Maya Calderon
To compare four boots I took on the 2018 PCT, two I wouldn’t recommend to anyone, one great doer that flew under the radar, and the one I wish I had taken the entire time.
I’ve found fit to be the most important single factor when selecting boots for long distance hiking. Boots are something that will be on your feet for most of the time that you are away from bed. So fit of boots is more important than any other single factor. Fit of boots refers to the width, instep height, heel cup, and toe box volume of the boot. For long distance hiking, I go up 1/2 size from my normal size, as my feet can swell up quite a lot after a week or so of hiking, and the swelling does not go back down to normal size of foot for 4 days after returning from long distance hikes. So for trying on boots for long distance hiking, I recommend going to a store in the late afternoon of a long day of hiking, wearing the same type of socks that you intend to wear for long distance hiking, and standing on an incline, if the store has one, to best simulate how boots will feel while hiking. Simply walking around the block a few times in a store does not give you a true sense of how boots will feel after long days and miles of hiking.
The midsole of any hiker boot is generally not listed in the specs of any hiker boot and that is because most are made from a relatively inexpensive type of foam. It is relatively easy to find out what the upper is made of (doesn’t really matter) but it is hard to find out how long the midsole will last while packing a 25lb or so backpack around for hours a day for days, weeks, months and then years. In general the midsole will start to compact after approximately 400-600miles and begin to feel less cushioned. At around 800miles or so the rocks and roots will start to feel through the bottom of the boot. That is the general time-frame for which most of the boots on the market are designed to last and even though the boot looks perfectly fine, the time and effort to continue to use a pair of boots with a badly worn-out and cheap midsole is far outweighed by the cost of the boots in the first place (typically several hundred $) versus the potential harm to the hiker’s knees and achilles that are placed under an immense amount of stress while hiking with badly worn-out boots.
That Gore-Tex sounds so great until you find yourself actually using the boots to wade above ankle level through streams. As I noted above, filling a waterproof boot with water, and then waiting an hour or so for the thing to drain is less than ideal. After the boot finally does dry out, two days later (of wet weather) you have the waterlogged feeling boot and socks the whole time – not great on really warm sections of trail, I find. When running in unlined trail runners on such days (that get wet in the rain), I find that they instantly dry, as opposed to my waterproof hiking boots that stay wet for the whole time. And while warm and waterproof boots are fantastic for very cold and very wet sections of trail (think the Scottish Highlands for example, or the trails of Norway’s incredible Trekking trails) as well as the trail sections typically found to be wet in the off season by section hikers in shoulder season (like sections of the GR10), they simply are not adequate for long periods of dry weather. For these latter types of hiking, you’ll need to bring the aforementioned lighter weight hiking shoes, for instance trail running shoes for the long hikes between long distance trail sections, as well as the many hikes into long distance trail ‘towns’ for which the boots in question are far too much.
A boot that needs 100 miles of breakin’ is not a boot that fits. A boot that fits well and has been broken in well enough for long distance hiking can be used for long distance hiking in a short amount of time. Most modern trail-running shoes and most mid-weight hiking boots fit well right out of the box and can be completely dialed in by 30 miles. If you find that you are already bleeding through your gaiters by 40 miles of hiking then the boot in question is not the correct shape for your foot. Return the boots. Many retailers will take back hiking boots that have been worn for a short amount of time. Some retailers will even take back hiking boots that have been worn for several miles. Be sure to check the return policy of any retailer before you make your purchase.
It will also depend greatly on where you will be hiking but generally speaking for the PCT I would recommend bringing a mid-weight non-waterproof boot that is an ankle high cut. You will also want to bring a pair of trail runners to send to yourself at a resupply point a few days later. On the Camino del Norte I would recommend bringing low cut hiking shoes and taking the same approach to all maintained long distance trails under 600 miles of hiking. For trails such as the Patagonia style trails that are cold and wet with mixed terrain of hiking you will want to bring a proper Gore-Tex mid weight hiking boot and take a completely different approach to treating these shoes.
This will be explained using the boots from my PCT Thru-Hike (2018) in the order I used to hike with them. I started out with the Salomon X Ultra Mid GTX. Unfortunately these hiking boots did not fit my feet. With lots of pain, I finally threw them away after 200 or so miles of hiking. Next, I started to use the Altra Lone Peak (4) for the arid section of the PCT until I mailed a pair to myself at Kennedy Meadows (mile 800). These boots were way to light, in addition to having no ankle support, so there was no reason to keep using these on the rest of the PCT. I left the Lone Peak at the maildrop. After resupplying in the town at mile 1000 (in addition to all of the gear that was mailed to me and waiting for me at this stop) I bought some hiking boots at the locally- owned, environmentally-aware, locally-loved REI in Bend, OR. I was happy with the Brooks Cascadia boots as they were the most supportive of the Trail Running Shoes I had and the lightest of the boots that I used for the long distance hiking that I was performing on the PCT. In addition, I bought the Salomon Sense Ride 4 Trail Running Shoes in Bend, too. These very lightweight hiking shoes were perfect for short day hikes to and within town, in addition to the long hikes in between the towns along the PCT. As mentioned previously stated, I ended up wearing these for the remainder of the PCT.
Two more Questions: 1. Do I recommend spending money for custom insoles: Yes! But only if you have had some kind of foot injury in the past. These type of insoles, such as Superfeet Green insoles, are high volume insoles that can dramatically change average hiking boots into fantastic hiking boots for people with problematic feet. 2. Trail break-in vs. in-town break-in: in-town break-in. All of the multi-day hikes you can squeeze in for weekend trips prior to the long trail in your planned boots will be worth 10 times the hours put into them!
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