[at-l] light shoes

[ROYROBIN@aol.com (ROYROBIN@aol.com)]

<< ...you should avoid GoreTex-lined hiking 
 > shoes like the plague!  They are a marketing-driven ripoff.  
 
 Oh my gosh! I don't want to argue with Brians Dad!!!!
 
 But.... my feet have stayed dry.  And I've had no 
 blisters....  So, given my limited back country opinion, and 
 nowhere near well informed except as it related to me, Goretex isn't just a 
 marketing tool :)  >>

Thanks for arguing!  Gets us closer to the truth of the matter.  "Avoid like 
the plague" was obviously a poor choice of words.  I wore a pair of Vasque 
Clarion GTX's (GoreTex-lined) for a thousand miles through northern 
California and Oregon in '99, and liked them enough that I had them resoled.  
I would use them again for backpacking but not for long-distance hiking.  

They cost more than the regular Clarions that Brian was wearing, and didn't 
keep me noticeably drier or warmer.  ('99 was a huge snow year on the 
northern PCT.)  So I feel the GoreTex was a waste of money.  My pocketbook 
suffered more than my feet.  They're also a bit heavy, especially in size 14. 
;^)