Gilad: My transition from heavy hiking boots all the way to light boots, trail shoes and now minimalist shoes was a process of self experimenting to find the way that works for me. I will write much more about the process, the pros and cons and how it can be done. Along the way, Mika had a chance to try lighter and simpler footwear for running and than hiking but she is still in the experiment phase, but I’ll just let her explain it:
If you have been following Gilad’s Cape Wrath training, you will have noticed that something that has come up given the time of year is the issue of wet feet. He talked about it in his not 100 miles South Downs Way post, and mentioned it when talking about our family hike in Epping Forest.
Several years ago, Gilad and I moved from hiking boots to trail running shoes as our footwear of choice when going outdoors. There will be more discussion of that in other posts, but it is a change we have both been extremely happy with. Except for one thing: wet feet. Well, to clarify – this exception only applies to me. Gilad doesn’t mind having cold, wet feet. As for me, it is a game-ender. Cold, wet feet? Take me home, now.
This is, obviously, a big problem. We live in the UK, a country that is no stranger to wet weather. And really, almost anywhere you go trekking will have wet weather, streams to cross, bogs, or some other source of wet feet at some point in the year.
After many years of dealing with this problem by forcing my darling husband to cut treks short so I could go warm up my feet, or just grinning (growling, more like) and bearing it, we have come up with a (hopefully) better solution: Gore-tex socks. These are water-proof socks that you just wear over your regular socks, and viola! Dry feet, no matter the weather!
That’s the idea anyways. I only just got them, so I haven’t had a chance to test them out yet, but I will, and I will report back with the results. Until then, trek happy!
Does anyone else out there suffer from cold-wet-feet-itis? How do you deal with it?