best way to deal with wet shoes?

[somers515]

Ok so let's say you are hiking and your feet get all wet. It's the end of the day so you set up camp. Is there anything you do to help dry out the trail runners over night?

I ask because I just put them in the vestibule of my tent. The next morning they were still wet. I had dry socks but they just got wet when I put them into the wet shoes. After a second day of hiking with wet feet it beat up my feet pretty bad.

Should i have taken out the insoles overnight? Unlaced the shoes to really open them up more? Hung them over a nearby branch? Just stopped early the second day and taken a long break on a sunny rock? All of the above?

Just curious for the wisdom of whiteblaze! All thoughts and tips appreciated.

[MuddyWaters]

Nothing dries overnight on AT
Most time things get wetter from condensation

Usually your body heat dries things substantially during day if its not a wet day

[Slo-go'en]

I know what you should NEVER do ... try to dry them out by a fire.

[DuneElliot]

I take the insoles out and squeeze everything out as dry as I can. I've had damp shoes but never wet shoes by the morning.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Loosening the laces, opening up the tongue and taking out the insoles are about all I've found that I can do. After that it really comes down to weather, if it's breezy and fairly dry the my shoes dry out fairly quickly, but if it's still raining or foggy, everything stays wet overnight.
One big factor is the type of shoe, light weight mesh trailrunners dry fast, goretex shoes dry slower and waterproof boots can take days to dry out.

[egilbe]

Dry, sunny ledges, take a break, slap your socks on the rocks to dry them out, wring out your insoles and set you shoes out in the sun. Let your feet dry.

Wet feet won't kill you. At the most, its uncomfortable.

[garlic08]

If you absolutely must dry something overnight, you can put it under your knees outside your sleeping bag, ideally with a layer of plastic protecting your bag. If it fits under your sleeping pad, that's better.

In winter, I put shoes in a plastic bag in that position to keep them from freezing.

Many times I've set up camp in a wet spot, and then in the morning I notice a dry spot where my body heat dried the ground, even through a sleeping pad and tent floor. I often use that phenomenon to dry wet clothing under the pad.

[Odd Man Out]

On my first AT hike, I hiked through a late afternoon torrential downpour. The trail was basically a river and my should and socks were completely saturated to the point my feet went "squish squish" as I walked. They of course were still soaked the next morning. You just put them on and start hiking. At noon that day, I come to a road crossing. A guy who got caught in the same downpour had his gear spread out all over the parking area to dry. He was working on drying his heavy high top leather hiking boots that were still soaked. I looked down at my ventilated non-waterproof trail shoes and they were bone dry.

[TNGabe]

Wet feet won't kill you. At the most, its uncomfortable.

Get yourself an immersion foot syndrome and get back to us on this.

[Deadeye]

I bring extra baggies/bread bags/Walmart bags to wear between my dry socks and soggy shoes. Not ideal, but it helps a bunch, even if it's just to keep my feet dry at camp.

[Greenlight]

1. Stay away from waterproof shoes, as many have stated, they take forever to dry out.
2. Insoles - I've had a great experience with Superfeet. They aren't squishy, and they don't need to dry out.
3. Socks - Merino wool, my best experience has been with Darn Tough. Keep two pair. When one gets wet, switch out. Wring out the wet ones, and place them directly on top of your base layer, and under your pack's shoulder straps. The compression and your body heat will dry the socks, as this is a pretty non-sweaty part of the body. Yeah, your nasty, dirty, wet socks will be closer to your nose than you may be accustomed to, but they usually aren't the worst smelling component of hiker stench.

This has worked for me, it may work for you.

[egilbe]

Get yourself an immersion foot syndrome and get back to us on this.

Take care of your feet when you camp and its a non-issue.

[bigcranky]

As noted above, clothing and shoes don't dry overnight. At best they might be slightly less wet. For my feet, I do the following:

1. Wear mesh trail runners and light merino wool socks. The mesh drains any water that gets in the shoe from creek crossings, mud pits, etc., and the wool keeps my feet warm when they get wet. This combo also dries fairly quickly as I walk, if there aren't any creek crossings or mud pits for a while.

2. When taking a long lunch break, and as soon as I get to camp, I find a sunny spot and put my shoes and socks out to dry -- pull out the insoles, loosen everything, etc.

3. In the morning, if my shoes are still wet, I put yesterday's wet socks back on my feet, and keep my nice dry socks for camp and sleeping that night. Putting dry socks into wet shoes is no fun.

I've used this method with great success on very wet long hikes, when my feet were always at least damp. Never got immersion foot or any other foot problems.

[Don H]

Wet shoes? Wait until you have to deal with frozen shoes.

I never use waterproof shoes, they never dry out.
I change socks at mid day and hang the damp ones off my pack with safety pins.
As soon as I get to camp I change to Crocs.
I keep one pair of dry, clean socks to sleep in. You need to dry your feet out to prevent problems.
I clean my feet every evening with a Wet Wipe. It's amazing how dirty they get.

[Bansko]

It may be overkill, but I carried four pairs of darn-Tough's on my thru-hike (two pairs full length and two quarter length) while going bare-bones on just about everything else. I dried my breathable trail runners the best I could at night and put on dry socks in the morning. Dry socks are the key.

[garlic08]

...I clean my feet every evening with a Wet Wipe. It's amazing how dirty they get.

I came to the realization that clean feet are more important than dry feet.

If you reach a stream crossing in temperate conditions, it's a good idea to stop and wash your feet and socks. (And wear them dry. That's the beauty of breathable shoes.)

[lonehiker]

Let gravity assist with your shoes at night. Remove insoles and prop both shoes and insoles up. If trying to dry shoes/socks during the day, I remove shoes then the insoles from shoes and place so as to get most direct light. Wait until it is late enough into the morning so that you have good heat. Too early and you are wasting your time. I leave socks on if trying to dry quickly. My thought being that body heat will aide from the inside while sunlight and breeze will take care of outside. Two or three short breaks usually result in dry shoes/socks.

As a couple others have mentioned, I always have 1 dry pair of socks (I only take 2 pair) that I change into for sleeping. That way I always know my feet will be dry at night.

[Praha4]

Hike the Long Trail and you'll have wet shoes every day to deal with. I used Hydropel every morning on my feet, and had to put wet socks on in wet shoes every day of the LT hike.
Now I use "Trail Toes" foot cream, never have a problem with foot blisters.
http://www.trailtoes.com/

[evyck da fleet]

My trailrunners dry because of body heat sun and/or wind. Once I've made camp they will still be wet in the morning. A breeze and a shelter with a covered area might help (I've never tried) but my vestibule usually blocks any breeze. I will take the insoles out, sprinkle gold bond powder inside the shoe and on the insoles and leave them in my vestibule overnight. In the morning it's wet socks and wet shoes until I can walk them dry while taking them off and laying them in the sun during water snack and lunch breaks. Another vote for avoiding goretex

[Tipi Walter]

On my first AT hike, I hiked through a late afternoon torrential downpour. The trail was basically a river and my should and socks were completely saturated to the point my feet went "squish squish" as I walked. They of course were still soaked the next morning. You just put them on and start hiking.

Exactly. You just put them on and start hiking. In the Southeast mountains wet shoes/boots will dry out eventually.

Get yourself an immersion foot syndrome and get back to us on this.

Backpacking in the Southeast is not like hiking thru the Mekong Delta. The AT is not a swamp jungle. Plus, on a backpacking trip we have in-camp opportunities to dry out and clean our feet.

1. Stay away from waterproof shoes, as many have stated, they take forever to dry out.

All I ever wear are goretex boots, so-called waterproof boots---and they eventually dry out once wet. You just have to get a full day of no-rain and you'll hike them dry.

As noted above, clothing and shoes don't dry overnight. At best they might be slightly less wet. For my feet, I do the following:

1. Wear mesh trail runners and light merino wool socks. The mesh drains any water that gets in the shoe from creek crossings, mud pits, etc., and the wool keeps my feet warm when they get wet. This combo also dries fairly quickly as I walk, if there aren't any creek crossings or mud pits for a while.

3. In the morning, if my shoes are still wet, I put yesterday's wet socks back on my feet, and keep my nice dry socks for camp and sleeping that night. Putting dry socks into wet shoes is no fun.

Yes, I always go out on a trip with two pairs of smartwool mountaineer socks---one used for hiking and one always kept dry and used for camp and sleeping.

The discussion regarding boots vs trail runners is long running but I prefer goretex boots unless I'm pulling a dayhike with minimal weight on my back. I posted this before and it comes from my journal from a backpacking trip in December 2013---

THE ADVANTAGES OF GORETEX BOOTS
Okay, let's reason it out. 85% of all creek crossings in the Southeast mountains of TN, Georgia, NC and VA are easy fords between 1 to 6 inches deep and so whatever you are wearing will sink to that depth in order to do a ford or to rock hop. Try these little crossings in fabric boots or trail runners and POW you've just saturated your socks---not good on the first day of a 21 day winter trip. A good boot with a GTX liner is able to pull 6 inch deep wadings with no leaks, and of course you don't stand in the water for 20 minutes. Fabric boots soak in water like a canvas tennis shoe and so the high need for an above ankle GTX boot.

In fact, on a recent January trip I had several small creek crossings at 10F and used my leather gtx boots to get across without water getting over the ankle cuff---

P1000250-XL.jpg
Don't try this in your trail runners.

Wet shoes? Wait until you have to deal with frozen shoes.

I never use waterproof shoes, they never dry out.
I change socks at mid day and hang the damp ones off my pack with safety pins.
As soon as I get to camp I change to Crocs.
I keep one pair of dry, clean socks to sleep in. You need to dry your feet out to prevent problems.
I clean my feet every evening with a Wet Wipe. It's amazing how dirty they get.

All good advice except for waterproof shoes never drying out. They do dry out---you can walk them dry. And frozen boots is a whole other thread.