howdy all,
i will hiking the pct this year, and was wondering if people could give me an idea of how many pairs of shoes one goes through on the trail?
also i have been looking at new balance shoes, does anybody have any model that they like best and why? the qualities that i am looking for are durability and very easy on the ol pocketbook. like under $75.00 a pair.
thanks for all your help.
have a wonderful day!!!
orion.
orion
SHOES - I was a loyal New Balance wearer until they started screwing with their good shoes and ruining them. For the CDT this year, totally by accident, I discovered the Saucony Grid Aura TR5. WONDERFUL shoe! It has great tread that doesn’t wear down. The toe doesn’t peel off. The nubs on the tread grab very well into snow and onto wet rocks. These shoes only cost me $45/pair. I got new shoes every 500 miles, only because I bought 5 pair. They would probably last 700-800 miles.
My hiking shoes are 1.5 sizes larger than the size of shoe I would wear at home. This helps to prevent blisters. Also - I wear men’s shoes for hiking. I find that the toe box in men’s shoes is bigger, again preventing blisters.
On the PCT, I use two styles of shoes. For the first 700 miles, I use the lightest, most breathable running shoes I can find. The SoCal desert is extremely hot. For the Sierra, I switch to a running shoe with more aggressive tread (like the Saucony I described above). At Sierra City, I go back to the SoCal shoes and keep these until Ashland OR, where I switch back to the kind of shoes I wore in the Sierra. I’ve always used 5 pair of shoes for a PCT thru-hike.
INSOLES - I replace the factory insoles with Spenco Hiker/Casual insoles. $19. These provide great cushioning. I get about 400 miles out of one pair, but sometimes I push it another 100-200 miles. Factory insoles do NOTHING for your feet.
SOCKS - Wigwam Ultimax Liner socks. These are thin. I wear one pair, and carry 2 extra pairs. I try to always wear clean socks. LOVE these socks! About $8/pair.
yogi
New Balance used to be the PCT long distance hiking shoe of choice, but I read several people this year who had nothing good to say about the latest versions. Evidently they really didn’t last.
Unfortunately I can’t recommend anything better as I prefer to wear light boots (Lowas) rather than running shoes when backpacking. We tried two different kinds of running shoes in Northern CA that both started to fall apart within a week. It scared me off them.
Ginny
I used New Balance 806ATs for my AT thruhike this year - total of four pairs. Plan on about 500mi per pair. One pair took me from Harper’s Ferry to Hanover (over 700 miles), with addition of a pair of Dr. Scholl insoles at Salisbury (500 mi), and that included the PA rocks. The soles were starting to separate a bit on the toes, but they were still in one piece.
…JoJo
JoJo Hiker
Thank you for your advice on the shoes. i will definately have to check out those saucony shoes, they sound good.
i have heard great things abou the superfeet insoles, does anybody have any info on these,good/bad?
and also what is the advantage of thin liner type socks versus a regular weight and thickness type sock?
thanks again! i really apriciate it.
orion.
orion
I used polypro liner socks with men’s nylon dress socks. Took three pair of each, washed a set out every night and let them dry on my pack the next day. Had a clean and dry set of socks every day. Never had that stench about them that the wool blend socks accumulate.
The thicker socks provide more cushion and should keep you feet warmer, but your feet won’t be cold as long as you’re walking.
I haven’t used them, but based on what others told me you have to be careful that the superfeet insoles fit to avoid blisters.
…JoJo
JoJo Hiker
Orion - I don’t know if you’ve hiked the AT before. I wore thicker socks on the AT and was happy with them. The PCT is overall much hotter than the AT. Especially the first 700 miles of the PCT. It’s hot not only from the air temperature, but from the ground. The PCT is generally not shaded, and in SoCal you are walking on HOT sand. Because of this, I believe thin liner socks are the way to go. Thicker socks simply keep your feet too hot. In addition, thin socks dry very fast.
That said, there are hikers who swear by Smartwools or Thorlos on the PCT. But it seemed to me that the majority of hikers I saw on the PCT wore only one pair of thin socks.
yogi
yogi
so with the thin liner socks, could i use the regular thin dress type sock like what i would get a regular store, or are you talking about the special hiking type that help wick the moisture away from your foot?
those hiking socks seem so expensive for a pair of socks. just a note, i picked up a pair of those saucony grid aura tr5 yesterday(they were on sale!) seem to be a good shoe, if i do like them while i am breaking them in i will buy more. i really cant wait to give the full on test this spring!!!!
the more i prepare for the hike, the more it pulls at my soul, and says "you need to be out there, you need to come hike my low pathways and my mountain terain, all the way to canada a " what a feeling.!
thanks to all of you that are helping me with the socks and shoes. you have been very helpful to me and i am sure to others that read this.
have a great christmas and new year.:happy
orion
orion
New Balance 806’s. The last great trail shoe New Balance made.
X-static liner socks. keeps your feet from smelling like month-old milk AND keeps them from getting fungus rot after being wet for a week
INGENIUS hiker socks. 2-layer, high-density, blister-free
SOLE Custom Footbeds. These are da bomb. Heat-moldable neoprene, high cushioning. throw them in the oven to heat up, put them in shoe warm and stand up, they conform to your foot better than custom orthotics.
swift
swift
Tips on the 806s: seal the fabric in the front of the shoe and halfway up the tongue with two layers of McNett’s Silnet, It keeps your feet dry walking through wet grass and light rains, especially if you wear gaiters and it doesn’t seriously affect the breathability. Also, all of the new balance trail shoes have a problem with the toe cap seperating. You can keep this from happening by painting multiple coats of liquid electrical tape on the entire black front of the shoe when the shoe is new. Like, 6 coats or until the seam of the toe cap disappears. This is the only stuff i’ve come across that doesnt peel off so specifically, it is Performix Liquid Tape found in the electrical section at Home Depot.
swift
swift
Many hikers wear cheap men’s dress socks. I hear they’re pretty good as hiking socks.
Good luck with the Saucony’s!!
yogi
You don’t necessarily have to give up on a shoe model just because it is no longer manufactured. I found an ad for NB 806’s for $24.95(!!) here:
http://www.sportsensation.com/running/r/Mens_Running_Shoes/New_Balance_806_Trail_Running_Shoes_Mens_1132399.htm
Have no idea if they are really still available at that price, but it seems likely you could still find some of these if you looked hard enough.
By the way, if choosing shoes for a thru-hike (about which I have no experience) is anything like choosing shoes for marathon training (about which I have quite a bit of experience)just about everything about the performance of a particular shoe, including durability, will depend upon the wearer.
For example, someone mentioned shoes wearing out in the toe area. My guess is that this is happening because this hiker has a strong foot with powerful push off that moves through the foot clear out to the toe. Think of a tiger clawing the ground. This guy will be much harder on the toes of shoes than someone who simply picks up the feet and lets them fall. Neither gait is necessarily preferable, but the same shoe won’t necessarily accomodate both.
Cushioning is highly individual. We have a built-in cushioning mechanism called pronation. Normal feet hit the ground initially on the outside edge and then roll to the inside to absorb the shock moving up the leg to the ankles, knees and hips. Unfortunately, many of us are not normal. My flat, flexible feet overpronate. Think duck feet. This puts undue stress on my ankles and knees from the extra torsion. A cushioned shoe just exaggerates this problem. I don’t need a cushiony shock absorbing shoe, I need one with a very firm heel and a built up medial post to keep the foot from rolling so much.
Some people are just the opposite. Their high-arched feet are rigid and don’t roll enough to absorb shock. These folks need to supplement their bodies’ shock absorbers with cushioned shoes.
I’ve got to the point that I can look at someone’s picture, guess their foot type and be right more often than not. I’ve seen yogi’s picture and I’m betting she has fairly high arches and somewhat rigid feet. That’s why she likes cushy shoes.
Running shoes are nearly all classified by the manufacturer as Motion Control (for overpronaters), Stability (for “normal” gaits) and Cushioned (for rigid feet). For reasons which elude me, trail runners are not so classified. Montrail, probably the leader in trail running shoe technology, has made a token effort to do this, but last time I inquired they were using a single computer-modeled proprietary last for all their trail runners. This approach will prevent them from ever making the perfect shoe for me. Flat footers need shoe constructed on a straight last.
Wayne Kraft
wow . . . I was just told by a foot doctor in December that I have high arches — which is something I did not know. I’m not sure what you mean by “rigid feet”, but you sure got the arches right!!
yogi
yogi