[pct-l] imagination figments (boots & shoes)

["Roger Carpenter" <rogercar@pacifier.com>]

Mountain Dave said:
>>Some questions for lightweight boot proponents to help make me a 
convert. Why do you all start out saying how good they are, but then add all 
kinds of caveats( too small, need inserts, not laced properly,etc. Just 
curious.  Does New Balance offer widths from AA to EEE? Or just regular and 
sorta wide if you cut them up. (I wear EEE). And one more. How do you keep 
them dry in rain and snow country? Galoshes? I would really admire an 
inventive way to do that!  Or should I have the same attitude as you guy's do 
about blisters; It's obviously inevitable, so just grin and bear it. <<

Dave, please, lighten up!  If the big boots work for you, fine!  Keep on wearing them.  I hope you don't think people on the trail are talking behind your back when they see the leather on your feet!   And I do believe that you hiked in all the places, even with your boots!    Also, most of the hikers will change into some type of boot when they get to snow country anyway.  In rain, IMHO both shoes and boots will get wet.  As Mrs. Jardine told me in 1991, "shoes dry faster than boots."  In every long hike, the sun does eventually come out!  By the way, when I have worn leather boots, I use inserts and do all the same things that I would do with shoes.  It's just that the cost of having lighter feet and gaining an extra 3-plus miles per day with little or no incremental energy used is the need to pay closer attention to what's going on with your feet.  I see nothing wrong with that.  Why do you???

Later, Dave said:
>>I suggest that a lot of suffering soles would attest that their current footwear ain't 
working. I'm merely suggesting that, given the journal records, perhaps they 
should buck the herd instinct and reject the Jardinian axiom that "lighter is 
always better" and try something "new". Incredible as it may seem, maybe old 
school custom fit leather hiking boots would do the trick. They've got 
nothing to lose but blisters. <<

Maybe, instead of speculating weather the current thru-hikers footwear "ain't working", we should just ask them if they would change back to big boots if given the opportunity.  I'll send them some emails and post the responses.  Better yet, let's judge this argument based on how many of the thru hikers make it to Canada.   I don't always agree with Jardine, but I will say this:  the success rate for PCT thru hikers has increased substantially in the recent years since many hikers adopted lighter gear and footwear.  
      
Roger Carpenter
Vancouver, Washington USA

PCT 1996

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