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  1. #1

    Default Pouring water out of my boots...

    Did a 6 hour day hike on the AT last weekend... about 3 hours of which was in fairly consistent rain. On a previous hike in similar conditions I had suited up with rain pants and jacket and completely overheated. This time, after scouring people's advice, I went with the rain jacket but decided to forego the rain pants. Wearing a pair of REI Sahara pants with the legs on, a pair of Smartwool Heavyweight socks, and a pair of Coolmax Liners Underneath and then my Vasque Breezes.

    When I slogged into the finish of my hike I removed my boots, poured out about a 1/4 cup of water from then and squeezed another 1/4 out of the socks.

    I know this rain is atypical but this is something I can't let happen again. I somehow avoided blisters this time. Do I just need to put on the rain pants in a driving rain? Should I have had gaiters instead? Would a rain skirt/kilt afford the same dryness TO MY FEET AND CALVES without overheating?

  2. #2
    Registered User Moose2001's Avatar
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    If you're hiking in rain, nothing including goretex boots is going to keep your feet dry. Just deal with it. Hike on and enjoy the day!
    GA - NJ 2001; GA - ME 2003; GA - ME 2005; GA - ME 2007; PCT 2006

    A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.
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  3. #3

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Moose2001 View Post
    If you're hiking in rain, nothing including goretex boots is going to keep your feet dry. Just deal with it. Hike on and enjoy the day!
    My feet always stay reasonably dry wearing goretex boots, even after hiking for days in rain. The trick is to keep the water from running down your leg into the boot and for that gaiters work pretty well. It's almost impossible to keep all the water out of the boot, but being a little damp is a lot different than having a 1/4 cup of water sloshing around inside.
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  5. #5

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    Definitely have gaiters on the list!

  6. #6
    LT '79; AT '73-'14 in sections; Donating Member Kerosene's Avatar
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    Given enough rain falling long enough, you will eventually become soaked. I moved away from waterproof boots for my section hikes, as once they get wet (even from heavy perspiration) they take forever to dry out. I will still bring a Gore-Tex boot on day hikes if I expect rain, in which case I would definitely wear rain pants (or perhaps DWR windpants in warmer weather), with the bottoms "bloused" out over shortie gaiters. That way, rain doesn't wick down your legs to the tops of your socks down to the footbed. You may still get pretty damp after awhile, but it will take a lot longer to get your feet soaked. Again, for my multi-day section hikes I just grin and bear it, but I always bring rain gear because getting caught in a big storm on a cool-ish day can rapidly lead to hypothermia.
    GA←↕→ME: 1973 to 2014

  7. #7
    Registered User q-tip's Avatar
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    You might look at Dirty Girl Gaiters--1.2 oz. and keep some of the rain out--however nothing will keep your feet dry in heavy consistent rain.

  8. #8

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    The trail runners that a lot of the people you're talking to have tend to drain, look at these for instance: http://www.rei.com/product/748515/me...ing-shoes-mens see how the mesh goes down to the sole. You feet completely get wet in these but you don't end up with the standing water.

    Looking at the Vasque Breezes on the other hand they seem like water buckets. You'll want to do something to keep water from running down your legs and into your boots with those. Either hiking with the cuffs of your rain pants over the tops of your boots or getting a pair of gaiters to redirect the water.

    Here are a pair of short Event gaiters I wore on my thru hike, they did ok. They behave about like any of the water resistant materials gortex/event/whatever, loose the water resistent ability fairly quickly but never do seem to get any more breathable http://www.moontrail.com/integral-de...ie-gaiters.php

  9. #9

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    I wondered how waterproof the Vasque Breeze are (I too have a pair). Sounds like they really are waterproof. Every bit of the water that ran down your legs and wicked down your socks (I also wear the heavy weight smart wool) stayed completely in the boots, didn't leak out!

  10. #10

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    If it rains you're going to get wet. So get over it. You'll either sweat from the inside or get soaked from the outside. There's no getting around it. If it is humid (which its going to be if its raining) then goretex isn't going to do you any good.

    I wear a rain jacket with a hood because sweat doesn't tend to get you as wet as the rain and a pair of nylon jogging pants because they dry quickly when the rain stops and they don't trap sweat like rainpants do.

  11. #11

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    Your boots/feet are going to get wet. Nothing to stop it. I wish boot manufacturers would give a specification on how fast the boots dry. I hate putting on soaking wet boots in the AM. Some of the mesh based trail runners seem to dry in minutes. I am currently using New Balance MO1000BY. They claim to be waterproof but even when new they are not. But they do dry quite quickly for a full hight boot. Much faster then the Vasque Breese I had.

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