an very light weight inner sock made of CoolMax or polypro. Data collected by Dr. Murray Hamlet of the Army Cold Weather Research Center found that A thin liner sock made of CoolMax, and a thicker sock made of wool&polypro (fuzzy side out) reduced the likelihood of blisters by a factor of three! This is because the slipping is happening between the socks rather than between your foot and the sock. TechSpun (http://www.techspun.com/) sells the socks designed by Hamlet. There are a variety of companies which sell high quality socks including Bridgeport, Dahlgren, Fox River, SmartWool, Thorlo, and Wigwam. When wearing boots (which is rare these days) I like to smartwool light hikers + a coolmax liner.

Keep in mind that for every 1 lb of footwear, it's like carrying an extra 6.4 lb of weight on your back. [Legg SJ, Mahanty A. Energy cost of backpacking in heavy boots. Ergonomics.1986 Mar;29(3):433-8.] Switching to trail runners could be like saving the energy equiv to 15lbs on your back. Not bad.

I normally wear trail running shoes. With trail running shoes I like wearing the thinnest double layer socks I can find.My favorite are WrightSock. Some are coolmax/nylon for both the inner and outer sock, and some are merino wool on the outside and coolmax in the inside.

There are a number of long distance hikers who have found wearing two pairs of nylon dress socks to be effective are preventing blisters, drys quickly, and are easy to clean on the trail.

Keep in mind that there needs to be enough room in your shoe for your feet and the socks you select. Socks which are too thick for your shoes will crowd your feet and result in blisters just as quickly as your feet sliding around. I would strongly recommend trying a variety of different socks and figure out what works best for you. Socks are cheap and will often mean the difference between a miserable blister plagued trip, and one with comfortable feet.

[Animal Man]

Thanks Everyone, This has been HELPFUL, We still aren't sure on our footwear as of yet, but we do know that we want to be wearing the socks we plan on hiking in when we go to fit them.

Animal Man

[Kerosene]

If you ever have problems with blistering around your toes, take a look at the CoolMax Injinji Toe Socks (http://www.injinji.com) as liners. They helped me immensely.

[Lilred]

Love my Smartwools. Soooo comfy. I've worn cheaper synthetic socks and didn't like them at all. They shed. And when my feet got all wet and wrinkly, they shed into the wrinkles. It hurt walking on imbedded cloth. Smart wools don't shed. That's been my experience.

[canoehead]

I'm a big fan of the alpaca Dahlgren sock they are dry and stay fluffy for days of repeat use, I used them on my expedition for 35 days in ecuador . We were in the rain forest, and up on the volcaneo Cotopaxi and i did not even think of my feet. :banana GOOD STUFF

[Cuffs]

If you ever have problems with blistering around your toes, take a look at the CoolMax Injinji Toe Socks (http://www.injinji.com) as liners. They helped me immensely.

I JUST ordered a pair of these, glad to hear the good review. Thanks

[Footslogger]

I use Thorlo Light Hikers w/Coolmax. Got them for my thru at REI but afterwards found them on-line:

http://www.sockcompany.com/thorlighikwc.html

Buy 2 - get one pair free and if your order is over $55 the shipping is free.

'Slogger

[Trailjockey]

I have tried Thorlo, Cabelas, Smartwool, Fox River, Teko(Though comfy,expensive. Very resistant to matting or flatting out. Have not log many miles in them yet.),Bridgedale and a few no names.
I have become kind of partial to Bridgedale(marino wool med.wt.) Very comfortable! Do not know what is so different about them from any other marino wool sock, but I like them.
I`ve worn them while secton hiking the AT in October in Virginia(Damascus to Mt. Rogers) and different areas of the north from NY to NH during the spring and early summertime.
Liked them so much, last August I tried a light weight pair in the desert of AZ and then 5000ft to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, at about 2400ft, and back up to over 8000ft without even a hot spot(Just some really tired legs). Carried a spare pair and a pair of liners but never needed them. Did wash them though, about halfway across the canyon.
Of course none of this counts without proper fitting footware. This is just as, if not more, important to maintaining healthy feet during a strenuous hike.
In my opinion(be it ever so humble), having healthy, happy feet is the key to an enjoyable successful hike. That, and keeping with the Boy Scout motto!

[aaronthebugbuffet]

where's the love for Bridgedale?

[Lost Soul]

Thorlos thorlos thorlos... I cant say enough good about them and since my thruhike I've been wearing almost no other sock but thorlos, day in and out, 1997.

In fact I just ordered a few more pairs for an upcoming hike... Damn but they can be expensive but they last forever in the non-hiking use. (about 300-400 hiking miles though)

[hopefulhiker]

Ditto on Thorlo Light Hikers, tried a lot of socks, liked these the best. Smart wool dries quicker but I still liked the Thorlos.

[JojoSmiley]

Been using Bridgedales and wearing the original pair I bought in 2002 ever since. Long lasting and good for my feet.

[weary]

Thorlos thorlos thorlos... I cant say enough good about them and since my thruhike I've been wearing almost no other sock but thorlos, day in and out, 1997.

In fact I just ordered a few more pairs for an upcoming hike... Damn but they can be expensive but they last forever in the non-hiking use. (about 300-400 hiking miles though)
I couldn't agree more. I had multiple blisters on the trail in 1993 until someone recommended the heaviest Thurlos. I bought two pairs and never had another blister on the trail.

Except for an occasional experiment, I've worn nothing but Thurlos since. Heavy for backpacking. Light for day to day use. Though the price per pair is high, I've found that they last longer than most comfortable socks, so it all evens out in the end.

At the behest of several White Blazers and AT-L folks I've tried Smart Wool. (I bought several pairs of seconds at an LL Bean factory store. Great socks. But in the full price version more expensive than Thurlos and less long lived.

I've found that liners aren't necessary (for me anyway.) Someone, probably Wingfoot, once told me that Thurlos were designed for use without liners, for what that's worth.

A Thurlo plus, in my opinion, is that they are all made in this country. Statesville, NC The Thurlo "factory" store in Statesville is so fine and the price for alleged seconds is so great, it's almost worth a special trip south from Maine.

Weary

[LostInSpace]

Bridgedale "A.T. Boot Plus" in hot or cold weather. I order them from http://www.sockcompany.com/bridat.html. (http://www.sockcompany.com/bridat.html) For me, they have held up better than any other brand.

[MOWGLI]

Been using Bridgedales and wearing the original pair I bought in 2002 ever since. Long lasting and good for my feet.

Although I'm on record for wearing Thorlos, I purchased a pair of Brdgedales at Neels Gap in '0o, and they made it all the way to Katahdin, and then some. That was my only pair of socks to do that. I walked the rest flat. So, they definitely make a long lasting sock.

[SloHiker]

I think it's safe to say that socks are like any other piece of equipment....gotta try 'em all until you find something you like. My favorites have in the past been Smartwool, Rohner & Bridgedale, but I tried something new my last time out .... nylon dress socks. I'd heard all the hype by long-distance hikers and decided to try it (w/Smartwools as back-up). Hot spots and minor blisters are just a fact of life for me so I was more than a little ecstatic when the nylon socks produced nothing but happy feet after the first 10 mile day. The next morning as an experiment, I started out with a new pair of Smartwool RBX's and sure enough I had a couple of hot spots by noon. I dug out the "nylons" and finished the rest of the day with no discomfort.....the hot spots were gone! Now for me at least, I'm a convert! The nylons aren't worth a hoot for sedentary activities around camp (and sleeping), but for walking they work very well for me. I was a skeptic....now I'm a believer.