Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Lightweight vs heavy boots?

Yeah, she’s killin’ it. She’s also very tired. She’s cold-soaking her meals, not even carrying a stove. She’s hardcore.

I sent her a new pack. She finally wore out her Osorey Exos! That pack has way over 2000 miles on it. I guess the elastic was failing, the fabric was getting powdery/gummy in places if you know what I mean… cumulative UV being the main culprit, I’d think.

Sent her an ultralight Osprey we got straight from the company on clearance last year for $100… looks like a really nice pack. LIGHT. Sprung very similarly to the Exos. Hope it works out.

It’s on my list to start trying on the various Hokas and Topos and Altras and so on, if for no other reason than it would be good to know which, if any, fit me well. The Solomon’s sure do. I swear they took a cast of my feet while I was sleeping and made the last for the X-Ultra’s, and I get good service from them. I’m currently riding on the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it train.

Tag. Good information here! Thanks to all of you for sharing!

I really like the Lowa Renegade leather lined boots for most hunting and lite hiking (Texas, not mountains). I don't think it's even remotely possible for me to get a blister wearing them. I just wore them in Africa last month, 16 mile days and my feet were the least of my concerns.

Edit: I'll add that due to turkey pear and prickly pear here in TX, I want a full leather outer to resist quills. Any of the fabric sided boots are awful with cactus. The leather lined, do not have goretex, so they never feel clammy either.

How are they on hip/knee/ankle joint stress, especial w/ a pack?

Nice thing about the light weight polyurethane-soled field boot is the shock-absorbing heel.




GR

What you were taught - is that these boots run ~ a full size bigger than street shoes.

What you learned - is that your reading for content skills are as deficient as your comedy.

So ya know.




GR

The consensus among the power-user set is that the modern era of zero-drop light hikers are in general far and away superior to traditional “boots” when it comes to minimizing hip/knee/ankle joint stress. You want to find out if a shoe works- wear them hiking every single day for 5-6 months for ~20 miles/day with a backpack. That’ll bring out the problems, if there are any.

I’d say there’s two groups of folks who will be good canaries in the coal mine as far as their bodies providing this type of feedback. Forget what the healthy 20-something’s are doing (more below); they can get away with things the following two groups cannot. The groups are a) power users, like through-hikers on one of the main trails, and b) older hikers such as myself (late 50’s) on up. Older bodies are less resilient and tend to have accumulated injuries. There are plenty of folks who are both- I was, for 6 weeks this spring. My wife is this very minute. In NM, we met a number of folks roughly our age on the CDT. Cyn has reconnected with several of the trail. One- retired military and cop. Another, recently retired JAG. Another- a woman older than us from Bend. Another- a guy from France who barely speaks English. Another- a forester taking a work hiatus. And so on. Point being there’s plenty of late 50’s/early 60’s folks in both the power-user AND aging-body category.

The power-user consensus’s couldn’t be more clear. They are to a man wearing one of the zero drop light hikers in low-top. I think I mentioned one guy- younger, actually- with a congenitally weak ankle. He was still wearing them, with an ankle brace. On the CDT, the older bodies were also wearing them. I was a rare exception in my Solomons. I could be faulted for rigid thinking for that, but as I’ve said, they really work for me and I knew this based on, jeez, probably around 1k miles hiked in them prior to this last trip.

What I hope is that this knowledge will filter out to the “old bodies” crowd writ large. There’s obviously a lot of resistance. I predict that when the folks who are young NOW, become old someday, their legs will be in better shape than us geezers are because they won’t have spent decades suffering in janky boots.

As to the 20-somethings. My wife just crossed paths with the young woman I mentioned earlier, who we hiked with one day, the one who did who knows how many miles that day- at least 27- and was still trucking as she left us in her wake. Her trail name is Huck, and she’s pure badass. You’d never in a million years know it from looking at her. Anyway Cyn is now southbound, but Huck kept going northbound, and they just crossed paths in Wyoming. Huck is on the leading edge of ALL northbound CDT hikers at this moment. She’s amazing. She’s 24. The little shït is wearing SANDALS.

Thanks for the reasoned and intelligent response.

My field work is generally < 10 mi./day, and up to a coupla weeks.


After about the first 20 mi. or so, when these boots broke in and all the sharp edges were knocked off, the Polyurethane heel, and weight, were a noticeable improvement over Vibram, as far as both compression shock and agility were concerned.


Also noticed that the heel caused a little bit of a forward lean, which, in turn, resulted in a hip-forward posture correction.

Not a bad thing, maybe even a good thing, but produced some initial back muscle strain/conditioning that is not necessary with sneakers.


So the zero-drop light hikers are interesting in that regard, especially for still-hunting in the woods.

Don't know if the hard surface and loose rock mountain hikes, or motorcycles, are ready to lose the heel, though.

Interesting - from an aggressive but regular sportsman perspective.




GR

Cyn is back home after completing the CDT! Those who understand what that means… understand what that means. Under 200 folks will complete it this year. I’ll have to ask her the total mileage. Over 2400 I believe.

She went through 4.5 pairs of shoes, first Altra’s then Topos. I guess the word on the trail is that Altra switched from being made in Vietnam to China and this years shoes suuuuck. Also supposedly this years Solomon’s suck. The top mesh on mine was notably less durable than previous years but other than that, I liked them, so I’m not sure I agree. But, there’s some trail shoe intel, hot off the presses.

I have a cool pic that’ll illustrate what she did. I’ll edit it back into this post—

Edit. So this is a compilation of InReach “pins” that she sent generated by the InReach company software. She sent me this when she still had part of Colorado to go. Colorado kicked her BUTT, the monsoons came late, she was caught in many a storm at very high altitudes. The CDT and Colorado Trail are the same for a while there for anyone familiar with the CT.

Anyway this is the route. We did the NM portion together, then she did the rest southbound (SOBO) from the Canadian border by herself, or with friends she met on the trail.

She is SKINNY. It was profoundly hard on her body. She literally hiked her butt right off. I’m not pleased about that, haha.

Cyn is a stud. Congrats to her!

CDT is 3,100 miles

My wife and I both switched to Topo Ultraventure Pro's. We won't be using anything else from here on out, and if they're discontinued, I'll be buying a dozen.

I've done some hiking but I am in awe! GD

Maybe she said 2800… I’ll ask. “A lot”.

FYI… Nobody does the full “red line” CDT… there are numerous alternates that folks take that either lengthen or, usually, shorten it. Often for very good reasons. For example, we did the “Gila Alternate”, which is the one that takes you for about, hmmm, 35 miles of the Middle Fork Gila canyon, which is sublime. I think I posted pics from it way earlier in the thread… ? Edit: added one. That one was less miles than the Gila High Route, again if memory serves, but we were busting HUMP to achieve 8-10 miles a day in that canyon! In the realm of 180 river crossings in 3.5 days. Deepest one was fast, got my belly button wet, and there was a strainer downstream to make it extra fun. We found a different place for Cyn to cross that required some minor cliff-scrambling to get to but was well worth it. That one was sketchy.

I’ll cop to this. Turns out the 600 miles in NM I was braggin’ on here? She says that was the easiest part of the CDT, on balance. 😂

Yes, she’s a badass. She did the freaking CDT! And after what she’s been through the last couple years… incredible.

I’m leaving tomorrow morning to go here. I’ll be wearing some half-used-up Solomon X-ultra low tops. I have a brand new pair left from the NM hike buying frenzy, grin, but I’ve been hikin’ day hikes in these old ones all summer…. dance with who bring ya. Mule deer hunt. I’m stoked. Last did it 7-8 years ago and I clearly remember thinking, “damn, I’m gonna be like 58 years old next time I get this tag! Hope I can still do it!”

Well guess what, past self. 58 year old me can out-hike your punk ass into the GROUND! 😎. Plus I got my 25 year old pack mule daughter who carries heavy packs in the wilderness for the gubmint coming along to experience it. Gonna put her to WORK! Now I just need to not hork a shot and ruin hunting for her… heh heh… no pressure.

Child's play terrain...

Keep trying hard bud, glad you found yourself at almost 60...

More likely wearing crocs or open-toed sandals to go with his stick legs and liberal belly girth.

Don't make any mistakes, straggler.

Hope you have a fun trip with your daughter Jeff! That's great she's going with you.

Jeff you bailed right away on your super hunt again. What a weak loser. Your daughter must admire a patriot like you. lol

Bump for an old thread..

After trying scarpa kailash and hanwag tatra.. both wide…

Found the LaSportiva Raptor 2 mid gtx on clearance..

They dont fit as comfy as my hokas, but pretty darn close…


Put 13 miles on them today trying to make mt leconte..

Is the ultraventure pro discontinued? I see it available in several places but not listed on the topo site unless I’m just overlooking them.