Drying shoes on the trail

[Canute600]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anybody here at Whiteblaze has any good ideas for how to dry (non Gore-Tex) hiking boots/shoes overnight at camp in the woods. When I hiked the Long Trail in the wet summer of 09, my boots were almost always wet and thus heavier and blister-inducing. Now that I'm thinking about the AT in '11, I'm hoping I can get some tricks from other backpackers to avoid a similar problem.

Thanks!

[Spokes]

Well whatever you do, don't keep them close to a roaring fire all night long. Had a thru last year do that and ended up melting his soles off.

Of course it would make a great trailname story........

[Mocs123]

Wearing synthetic trail runners with lots of mesh helps, but some days they even wont dry.

[canoehead]

In areas with thicker cover you can sometimes remove the top few inches of leaf litter and usually find dryer decomposing leaves, grab a hand full of that material and stuff your boots, it'll absorb the water. Empty boots it in the morning and you can wear them dry from there. thick cover / cave like depressions, tree trunks may hold dry material also..More importantly Dry you feet as best as you can at night.

[The Cleaner]

If you have removable insoles you can dry them carefully by a fire or put them in your sleeping bag overnite,this might help some.Another trick is ,if you have a fire,dry your feet with socks on for a few minutes then put boots back on.Repeat this several times.But you must be careful and not burn your socks as the temperature of a campfire can change quickly and your socks may burn before you notice them....

[Kerosene]

Of course, it is surprisingly easy to burn/melt your socks next to a fire, especially when it's dark out and you can't see everything clearly.

[Tinker]

Not that I've seen many hikers carrying them, but an aluminum bicycle water bottle is small enough to stuff into many shoes after you loosen the laces. If you put boiling water into them you can insert them into your shoes and they will make pretty good dryers. I've done this in the winter. It would probably work better in warmer weather as the water inside the bottles would stay hot longer. Most thruhikers just hike with wet feet until they can get to a clothes dryer in town. Wiping shoes out with a paper towel has been suggested to me a number of times, but I don't carry paper towels. I used my bandana once and couldn't use it to wash my face afterwards .

[BrianLe]

Get shoes that are relatively quick drying, and walk them dry when conditions permit, otherwise ... continue to walk in them wet until they do.

For in-camp, I like to carry a couple of bread bags (thin plastic sacks that a loaf of bread comes in at the store). Change into dry socks (including wool socks if you have a dry pair) in camp and put the bread bags on to keep the wet shoes from getting your dry socks wet.

I would have thought that walking a long time in wet shoes would lead to blisters, but about the only blisters I got from this on the AT was infrequently on the tops of my toes, I think based on the particular dynamics of the shoes I was wearing.

Bottom line is that I didn't worry about trying to dry my shoes when conditions were wet out, and just let the mechanical action of walking get them dry when conditions were dry. In fact, the bigger issue for me tended to be dealing with wet shoes (my only footwear) in town, often to include dirty and wet footwear. For part of the trip I found it kind of nice to have a second pair of shoe inserts to switch to in town, partly to keep my clean socks cleaner, and partly so I could thus wash my other inserts.

A trick to consider in-town is to stuff shoes with newspaper (and of course put them in the warmest and driest place you can find).

[mweinstone]

once again matthewski must beltch knowlage to the underlings. listen up. these are facts.


take the largest cheapest most non hiking freindly boots ever,.....soaked under 6000 feet of water for 900 years. dont ring them out. dont fill them with dry stuff. put them in your sleeping bag. stay up most of the night talking crap. go to sleep for even a few hours. the boots dry quickly when mattheski is your friend. the wet butterfly seeks death. but christmas balls on a tree reflect happyness,....unless the foul wet breath of morning is apon them. gabbeesh? sleep with those sexy shoes. love them long time.untill dry!

[Trailbender]

I just got used to wearing wet shoes on my thru. Just powder your feet at night.

[The Solemates]

putting them in your sleeping bag with you will dry them - but it may also get the bag wet (and thus waste some of its insulation value), and they will be a nuisance in your bag.

[Moose2001]

Keep cycling dry socks. When the first pair gets, wet....change to the next pair. Hang the wet pair on the back of your pack to dry and keep hiking. Not a lot you can do on the trail to dry boots. Just hike on. You'll be fine.

Be thankful you're wearing NON-gortex boots. Gortex takes days to dry!

[garlic08]

An old survival teacher had a lot of fun describing a way to dry leather boots. Fill them with oats--they absorb a large amount of moisture. Then in the morning you have breakfast all ready!

One of the first truisms I learned about camping is that you can tell how experienced a camper is by looking at his/her shoes. If they're burnt, he/she is a rookie and stuck cold feet too close to the fire. On the AT in '08, I met "Meltdown" who got his nylon rain paints too close to the fire and the rest is history.

Drying footwear during the night in a tent is a difficult balance. The only way to dry boots on a cold night is to add heat. Some suggest hot water bottles, but do you have enough fuel to heat enough water to make a difference? Otherwise, you can use body heat overnight but at the expense of getting moisture on you, in your bag, or in your tent. On nights considerably below freezing, when I know I have to get my shoes on early, I will put the shoes under my knees outside my sleeping bag. The bag stays relatively clean, the shoes stay pliable if they don't dry out, and a certain balance is achieved.

[Tennessee Viking]

I heard stories of using charcoal briquettes.

[Spokes]

once again matthewski must beltch knowlage to the underlings. listen up. these are facts.


take the largest cheapest most non hiking freindly boots ever,.....soaked under 6000 feet of water for 900 years. dont ring them out. dont fill them with dry stuff. put them in your sleeping bag. stay up most of the night talking crap. go to sleep for even a few hours. the boots dry quickly when mattheski is your friend. the wet butterfly seeks death. but christmas balls on a tree reflect happyness,....unless the foul wet breath of morning is apon them. gabbeesh? sleep with those sexy shoes. love them long time.untill dry!

Did you go to school with Dr. Bronner?

[Dogwood]

once again matthewski must beltch knowlage to the underlings. listen up. these are facts.


take the largest cheapest most non hiking freindly boots ever,.....soaked under 6000 feet of water for 900 years. dont ring them out. dont fill them with dry stuff. put them in your sleeping bag. stay up most of the night talking crap. go to sleep for even a few hours. the boots dry quickly when mattheski is your friend. the wet butterfly seeks death. but christmas balls on a tree reflect happyness,....unless the foul wet breath of morning is apon them. gabbeesh? sleep with those sexy shoes. love them long time.untill dry!

"the wet butterfly seeks death. but christmas balls on a tree reflect happyness"

WOW! Kids, and some adults, UMM, Just Say NO!

[Dogwood]

Keep switching to extra pair of dry socks. If not too muddy use your shoes a part of your pillow or place under your legs under your ground cloth. Stuff wet shoes with dry material to soak up moisture. Wear WP and/or THIN Neoprene/fleece lined socks like the Serius Stormproof, NRS paddling, Warmers low-cut booties, or Seal Skinz Stormproof. Plastic bread bags DO NOT function the same way as these these specialty socks!

I'm surprised to hear of all the posts regarding burnt shoes and socks that were left too long or too close to the campfire. I thought I was the only one to see and smell(Yuk!, smells like burning sheep) my expensive Smartwool socks burn and singe. Curiously, early one hiking morn, while still not quite wide awake, I noticed I was walking strangely. I lifted up one of my trail shoes to notice that I had partially melted the sole of the shoe because I had left it too close to the campfire the night before!

[MkBibble]

What I've decided:
1) Anythig wet - STAYS wet.
2) Anything dry - GETS wet (refer to 1).

[Panzer1]

I don't agree with putting them in the sleeping bag because as they dry they make your bag wet. I don't see that as an overall improvement.

I don't agree with putting leaves in the boots either even if they make your boots dry. The leaves will make the boots dirty.

I don't agree with putting a hot water bottle in the boots because this a waste of fuel.

the only thing I found is to stop at noon time, take your boots off and while your having lunch leave the boots in the sun with the insoles removed, assuming there is some sun. The sun will eventually dry them.

Otherwise there is nothing else that can realistically be done without placing them next to the campfire and destroying them. You will just have to wait.

Panzer

[Kerosene]

I found that I'm almost as comfortable if I bring a bunch of thin liners, changing them every few hours and wringing out the heavier sock before I put them on. My feet appreciate the newfound dry feeling, which lasts a surprisingly long time; the liners might actually dry out overnight or on the back of your pack if the humidity isn't overly high; and liners only weigh 20-30% of heavier socks.