Some clothing options for your feet

You'll find people hiking in just about everything, from nothing but socks and shoes on Hike Naked Day to Mennonites conservatively dressed with dresses and bonnets or vests and big hats. Some men like to hike in kilts. I've seen both men and women hiking in sundresses - they're lightweight, loose, and if you don't have chub rub, they let air get up to your thighs so they stay drier and chafe less. A lot of people like to hike in running shorts for similar reasons - they're incredibly light and airy.

Generally, your clothing should be fast drying and as light as you can manage. NO COTTON except in very specific situations. Cotton retains moisture, which makes it heavy after you sweat. It also means that it will not dry off quickly as you wear it in camp, leading to heat loss and hypothermia. Are you hiking in August in Louisiana? Feel free to wear a cotton tshirt. Otherwise, stick with synthetics, or wool. There is basically never a good time to wear cotton socks, though. Once they swell up with moisture, the thickened fibers will rub and contribute to blisters.

There are thousands of garments available. I'm just going to list what's worked for me. Ladies, if you are shaped like a babushka, you are in the right spot to find clothing suggestions.

I'll start from the bottom. On my feet, I wear Vasque Trailbenders. These have a thickly cushioned sole with a wide gripping surface. They are the most comfortable, stable shoe I've worn in years. Shoe fit is, of course, as individual as feet are. But that's what's worked for me. I swap out the insole for Women's Berry Superfeet. The berry model has thicker high density foam under the ball of the foot. I've hiked thousands of miles and my feet show the wear and tear - on X-ray if not on the surface. The cushioning makes the difference between a fun day on the trail and a death slog.

Although my feet are not very big, I wear a size D insole, trimmed to fit my shoe. I have short toes. Insoles are designed as if you have long toes. If you have short toes, the arch in the theoretically appropriately sized insole can be in the wrong place! Make sure that when you choose an insole, you get one that fits your arch. Having support in the wrong spot can lead to pain and damage. My feet were much happier after I discussed this with a boot fitter and started getting the larger size insoles.

A lot of people like to wear Injinji toe socks to prevent rubbing between their toes. My toes are crowded and I find it extremely uncomfortable to have fabric in between them. If you do not have chubby toes like mine, you might be very happy with some toe socks.

It's common to wear a liner sock and an oversock. The theory is that rather than your foot rubbing against your one layer of sock, your liner sock stays put on your foot and the liner sock slides against the oversock. As far as I can tell, the theory is correct. Once you've hiked a few hundred miles, your feet may toughen up so that you can be less careful with them. This is my experience. But first you have to take good enough care of them to get to that point.

I find wearing two pair of socks to be pretty fiddly. I end up having to perform minute adjustments to get them wrinkle free and not tight around the toes. Instead, I wear double layer Wright Socks. (Note that for winter you can get a merino wool version that I can verify works great for warmth and blister prevention.) They hit the sweet spot between blister free and easy to use for me. They're lightweight and breathable. They are not, unfortunately, as durable as some other socks. A lot of hikers swear by Darn Tough socks. The company guarantees them! If you wear them out, they will send you a new pair. I know people who got through the entire trail on one or two pair of these socks. For me, they were uncomfortably tight. But thousands of other thruhikers can't be wrong - they're durable socks for a thruhike.

I wear short, stretchy gaiters to keep cruft out of my shoes. Any kind of grit that gets in there will destroy your socks. There are waterproof gaiters on the market, but as they hold sweat in, they are not useful in most weather that I hike in.

I gave up wearing shorts for hiking in 2010. After years of bug bites and three rounds of Lyme disease, I started buying thin hiking pants and tucking them into my socks. I treat my pants and my gaiters with permethrin, which I STRONGLY RECOMMEND. The best way to not get Lyme disease is to prevent the tick from getting to your skin to bite you. Daily tick checks are not sufficient because although it is rare for a tick to transmit the disease within a few hours of biting, it is possible. I got Lyme disease this way in 2011. The tick was on me for less than four hours, but I still got sick. Treat your clothing!

This has gotten long so I'll go over some pants options for women with hips in my next post.

Hello, The Internet

I've been over at trailjournals having a thruhike, but the thruhike is sadly over now.  Or not so sadly, if you're me and you were ecstatic to be home with husband and dogs and warm bed.  All at once because we sleep in a puppy pile.  But just like after my first thruhike, I missed writing afterward.  People suggested writing a book.  I might, but that involves a lot more brain than a blog post.  So blogging it is!

I'm actually gearing up for a section hike soon with my friend Neon, so I have equipment on the brain.  I thought I'd do a little bit of gear reviewing.

I plan to take the same tent I thruhiked with last year, the Zpacks Hexamid Solo Plus.  Not including stakes, it's 17.7 oz.  Mine is an ounce heavier because I got it in camo material, which is a little thicker.  My old Hexamid is in blue, and it's pretty dang see through.  The camo is not at all transparent.  On my thruhike last year, I suffered through weeks of attack acorns, and for the first time in my life my tent was punctured by an acorn.  Thousands of miles and decades of hiking, and this was a first.  But it happened, so be aware.  Cuben can be punctured by acorns.  Luckily it's easily fixed with a little tape.  I used Zpacks repair tape because I had it, but duct tape also works.

My camo Hexamid in the 100 Mile Wilderness

I used two different Zpacks quilts last year.  I used a 20 degree in chilly weather, a 40 degree in warm weather, and I layered them in cold weather.  I went for the extra wide version so I could still sleep in a pretzel shape while the 20 degree was fully zipped.  The 40 degree I only got straps on, no zipper.  Since I bought mine, they changed the baffle orientation to longways down the length of the sleeping bag, which should be a significant improvement over baffles running side to side.  The latter allow down to slide downhill to either side of your shoulders over time.  I was happy with mine despite needing to fluff the down back to the middle occasionally.  Both quilts gave me room to move around as needed.  I was able to use the straps of the quilt to attach to either of my sleeping pads, but I had to put my head at the narrow end of my larger pad to make it work.

I had a number of problems from wear and tear to discomfort to an extremely stupid trowel puncture, so I went through a lot of sleeping pads this year.  My very favorite was the Klymit Insulated Static V Lite. At 23" wide, it's enough for me as a side sleeper to be comfortable.  The V structure let the pad form around my sprawling sleeping form better than a more rigid pad.  At 19.6 oz it's a little heavier than some options, but the comfort was worth it.  After that was NeoAir Xtherm.  The large (AKA the wide) weighs 20 oz, so almost the same as the Klymit.  Mine weighed less because I cut a foot off the end of it, so it was about 18 oz.  It was significantly warmer, but slightly less comfortable to sleep on than the V shaped Klymit baffles.  I sent for it when the temperature got down to around freezing.


On the personal hygiene front, I loved the Intimina Lily Cup Compact.  It collapses to the size of a quarter when not in use, was easy to clean, didn't stain, and felt like nothing once inserted.  Dealing with your period on the trail is not especially fun or pleasant, but at least using a menstrual cup means not having to pack out any grossness.  And because I didn't need to buy supplies in town, I never ran out at an inconvenient time.  The compacted cup was small enough to live in my ziplock with my toilet paper.

A winter day's hike, with gear links

So I went to bed early last night, and I actually put down the damn Kindle and turned out the light before it got very late.  I slept like a log, woke up early, and felt FANTASTIC.  The older I get, the more I love a good night's sleep.

It was chilly when I got out the door to go hiking - 27 degrees.  I figured it was an excellent opportunity to try out my new winter hiking boots.  The verdict?  I don't think they make great hiking boots.  After three miles, both my feet were feeling blistery.  It doesn't seem to be very easy to tie the boots such that they're snug in the right places.  They're too warm for hiking, I think.  Although the waterproof feature was very nice when I hit icy puddles.

I'll probably give them another try with different socks and/or insoles, but as of right now I'm thinking I'll either send them back or just not plan on wearing them for long distances.  They'll be fine boots for shoveling, visiting the horse in the snow, and other winter activities.  But for less money I could get fully waterproof Muck boots.

Pretty shortly after I got started I warmed up to take off my down jacket.  I put on a wind shirt, and combined with my wicking shirt and stretch polarfleece top it was enough to keep me warm.  In fact I was sweating pretty vigorously.  I didn't realize it until I pulled my phone out of my breast pocket and found it wet.  Woopsie!

My butt, however, started freezing within minutes, so I pulled my down skirt out of my daypack and stepped into it.  Worked like a charm.  I'm going to try not to be without one of these skirts for future cold hikes.  I wore it the whole time, plus out to lunch afterward.  It's not the most stylish look, but my butt really doesn't care.

By the time I finished a circuit of the park, it was up to 35 degrees and felt comparatively balmy.  My legs were totally up for another loop, but my feet were bitching about their new blisters.  I had swapped the winter boots for my regular Keen hiking boots about three miles in, but the damage was already done.  I decided to take pity on the feet and call it a day.

Home earlier than I expected to be, and with a steadily worsening neck ache (why?  I have no idea) I decided to pursue one of my favorite hobbies - midday napping.   I let a hot shower beat down on me, and then I warmed up the bed with my awesome heated mattress pad and climbed in.  I was out in seconds.  Oh that felt good.  I was blissful.  And the nap totally did the trick, too.  My neck shut up and got back to business as usual.

This evening I ate irresponsibly.  I was in the mood for bread and fruit, so that's what I had.  Rainier cherries, and Italian bread with margarine and honey.  And then sea salt caramel flavor gelato.  (I ate before going to the grocery so I have no excuse.  That's what looked good to me.  Is it possible I could have a sea salt caramel deficiency?)

Right now I'm trying to decide between TV and the Kindle.  TV is a crapshoot.  Sometimes I find something awesome, like the special on Mayan hieroglyphs I saw last week.  (Sometimes I don't!) Plus, I could have cats all over me while I watched.  But I already know I have something good on the Kindle.  On the other hand, if I go to the Kindle there's no element of delightful surprise.

Either way, it's probably a win.

Today is going down in the books as a good one.  I hope that yours was good too.

Less expensive hiker things

An aside:  I'm pretty disappointed in my digestive system.  Today I ate lunch and my the lower half of my abdomen swelled up like there was a basketball in it.

I really enjoyed that year of eating.  I'm going to miss it.

Okay, so yesterday I suggested things to buy your hiker if you're rich.  Which I realize most of us aren't.  Today I thought I'd point at the more affordable things that most hikers are likely to use.

Like a pepsi can stove.  Totally not fancy, but lightweight and very functional.  This, or a variation on it, has been my caping stove for a few years now.  You can make your own (my first was homemade) or buy one for $12.


Also, a pot cozy.  I made my first several from Reflectix purchased at Lowe's.  It's meant for insulating water heaters, but it works fine on camping pots.  ~$10 if somebody else makes it.  Really if you're going to need more than one, it pays to buy the roll of Reflectix.  And some metal tape.  That and scissors are all you need to make your own cozy.


The tent I use these days is a Lightheart Awning Tent.  I used to use a Tarptent Rainbow all the time, and I still have it.  The LightHeart tents are effectively regular tents - there is a ton of mesh, so you get no condensation.  In suspect weather, that's my preference.  For good weather, the Rainbow has more useable space inside, IMHO, and can be set up free standing.  That can be very handy.  The Rainbow is mostly a silnylon surface, so in heavy rain (common in Appalachia) you definitely will get misting inside.  Which is annoying.  However I note that Henry is now selling a new tarptent that looks competitive with the Lighthearts - The Tarptent Notch.  All of the tents are in the $200-$260 range, which is fairly standard for a one man tent.

The Lightheart Awning tent

Tarptent Notch

Tarptent Rainbow

Unfortunately, I don't know of any really reasonably priced sleeping bags.  Maybe on clearance?

Most hikers will want a knife.  They don't need anything more complicated than a tiny swiss army knife.  You need a small blade and a little pair of scissors.  That's it.  $13.  Like this:

I don't have a handy link, but trash compactor bags are very nice and helpful.  Maybe they don't make great gifts, but they make *great* pack liners.  Because pack covers?  Do not keep backpacks dry.

Also, pint sized freezer Ziplocks are very, very useful for repackaging foods into single portions.

Your hiker probably has very specific sock needs for hiking, but most everybody could use a nice fluffy pair of wool or fleece socks for pampering their feet at night.  $10-$20 depending on how fluffy we're talking.

They aren't common but they're one of the most useful items I've used:  a rain wrap.  It's basically a waterproof skirt.  It might not sound like much, but after a few hours in the rain, your upper half might still by dry (not likely!) but your lower half definitely won't be without more protection than a rain coat.  Dryish pants can make or break your day.  $30

Also, a 3 ounce wind jacket is nearly indispensable.  You can hike it in it when it's too hot for a raincoat but too cold and windy for just a shirt.  It makes a great layering item too - stopping the wind makes a huge difference.  A bit pricy at $80, but I've yet to have one tear or otherwise wear out.

I use these gloves for everything, and as such I go through a pair every year or two.  I love, love, love them.  Power Stretch gloves.  They're on the order of $25.  I have enough feeling to handle gloves and zippers in them - I only have to take them off to pee or fiddle with my iphone.  Which might be too much personal information.