Saturday, April 30, 2011

Minimalist Footware for the PCT

If I were to get a pair of minimalist shoes for the PCT, my first recommendation would be a huarache-type sandal, such as the Leadville Luna Sandal. This sandal design has a long and illustrious history and has become popular since the publication of Christopher McDougall's bestseller Born To Run.

The materials used in the Luna Sandal are top-quality, and the sandals should be durable enough for many hundreds of miles. Walking in them will require a somewhat different stride that you are used to in trail runners. There will be less of a heel strike and your foot placement will not be so far in front of you. There will be other adjustments to get used to, and some stabilizing muscles may become sore.

Here's another variant on the huarache style: the Unshoe.

The advantages of such a shoe on the PCT, or parts of the PCT, are:
  • very light weight
  • almost negligible drying time (great for stream crossings)
  • better ventilation for hot conditions (blister prevention)
I hope to get a pair of these before my summer thru-hike in Europe and try them out a bit.
Posted by at 3:46 PM
Labels:

5 comments:

  1. there are always vibrams if you want the barefoot feel and ventilation, but protection too. the down side is they are pretty expensive. well worth it if you spend a lot of time outdoors in my opinion.

    ReplyDelete

  2. Hello there, simply becosbobetme alert to your weblog thru Google, and found that it’s really informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels

    ReplyDelete

  4. Those fits my feet perfectly. They are very comfortable.
    arizona fire systems

    ReplyDelete

  5. I wonder how you got so good. This is really a fascinating blog, lots of stuff that I can get into. One thing I just want to say is that your Blog is so perfect! More powers to your blog. keep posting!

    - Jackie of web design

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)