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The Quest for Happy Feet

April 12, 2016 •

Vintage Lowa boots

Vin­tage Lowa boots

When I agreed to go on a 3‑week walk­ing tour in France this fall, I assumed my beloved Lowa boots would join me on that jour­ney. We’ve been together for many miles over the past 15 years…

But all it took was one long walk on wood­land trails and paved roads to reveal that these aging boots would be prob­lem­atic on the Chemin du Puy.

For one thing there’s not enough cush­ion­ing for rocky trails or paved roads. For another, they are too heavy for a jour­ney where every ounce counts dearly…

And so the quest for boots began — a quest that took weeks and many shop­ping trips (or online trans­ac­tions) to accom­plish.

Finding the Right Boots Isn’t Easy

Patch for women hiking the Camino de Santiago

Patch for women hik­ing the Camino de San­ti­ago

Luck­ily, I’m in an all-wom­en’s Face­book group with other pil­grims — past, present and future. Besides shar­ing travel plans, we talk about what to pack or what to wear.

We share can­did ques­tions and per­sonal obser­va­tions about the gear that will work best for trekking the Camino. We dis­cuss every­thing, from sports bras to footwear, hik­ing socks, fold­able trekking poles, packs, etc.

Every­one agrees: the sin­gle most impor­tant deci­sion is what to wear on your feet.

We debate what’s the best footwear strat­egy: sturdy ver­sus light­weight hik­ing boots; hik­ing shoes ver­sus trail run­ning shoes; sneak­ers ver­sus hik­ing san­dals. For those not fac­ing moun­tain cross­ings, the con­sen­sus is: don’t bother car­ry­ing your heavy hik­ing boots. If you’ll spend all your time hik­ing on paved roads, boots are overkill.

And of course, we all agree that what’s best for your feet depends on many things: your age, weight, fit­ness; the size, shape and con­di­tions of your feet (such as high arches, flat feet or vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties like plan­tar fasci­tis, bunions, arthri­tis, injuries, etc.). Some peo­ple pre­fer lots of cush­ion­ing, oth­ers want to feel the road.

Given those phys­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics you then have to fac­tor in your expec­ta­tions of the ter­rain, the dis­tance to hike each day, changes in ele­va­tion, and the degree of tech­ni­cal chal­lenge.  We learn from Face­book posts what to expect about spe­cific con­di­tions in France or Spain, for the locales or trails where we’ll be trekking.

For these rea­sons we care a lot about details, like how many ounces each shoe or boot weighs — things that aren’t always easy to dis­cover from the man­u­fac­tur­ers’ breezy sales pitches… For those of us who will walk 100–500 miles to train before­hand, we also worry about dura­bil­ity. Will our boots be worn out before we get on the plane? Once I’ve found the right boots, should I buy a sec­ond pair to bring to Europe to replace the worn-out train­ing pair?

These are not ques­tions for fash­ion­istas…

It Takes Many Trials

To my sur­prise it’s not uncom­mon for future pil­grims to try a dozen pairs of boots and shoes before set­tling on the ones that work best for them. Some have posted pho­tos on Face­book show­ing 4–5 boxes of shoes and boots they’ve ordered to try out.

Despite the dili­gent shop­ping and pre-Camino tri­als, some Cami­gas report back that they’ve given away their boots by the end of the first week. They will hike the rest of the Way in sneak­ers or san­dals, to avoid the pain of ill-fit­ting boots.

I found this obses­sive try-buy behav­ior hard to believe, until I began my own quest to find light, com­fort­able hik­ing boots. Firstly, there’s lit­tle rela­tion­ship between the size of your street shoes ver­sus the siz­ing used for boots or trail run­ners. This means that online shop­pers have to antic­i­pate lots of exchanges…

Hoka One One boots

New Hoka One One boots, before they are cov­ered with trail mud

I’ve lost count exactly, but it’s taken me at least 6 tries (includ­ing 3 trips to REI plus a local shoe store) before set­tling on Hoka One One Tor Sum­mit Mid WP boots. Luck­ily, they were on sale at REI when I noticed how many Cami­gas were writ­ing good things about Hoka boots… Time will tell if this was the right choice.

We’ll be walk­ing the Célé Vari­ant of the Chemin du Puy (GR 65 and GR 651). Pil­grims tell us to expect stren­u­ous con­di­tions when hik­ing up and down the Célé Val­ley’s lime­stone cliffs or uneven, rocky trails.

Here in the Pacific North­west, in early spring, it’s hard to find train­ing con­di­tions like the dry, stony hills and crum­bling lime­stone cliffs we’ll face in France. Right now I’m focused on build­ing up endurance and over­all con­di­tion­ing, rather than repli­cat­ing the ter­rain.

I’ll need some train­ing on loose scree and rocky hill­climbs before we fly to Paris, but for­tu­nately, there’s all sum­mer to get ready.

For now, early prac­tice hikes sug­gest these boots will be quite com­fort­able, with some caveats…

Good Enough, but Not Perfect

After 25 miles in them so far, it’s clear that my new boots aren’t per­fect for the trek in France. Their water­proof­ing makes them less breath­able than what I’d hoped for, so my feet get hot by mile 5 —  and we’ll be hik­ing at least twice that mileage each day. I’ll also be hik­ing in much warmer weather.

Mes­sage to self: Learn how to man­age heat dis­si­pa­tion and avoid blis­ters. Step one: buy Glide. Check.

Even with thick hik­ing socks from Darn Tough, these boots are a bit too big, so my feet slip for­ward on steep descents but not enough to jam the toes. I haven’t yet tried the liner-plus-sock com­bi­na­tion as a way of avoid­ing blis­ters from an overly roomy boot, but it’s on the list of things to try. I did try this model in half size smaller, and liked the over­all foot com­fort, but found that the top of the boots cinched my ankles too tightly. Except for the ankle issue they’d be good boots to wear with thin­ner, lighter socks.

By the time I leave for France, I’ll have fig­ured out how to make my boots as com­fort­able as pos­si­ble, via:

  • The right lac­ing tech­niques to min­i­mize slip­page and max­i­mize com­fort;
  • The opti­mal com­bi­na­tion of socks and lin­ers;
  • How and where to apply Glide before putting on my socks.

My feet will swell after hik­ing all day, for 21 days in a row, so the fact that these boots are now 1/4 to 1/2 size too large will be most likely be a bless­ing on “les voies jacquaires” in France (camino hik­ing trails.)

For now I remind myself that this is a jour­ney of many lessons and dis­cov­er­ies — with many expe­ri­ences yet to unfold before we leave for France. Find­ing the right boots is an impor­tant mile­stone on the jour­ney.

Update

90 days later…

It’s mid-July and my love affair with Hoka boots con­tin­ues, now that I’ve found the opti­mal lac­ing and sock com­bos through trial-and-error.

I’m grate­ful for the way they pro­tect my toes and ankles from unex­pected encoun­ters with roots or rocks on uneven trails, the way they keep my feet dry in tor­ren­tial down­pours or unavoid­able pud­dles.

Unlike tra­di­tional hik­ing boots, these are so light­weight, lux­u­ri­ously cush­ioned and flex­i­ble under foot. My enthu­si­asm about these boots has inspired my friends too. Now almost half a dozen of us are hik­ing reg­u­larly with Hoka boots or trail run­ners…

Trail runners: happy compromise

That being said, as much as I love my Hoka boots, on hot days they become a bit too warm after ≥ 3 hours of hik­ing. If my feet get too hot and the socks get damp, there’s a risk of blis­ter­ing. This has spurred me to find alter­na­tive footwear for hot days or less rugged ter­rain.

Altra trail runners

Altra trail run­ners for hot weather hik­ing

For­tu­nately, I’ve found the right trail run­ners to alter­nate with the boots: some Altra Olym­pus shoes with a wide toe box. This model is well cush­ioned, pro­tects toes from encoun­ters with roots or rocks, and breathes well. The wide toe box offers lots of breath­ing room so toes can flex or splay out — and it avoids the risk of blis­ters that can crop up when my bunion gets too cramped.

So I’m now a happy camper, well equipped for almost any­thing the French trails are likely to present.

Trackbacks

  1. On the Path to Our Camino says:
    April 12, 2016 at 5:21 pm

    […] Post: updates on hik­ing boots and travel […]

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Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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