When I started I thought I could find a way to tramp with dry feet, and I'm just starting to get to a place where I realise that's always possible and just accept it....
But preferring wet feet??
Can you explain.
I guess this has to be personal - but I find my feet are more prone to chaffing and blistering if they're hot.
On long hot days I've even been known just to stand in a stream to fill my boots so to speak.
The other way of looking at it is that the old NZFS bushmen who often worked in Buller rubber boots usually cut small drain holes near the instep to allow water to dribble out so their boots weren't full of sloshing water.
But from my perspective trying to keep your feet dry is pretty much a wasted effort.
I generally don't mind wet feet when walking. The exception is when the temperatures are approaching freezing or lower & then I prefer to keep socks dry. (sometimes this is not achievable though and becomes something to be managed!)
I'm one of those who used to put holes in Buller gumboots to let the water out and have also done it/do it with some leather boots. If the water can largely drain out of your boots after fording a river your feet warm up again fairly quickly. Modern boots that don't let the water out get very heavy when soaked and make any cold feet problems worse. Having to stop, take off boots & drain them, ring out socks etc. wastes too much time when there are lots of watercourses to cross hence the appeal of drain holes to allow the pumping out of the boots as you keep walking without having stopped.
Makes sense, Glenn. I've walked in and out of streams in the snow wearing sandals and had warmer feet than the boot wearers - as with sandals, the water is squished out of your socks.
"pour hot water on wet socks before you put them on "
Now why, why, why did I never think of that?! (We were tough in them days! lol )
"On long hot days I've even been known just to stand in a stream to fill my boots so to speak. "
Oh yes! Many times - the steam just pouring out! I suffer from hot feet so this is a standard summer ritual. Can be quite meditative.
I don't put drain holes in my boots but just sit down, put hand around back of calf, lift leg, drain. Repeat with other foot. If one forgets to put hand around back of calf then said draining cold water hurtles up one's underwear - most unpleasant!
I've had to pour warm water on socks & boots because they were frozen stiff even though they were stored inside a hut overnight. Last times this has happened were at Mullins & West Harper (both unlined huts & Mullins doesn't have a fire - I lit the open fire at West Harper, cooked tea, then fell asleep before drying socks and banking the fire) . Normally I just put wet socks back on in the morning if need be but you can't when they are frozen.
Re packing socks I normally have one pair to wear and a reserve dry pair for around camp. The "wear" pair get washed at the end of the day from time to time.
I wore the same pair of socks 54 days in a row and they did quite well. I don't think they ever got dry. In the end on the next 6 week trip, they developed a hole over the heel but my heel had got used to that too so no problem.
I was telling someone about these socks and how I'd worn them for 54 days in a row when I heard a gasp from a Japanese woman in the bunkroom.
@deepriver: Good tip about putting your hand on the leg to avoid unpleasant wetting down the leg!
On one trip in July, Emma and I stayed at Worsley biv and I suspected my boots would freeze overnight. I put them in a cardboard box and covered them completely with a rectangle of foam mattress that someone had carved off the main block. It did the trick.
I think if you place them on their sides like a saddle under your head, that might work too especially in a tent. Or failing that if you can sleep with your knees drawn up, in the space there could do the trick. I grab the gas canister and prewarm it when I wake in this wee spot.
This post has been edited by the author on 30 August 2015 at 20:20.
Ha, each to their own!
I like to look after my feet all I can and I find having a fresh pair of socks each day does them a world of good.
To me it's a small sacrafice to comfort (and I don't make too many!
Could not imagine 54 days wearing the same pair of socks! (Though I would love to do a tramp 54 days long.)
Sheer luxury!
When us was lads we used to beat us frozen boots with sledge hammer and then do the same to us feet, before we could wear 'em!
Socks! Never heard of 'em!
Aye, it was tough in them days.
