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

Not too off topic, but I just bought another trail runner for myself. I liked the first pair so much that I wanted another. And got trail runners for my two kids instead of boots. We went with Topo, Altra, and Hoka. A lot of money for what amounts to sneakers! But total cost was less than a decent pair of hunting boots.

My only complaint with my first trail runner was that it allowed fine dust through the mesh. Our new shoes should be much better at that. I did get some debris through the top but didn't have gaiters on. I may look into the lightweight gaiters.

Are you making any footwear or sock changes for these crossings or just wear the same shoes and socks for everything for the day?

smokepole;
Good Sunday morning to you my cyber friend, I hope the upcoming week looks to be lined out and headed out properly for you.

It has been an interesting discussion for sure, for me at least and I'll extend thanks to all who've added their personal take on the subject.

Way and I do mean WAY back in the mid '80's my wife and I along with some friends did some backpacking runs up onto the Kokanee Glacier which is straight north of the Washington and Idaho border in the Kootenay range as well as up to the Cathedrals which is about half way between the Chopaka and Skagit. The Kootenays were tougher or better said steeper, with the Cathedral run still more rounded in most spots than it is over towards the Skagit country - which is northish of the Picket Range mentioned here.

Anyways we had on whatever heavy boots we used to buy back then and looking back we might have been much better served with lighter footwear as we were on trails for the most part other than the wet areas.

Whenever I've tried on lighter weight footwear such as Jeff was showing, it's felt like they'd be fine under some conditions alright, but so far I've resisted.

Now I am cognizant that Brad packs out elk and having not done that but have packed/dragged a moose out solo, I do have at least a distant understanding of what the feet might be facing.

When we were younger, full of vim, vinegar and a tad crazy, we backpacked mulie bucks from some truly ugly places. On a couple of those runs I found the necessity of having boots that laced way down on the toes for me, as I beat up said toes pretty thoroughly before we reached the pickup.

Last fall when my good friend pulled the LEH ram tag - think the odds were 350:1 for me this year, but yes I did put in since I think I can still do it if drawn - we beat the mountain behind the house flat, putting in more rough country time than either of us had in the previous 20 years. I must admit that I did feel extremely blessed to be able to be in the same spots on the day I turned 60 that I'd travelled decades previously.

He ended up killing a ram 31 years and 2 days after I'd taken one off the same mountain, as close as I could figure within less than a kilometer from where mine came out in two trips on my back. His died further down into the canyons and not up on edge of the big timber, so it was silly steep with a lot of loose dry areas which made footing less than great.

We'd split up when we'd gone in so his young nephew and I might see the rams from the opposite side of the canyon and direct them from the other side. When he shot, we of course had to gumboot back up to the head of the canyon where we'd split up and then go down to find him. As we're heading down, his nephew - think he's in his late 20's, said to me something like, "For the love of God Dwayne, you've got to find a better way out of here than this!".

As it turned out smokepole, we came down the best/easiest way.

Anyways in that sort of a mess I was happy to have boots which I could really tighten up extra well before we headed back up and out.

It's those sort of scenarios - that and the shin tangle blowdown jungle where the whitetail, moose and elk seem to love to hang out - that always affect my decision making when it comes to footwear.

Thanks again for the discussion to one and all. All the best in the upcoming week.

Dwayne

No changes- just charging through, the number of fords crossing the Bob in May is staggering and the trails are very often running water in them as well. No possible way to keep footwear dry.

I do insure that at a midday break (and usually supper along the trail) I take my wet shoes/socks off and let them air for the 30 minutes or so we're stopping. Also at night I make sure my feet are bone dry, apply a foot balm (Hydropel) and put on dry socks for sleep.

The majority of the trails look similar to this

Your butt-hurt is monumental, little one.

And cotton slings are a better choice.

Lighter weight, faster drying, and infinitely adjustable.


If you ever grow up and become interested in Marksmanship, you may find that useful.




GR

Have 0.0 complaints RE: light weight field boots.



Hike and hunt hundreds of miles a year in them.

Mountains to swamps.

The OP is: Lightweight vs heavy boots?

A more accurate title would be: "Tennisbootsthings Cult and Grooming"

So ya know.




GR

That was the Gila in a nutshell, then once we got further north, into the snow, that was the 3 days crossing San Pedro Parks Wilderness.

The Gila was over 180 crossings in about 4 days. The deepest fast crossing was bellybutton deep (on me) and frankly scared the F outta me- there was a rapids with a strainer just below. After I got across Cyn said, yeah that’s not gonna work for me! so we figured out a way for her to do some minor cliff scrambling to get to a better spot (which obviously I could’ve done too).

San Pedro was so wet I don’t think I can describe it in a way folks other than MT will believe or understand. A massive spring snowmelt is bonkers to be in the middle of. There would be running water… UNDER the snow that you’d posthole into. Every wrinkle was a creek, every depression a swamp, every meadow an adventure of icy water and freezing muck, every creek a small river, and if there’s been any actual rivers they would’ve likely stopped us. Plus we crossed during a storm cycle and got hailed, rained, sleeted,, and snowed on all with fierce winds and lightning.

As pertains to this thread in both cases anything leather (or goretex) would be a disaster.

It’s great that you tried them. Your experience is pretty much universal IME. If you try they, you will switch.

My Salomons let lots of fine NM grit through the top mesh. While Cyn’s Altra’s were better in that regard, her socks and feet were still pretty much equally filthy by the end of each day.

Lol… you don’t like losing, do you? And yet you do so much of it.

But you got me with “fatso”. I’m packing at least 3-4 lbs of extra me around.

Let’s see a pic of YOU! Or would that get into more, y’know, losing?

Couple pics of me as a young buck. If you still want to tell me about approaches I can’t do, I’m all ears.

Garandanimal is gay and all but didn't you get powned by a ladder?

Your boyfriend told you to say that.

Good for you.

Hike in ballerina slippers if you want to.


Good boots... are.

Light weight boots are even better.




GR

Sure thing happy camper.

Light weight field boots.

That's why they were recommended.

Sure your ballerina slippers suit you just fine.

Enjoy them.




GR

Haha.

Connect the dots…

Markmanship…. HC’s story of shooting the 10 shots in a bullseye, open sight, as a kid.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

What type of socks are you guys using? I use merino wool but maybe a synthetic material would be better for drying out.

When I’m sheep hunting I will wear my trail shoes for crossing creeks with no socks and then change back into boots. But if I have a lot of crossings to do I will just leave the trail shoes on.
My starting pack weight for a sheep hunt is 65-70 lbs and I’m comfortable using my shoes on a decent trail, but I think I’d be uncomfortable in rough terrain carrying a heavy pack, but I’m definitely open to trying them more in different situations.

What they call that...Kodacolor, Kodachrome?

Show us the pictures of you squatting...peeing.

My sock game was not great and could use improvement. Started with Wright 2-layer socks to hopefully mitigate blisters, and thin REI socks. I was still using the Wright socks in the Gila canyon and beyond (so at about 350 miles) but they were pretty used up by then. They are a consumable…. The REI brand light socks, don’t remember the exact description, are good socks, but I’m sure there’s better. And then I had a pair of slightly heavier REI socks I was using for sleep socks, until I had to press them into regular duty as other things wore out. Had 3 fresh pairs in the Grants resupply box, which was nice. If I was doing the trip over I’d have had more fresh socks in my various resupply boxes, don’t know why I was being miserly as they are mission critical. One thing about NM- no water. So no washing socks in the creek, because there’s no creek. At some times our socks were flat filthy, for days on end. There was nothing to be done about it.

As to wet feet my takeaway was that I had no idea that it was possible to do big miles day after day after in wet shoes…. but you can. I would’ve thought it would make “bad things” happen to my feet, but it didn’t. You get used to squelching along.

Is it just me, or has the quality of troll really gone to [bleep] around here?

@mod7rem Darn Tough socks, probably 15 years now of using them exclusively- shorter ones for trail runners, longer ones with boots.

I'll be doing the same thing on my upcoming sheep hunt, light trail runners for fording streams/camp shoes, boots for everything else. With a 60# pack and lots of steep rocky stuff, boots are the only way to go- add in lots of sidehilling and then it becomes a no brainer. I'm in trail runners ~ 9 months out of the year, but the three months that coincide with big game hunting, it's boots