Double Wide
05-08-2013, 06:56
I've got a shoe question for all you thru hikers. No, not whether I should wear boots, or trail runners, or just get my hippie on and go barefoot. I'll be starting the trail wearing a pair of Oboz Yellowstone II boots. I've got about a hundred miles on them so far and like them well enough to say that they're gonna be my footwear of choice next March when I leave Springer for that long walk north.
My question is, how long can I realistically expect them to last? From my armchair thru-hiking research this past year, it sounds like everyone needs three and sometimes four pairs of footwear to get to Maine. Did you buy three pairs in advance and try to break them all in before you left, or did you just buy new shoes/boots at outfitters along the way and deal with the break-in issues for the first few days in the middle of your hike?
Did you mail drop broken-in boots to a specific place? Did all your footwear planning go out the window and did you say eff-this and just buy different shoes at Neels Gap, or how did you handle it. I've even thought of changing the boots to trail runners from Damascus until I got to, say, Harper's Ferry, and then putting the boots back on to tackle the Pennsylvania rocks, but I'm not sure.
Having absolutely ZERO experience with long-distance hiking (nothing more than a couple days of backpacking at a time so far), I was wondering how to handle this one last gear question. Everything else is pretty much settled, but right now I've got that one pair of boots and my Croc slides for camp shoes.
Basically, what did you end up doing for new footwear as you went, and how did it different from what you originally planned? Thanks.
My question is, how long can I realistically expect them to last? From my armchair thru-hiking research this past year, it sounds like everyone needs three and sometimes four pairs of footwear to get to Maine. Did you buy three pairs in advance and try to break them all in before you left, or did you just buy new shoes/boots at outfitters along the way and deal with the break-in issues for the first few days in the middle of your hike?
Did you mail drop broken-in boots to a specific place? Did all your footwear planning go out the window and did you say eff-this and just buy different shoes at Neels Gap, or how did you handle it. I've even thought of changing the boots to trail runners from Damascus until I got to, say, Harper's Ferry, and then putting the boots back on to tackle the Pennsylvania rocks, but I'm not sure.
Having absolutely ZERO experience with long-distance hiking (nothing more than a couple days of backpacking at a time so far), I was wondering how to handle this one last gear question. Everything else is pretty much settled, but right now I've got that one pair of boots and my Croc slides for camp shoes.
Basically, what did you end up doing for new footwear as you went, and how did it different from what you originally planned? Thanks.