High Sierra Topix

Something similar to Crocs, but lighter. I wear a super thin wool liner with them in camp, and of course, without the liner for stream crossing.

maverick wrote:No need, my trail runners are light enough to serve as hiking shoes and camp shoes in one.

Exactamundo. In addition, good trail runners are designed to get wet, so you can wade right through crossings. Typically, they are made of mesh nylon, so the water drains immediately, and the shoes are dry within a very short period.

MN2, BlueWater and I all had Altras @ the meet-up. I can't say enough about these shoes - they truly rock. MN2 & I have Lone Peaks, while Andy has the thicker soled Olympus.

My guess is @ least 1/2 of PCTers are wearing Altras this year:
http://www.linthikes.com/2015/02/19/alt ... -0-review/

Altra is a small company, but they got the Real Hiking Viking signed as an ambassador:
https://instagram.com/p/zSXXnlRBpw/

If you're curious, here's his profile - a real hiking monster with an interesting background:
http://therealhikingviking.com/2015/03/25/warrior-hike/

maverick wrote:No need, my trail runners are light enough to serve as hiking shoes and camp shoes in one.

Ditto for me as well. Carried a pair of heavy Tiva's years ago but haven't since I switched to smaller, more breathable shoes.

Even with Trailrunners, I still like a slip on style camp shoe as part of my "evening attire" especially for that midnight call to duty, so for the last several seasons it's been the Patagonia Advocates. On a recent dayhike on the JMT just below Dollar Lake, I noticed many of the trekkers actually hiking in their camp shoes!

I too bring the crocs for water crossings and camp lounging.

Crocs for me.

I also like the Vivobarefoot ultra pures. Light, easy to slip on, decent traction, keep most of the dirt and rocks out and stay securely on my feet. Mine were ~$30 on amazon last year. I used to use crocs, but they can be very hard to keep on in the water. Before that I would bring Tevas, but mine are way too heavy. I usually only bring camp/water shoes if I'm expecting wet water crossings, rocky lakes to swim in or if the trip has little hiking and lots of camp time. Otherwise I just loosen the laces on my lightweight hiking shoes.

I've used an ancient pair of Teva's until now. The Tevas have toe and heel straps so they can't come off in a water crossing, and let my feet dry out around camp ('course, the mosquitos take notice of that). So they were good, but heavy at 1.25 lbs/pair, and as they were padded, the straps did not dry very fast.

I bought a pair of Kushe camp shoes, which are 1/3 the weight of the Teva's, for my most recent trip. They have a pretty grippy, pretty stiff sole, so I could wander around stepping on sharp rocks and even climb stuff with 'em. I was able to do all water crossings on rocks/logs so I haven't actually tried them in water yet--they have what appears to be a light weight canvas upper, so drying could be an issue.

My big issue is that the Kushe camp shoes don't have a heel loop. The uppers are so flimsy that you can't slide your feet into them and have your heel seat in the shoe--have to sit down and pull the heel up.

But I sure enjoyed the lightness and the ability to walk around on rocks.

maverick wrote:No need, my trail runners are light enough to serve as hiking shoes and camp shoes in one.

Same here. After a couple of years of going this route I realized that sometimes the shoes were still wet in the evening, so I started bringing plastic produce bags to slip on over my warm & dry pair of socks before putting them back in my wet shoes. Works great.

As a young poor twenty-something before most on this board were born, backpacked all the way in from Crabtree Camp past Woods Lake carrying a rectangular Coleman sleeping bag and an orange plastic tube tent. Twas peak mosquito season early July after a wet winter. Maybe 12 miles all wearing ordinary cheap floppy tennies of that day. Will always remember how agonizingly sore the soles of my little feet were. Fortunately my mind didn't linger long on that pain because the mosquitoes were more an issue. Sit down on a rock then just a minute later dozens could quickly be seen on my Levi 501s trying to poke through then moving on to the next spot. In the sky were clouds of swirling blood sukkas.

And no I couldn't let my mind linger on the mosquitoes either because I could see lots of big rainbow trout sucking down and splashing over much of that lake. Yes out came the box of dry flies and clear float. I endured and was happy. Well until retiring in the evening, after a big frying pan over coals trout feast, after carefully surrounding my head in the tube tent with a modest rectangular sheet of bug netting I'd brought along (days before I knew what a headnet was), whence my sore sore sore feet again tortured me while trying to sleep.

Hence after the trip bought real heavy duty log and rock blasting boots and to this day that is all I bring. At 2am when awakened, notice a certain natural need calling. The cold damp boots are positioned just outside the UL1 door. Grab my headlamp, unzip the door, kneel up, put first foot then second foot into clammy boots, stand up, walk a few feet........ It works. Cross streams. Well if it can't be hopped or log walked across, out come the 8 ounce Wiggy's Waders. So don't need no camp shoes.