Occurs to me I haven’t talked about shoes too much, which is a fairly striking omission for a blog about hiking. Well, now I have an excuse: Rebecca of Calipidder.com fame has just finished a torture test on a pair of Dunham Alcatraz trail-running shoes. She ran in them, hiked in them, rock-scrambled in them, waded in the ocean in them and basically beat the living hell out of them. After six months and more than 300 miles they were pretty much toast.

I have a pair of Montrail trail-runners that I’ve put tons of mileage on (no running, though, my legs can’t deal with the abuse). I can’t speak for the rest of Montrail’s line but these are pretty stout performers.

My main hiking boots are Vasque Clarions (the heels are in my picture at top left). They’re a bit heavy but super comfy to walk in. The only place they bother my feet is on the tops of my toes, where a seam causes a bit of friction that rubs the skin raw on long walks. They’re waterproof up to a point, but I have had them soaked through at least once.

More shoe stories welcome … there needs to be at least one conversation about footwear on this site, so the people who google “shoe fetish” will find their way here, get hooked on hiking and hit the trail in leopard-skin pumps.