Hiking

After trying, and exchanging, increasingly more expensive light hiking shoes to find something that I can use for long pavement walks without pain during or later, I finally found a winner. I really liked a couple that I returned - but they all provided to be either too narrow for my toes or too wide in my heels. They ALL felt great at first but until I finally found the paragon of light hikers for me, they all felt worse (and in some cases MUCH worse) at each wearing. For one of them actually had to take time off work as I couldn't walk the next day :eek:

Much to my surprise the paragon of light hikers turned out to be the Keen Voyageur. Their sandals haven't worked out for me in the past so I never considered them until they were my only option left at REI before I would have to start searching elsewhere...which I wanted to avoid as MOST places won't allow you to return or exchange shoes. They are far from sexy, but hey, all I care about is to be able to do what I can do with as little pain as possible :cool:

Are they perfect? No...but they aren't far from it & I think once I get my custom orthotics (very soon) they will be as close to perfect as is possible for me. Thinking about getting another pair to set aside just in case Keen redesigns them.

That is pretty cool, I like Keens and need some light hikers, I'll give them a look. (I normally wear Keen Targhees)

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Originally Posted by Pax

That is pretty cool, I like Keens and need some light hikers, I'll give them a look. (I normally wear Keen Targhees)

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From what I've read Pax, the Voyageur are quite close to the Targhees - but the Targhees are waterproof, the Voyageurs aren't. My feet overheat very easily, though I seem to only notice that on pavement. My Solomon Comet GTX 3D hiking boots (dirt only) are technically waterproof but as long as I've 2 pairs of socks on I don't have a problem with over-heating or hot spots. MY idea of a "light hiker" may well be more robust than those who don't have bad feet/knees :rolleyes:

Excellent, the Targhees are great as a winter boot, but run very hot the rest of the time.

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Originally Posted by Pax

Excellent, the Targhees are great as a winter boot, but run very hot the rest of the time.

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The Targhee's are currently on my $hit list. I have the men's - because I have really wide toes. They blistered the snot out of my little toe (bottom) on the second day we were in Ireland. I ended up hiking the rest of the trip in barefoot sandals.

Just goes to show how different we all are - I'm glad they work for someone!!

I got my hiking poles out yesterday and cleaned and readjusted them. Was kinda disappointed to find all the hardware corroded and rusty. I guess using them at the beach those first few months made a mess of the connectors... I may have to go pole shopping now!

Rainy today, so it was a rest day, but spent most of it getting gear and food ready for our backpacking trip to Isle Royale in a week. Can't wait! My knee is much better, and I think with my poles and a knee brace I'll do okay. One of my concerns is the heel blister I keep getting with my new boots (but my old ones chewed my feet all over). Anyone ever used Trail Toes? I got some, but not sure if it will save me. I read good stuff about it.

I cannot believe how much prep time it takes to get ready. Just divvying up the food and gear, figuring out meals, quadruple-checking lists to be sure we have everything. Glad I kept good notes last year, but there's still a bit of fuzzy math in determining how much food and TP for 11 days.

I'm pretty excited to use my new gear - hubby got me a new down quilt for my 50th last fall - 1 lb 0.5 oz for a 900 fill Downtek 30° quilt. And a Thermarest Xtherm sleeping pad for Christmas, as well as a new pillow and new poles since last summer. Overall, I've shaved 30 oz off my gear since last summer (and about 12 lbs off myself).

Now - if I could just find my Smartwool long underwear bottoms I haven't seen since ski season.........

Any chance you could to the trip in trail runners or light hikers? Something I learned over the course of six knee surgeries is properly fitted hiking boots are SUPPOSED to transfer some of the impact energy from your feet and ankles up the leg to your knees and thighs. I stopped wearing them and it helped my knee quite a bit.

That's a good suggestion, but probably not on Isle Royale (very rocky, very tough footing in places) with a 40+ lb pack. I did wear trail runners there one time, on a shorter trip with about 30 lb, and blistered pretty badly. I think the brace I wore there last year, a couple months after a knee sprain, will be fine. What I need most seems to be protection from wrenching & instability more than anything.

Wow - 6 knee surgeries - yikes!

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Originally Posted by Skierchickie2

...Wow - 6 knee surgeries - yikes!

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Yeah, when I was young I thought firefighting, softball, rock climbing, rappelling, and rugby would be a fun way to spend my time, it was but I paid for it. :D

Have fun Skierchickie! It sounds like you've a great trip lined up. FOR ME I've found that I can't go any less than full backpacking boots on dirt trails but that's more due to my arthritic feet rather than my bad knees. I think my light hikers would be fine for trails around here if it weren't for my feet.

Pax, somehow I missed that you've had that many knee surgeries - yikes! My one last year was bad enough...

Speaking of which, all of a sudden there has been some improvement in my bad knee. They said it could take up to a full year to see the complete benefit from my surgery and they seemed to have been right. Is it perfect? Far from it, but better than it was. Hopefully the new orthotics will persuade my feet to get back in line.

Catrin, that is great! So glad you turned a corner. Isn't it funny how that happens, it just gets somewhat better, like magic!

The first five surgeries are what led up to the replacement, all on my right knee... I protect my unblemished left knee like a mama bear and her cub. :D

Thanks Catrin! I am so ready. My pack is all loaded and just sitting there. It's to the point that I'd better go soon, because I keep sneaking little odds & ends into it (the "what if" stuff). It's 37.5 lbs now, without any water, and without my poles (since they won't be in the pack). So I'm looking at about 43 lbs. About 11 is food. I was really hoping to keep it under 40 total. i just cannot pack light, no matter how hard I try.

Glad your knee is improving! That has to be encouraging!

I'm sitting here working cocoa butter into the nice scar on my knee

I actually use chafing cream on my feet when I backpack, the same cream I use for bike touring :). Seems to help.

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Originally Posted by Skierchickie2

Thanks Catrin! I am so ready. My pack is all loaded and just sitting there. It's to the point that I'd better go soon, because I keep sneaking little odds & ends into it (the "what if" stuff). It's 37.5 lbs now, without any water, and without my poles (since they won't be in the pack). So I'm looking at about 43 lbs. About 11 is food. I was really hoping to keep it under 40 total. i just cannot pack light, no matter how hard I try.

Glad your knee is improving! That has to be encouraging!

I'm sitting here working cocoa butter into the nice scar on my knee

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Originally Posted by Sky King

I actually use chafing cream on my feet when I backpack, the same cream I use for bike touring :). Seems to help.

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Thanks for mentioning that. We just did a three-day hiking weekend at Glacier Park and as usual I have epic heel blisters, in spite of careful choosing of hiking boots, preventive bandaids, etc. Maybe I should try using either chafing cream or vaseline or SOMETHING.

Salsa bike - I assume you're wearing sock liners under your hiking socks? I found it hard to believe that 2 pairs were better than one but it's proved to be true.

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I cannot do liners, they squeeze my feet terribly. But, I always use Body Glide on my feet before hiking, snow shoeing, and sometimes, cross country skiing.

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Originally Posted by Catrin

Salsa bike - I assume you're wearing sock liners under your hiking socks? I found it hard to believe that 2 pairs were better than one but it's proved to be true.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

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I tried the liners under the socks! It was the day I got the epic blisters. I think it's some form of original sin of my feet. Drives me NUTS. I spent a ton of time choosing the boots a couple of years ago, and doing the liners, and and and. Agh. I am going to try to remember the Body Glide thing. Maybe if I put some in my backpack now, so it lives there. I have a pile of it somewhere from triathlon times. If Chris hadn't done a splendiferous bandaging job, we wouldn't have been able to do the rest of the hikes we'd planned, 22 miles over three days and moderate elevation gains. For those of you who are Glacier Park lovers: Iceberg Lake, Swiftcurrent Valley, and Hidden Lake. Wildflowers, snowfields, mountain goats.

I am pondering custom made hiking boots. Hate to do it but I may.

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Originally Posted by salsabike

I am pondering custom made hiking boots. Hate to do it but I may.

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I have "barefoot" hiking boots on order from Vivobarefoot - we'll see how that goes. I think my toe spread is too wide for any standard boots now (I've been doing barefoot style shoes for a while) - even my men's Keen boots (so super wide toe box) are causing toe issues now.

Yikes Salsa and Blueberry - hope both of you can find a solution. Sadly - due to LOTS of rain this month, my hiking boots haven't touched dirt since the last weekend of July. I'm in withdrawal...parking 1.5 miles from work and walking on pavement in downtown Indianapolis just isn't the same.

Today we drove out to Northfield Mt, in western MA, to hike. This is a corss country ski/snow shoe/hiking area that is managed by a utility company that produces hydroelectric power nearby. I have only been there in the winter... last time in snowmageddon, February 2015. It was soooo quiet; only about 5 cars in the lot.
We hiked up the snow shoe trail to the summit, at 1,100 feet. There's a lookout/picnic area, where we ate lunch and then decided to hike down some of the ski trails. We got a bit turned a round, and it ended up being longer than we thought it would take. I have no idea how many miles, probably 5-6?
Then we headed over to see our friends who moved, who revived us with beer and cheese/crackers. After a nice visit, we headed home.
It made me want snow... this place is a gem and only an hour and 15 minutes away. And, I need to hike more before my trip in October.

Hi All,
I have been off the grid a bit this summer. It seemed silly to post the same thing after every run..it was hot, it was humid, it was awful, so I have been running, just not posting. We did however just get back from some great hiking in the Whites. I wanted to share some pictures with you.

We ended up doing two hikes up Mt Washington. I had been planning for months to do Huntington Ravine Trail which is the hardest way up and involves some really exposed class 3 scrambling before you reach the top of the head wall. We hiked about 2.5 hours up to where the hard stuff started, an exposed slab climb and the slab was running water. Once you proceed past that point you cannot down climb so after some deliberation, we ended up better safe than sorry and turned around. It was a bit of a bummer, because the hike up to that point is really tough and it will take some intestinal fortitude to make myself to it again.


Toward the end of our stay after hiking other peaks and fly fishing until my arm was about to fall off, we got a really clear day ( rare for the summit) and went up Tuckerman's Ravine. No scrambling, just a long rocky trudge. The first picture is in Huntington Ravine, at the top of the boulder field called The Fan. Behind me is where the scrambling starts. The second picture is me and the hubs at the top of the head wall on Tuck's, and the last picture is of the cairns ( trail markers) above tree line.

Crankin - that sounds like fun! I wish I were closer.

RnR Girl, I am in awe. I LOVE that landscape and would love to draw it. I don't think my knee could handle it though, sadly. I dearly love open rocky landscapes like that in your pictures. I like how you called it scrambling - to me that is exactly what it looks like.

The rain has kept me from any good hiking/trekking for the entire month of August. This Saturday I'm planning on a 6-7 mile hike if the trails survived this weeks torrential downpours and just a horrendous series of tornadoes last night. I'm more concerned about trees being down in the woods than I am really muddy trails.

I think some of my hiking partners are getting bored with the types of trails I can safely hike, and I understand that. Mountain bike trails, by their very nature, are a bit more sedate around here than dedicated foot hiking trails. Outside of the single double black-diamond mtb trail in driving distance the topography is fairly consistent - after all - mountain bikes have 2 wheels :-) My knee HAS improved a bit so am hoping for a successful little experiment soon with one of the more challenging foot hiking trails. It's the steep vertical step-downs and descents that my knee gets cranky about, so we will see how it goes.

I have healthy knees and they still get cranky about steep descents. I hear ya.

During the winter, our mt biking and trail running are limited to the same 3 or 4 parks that we can reach in an hour or less. So boredom could be an issue. I figure if I were on a dreadmill or in a gym, or on the trainer it would be WAY, WAY more boring than being outside anywhere.

I hope you experiment to branch out goes well. Slow and steady.

I think I've found someone to go with me next weekend. Personally I'm fine with the MTB trails, but it would be good to know if my knee can finally handle more traditional hiking trails. It's my fellow hiking friends I don't want to get bored.

Something seen on the local canal tow path today - about the only place dry enough! I didn't think what 5 miles worth of no shade + high humidity would be like - but 2 ounces of salted caramel & sage ice cream following + hot shower revived me :cool:

I did NOT expect to see THIS bird in Indianapolis!

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Another hiking adventure today. We drove up to Mt. Watatic, which is on the border of MA (NW of here a bit) and NH. It is somewhat close to our favorite x country ski area; the Mid State Trail connects the 2 areas, that is if you want to hike 20 miles. This is a well used area, as it's close enough to several urban areas, but it was not too crowded today. We actually got a spot in the lot, as someone pulled out when we pulled in, and we didn't have to park on the road. We decided to do a 3.5 mile loop. with a steep 1.2 mile ascent to the summit. Steep it was... I could handle it without my poles, although I did feel like scrambling a bit at one point, maybe where it was a 20% grade? I am just super slow, as I have a high level of fear of falling. The summit was bare and you could see the Boston skyline, 50 miles away, but it was hazy in the distance. So, DH paid for a premium membership to All Trails, so we could get essentially downloadable maps for the phone to use. It was only 20.00, so worth it. Except, he didn't really look to see how the app worked. At the summit, we knew we had to turn right, but it was unclear and we headed down an access road. A very rocky road, and I knew we were headed the wrong way. After some yelling, we turned off on a trail, obviously one of the ski trails of the former ski area that used to be here. DH kept saying it would connect to the loop, but finally, I said we needed to turn around... more yelling. We hiked back up this trail (not technical, but steep) and the access road trail (more steep) and found the loop trail. Finally, back in the shade. It was perfect. Some ledges and rocks, plenty of roots, but not too steep. Mostly down, with a bit of ascent. Only saw 3 other groups and one guy who asked directions to the summit, as he had done 20 miles already!
We headed home a slightly different way, and when we saw a "Dairy Bar," we stopped and had soft serve ice cream, with chocolate dip. I used to take classes at a collegge near here, when I was teaching, and always wanted to stop here. Got home and changed into bathing suits and drove to a pond where we have discovered you don't need to be a resident to use, as it's on a bike trail. A perfect day.

Lovely terrain! I would certainly be taking my time on that as well - but I love those old winding roots!

Beautiful hiking photos, Crankin and RnR. I would love to try any of those trails!

We haven't been hiking much. I was too scared to hike in Yellowstone because of all the warnings and signs about bears (and not willing to pay $45 for bear spray; I know, stupid). We have mostly been cycling, though we did take a couple of short hikes in northeastern Wyoming. One was just a couple of easy miles in Bighorn Canyon Nat'l Recreation Area, and it was so windy that day we had trouble walking as we approached the canyon! Gorgeous, though, and not technical.

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Hope we'll get more hikes in this fall.

I had a great 6.7 mile hike today in a new state park I hadn't visited before in southern Indiana. There is a lot of Karst topography in that area due to the limestone and it was beautiful. My knee, I think, is as good as it will be and short of steep vertical stepdowns, ladders, large numbers of stairs or crawling I can handle more trail variety now if I take my time. There are some parks in the area that would be a waste of my time due to the above restrictions but not all. The photos come from two parks we visited today.



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Wow! Gorgeous, Catrin.

Awesome pictures, Catrin.

Thanks! As much as I enjoy hiking mtb trails am thankful to be able to take on more variety. I will do more trekking tomorrow, but more local.

Very nice, Catrin! I love environments like that -- so long as they aren't too buggy.

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

Very nice, Catrin! I love environments like that -- so long as they aren't too buggy.

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It was perfect - cool, low humidity, and no bugs :D

Today was gorgeous, 73 degrees and dry. We lazed around all morning and went out around noon to walk to the one conservation land trail on this side of town. We didn't want to do an out and back, so we did a loop where we take the main trail from a dirt road, through a busy road to a neighborhood of houses that make my former 3k sq ft house look minuscule. From here, we can access the other end of the dirt road. Then, back home. We can do the whole thing on trails, dirt roads, and some neighborhood streets. Ended up 6 miles, more of a walk in the woods, but a good one.

Sounds delightful Crankin!

Today the trails were much too wet as our monsoons don't seem to want to go away...so I decided to do some hill walking in preparation for a 10 mile hilly hike I'm planning for my 57th birthday weekend next month. My feet really don't much care for pavement for more than 2 miles at a time, and today I walked >4. Feet and ankles are paying for that now... It was, however, a beautiful afternoon.

I just find it interesting how different my experience is on dirt over pavement - if I had moved to dirt my feet would have responded in about 5 minutes...but the trails were too muddy AND too flat for what I needed to do today. So no more 4+ mile pavement walks at a time, which is a bit frustrating knowing that I can trek on dirt for more than double that distance with no consequences. Oh well, but it was a beautiful cool afternoon with sunshine!

Sounds pretty nice, Catrin!

I took a short hike this morning in gorgeous Dinosaur National Monument. DH was cranky and didn't feel like getting ready, so I took off on my own. The trail was supposedly easy to moderate, but I'd classify it as moderate in terrain anyway; I think the "easy" was because of the distance -- just two miles out and back. But there was climbing and descending, quite a few rocks as well. Fortunately, it was absolutely gorgeous, so I had to stop quite a few times for photos! Only saw one other person on the hike -- another lone female with her dog.

Given the rating of this trail, I didn't wear hiking boots nor take my hiking poles. I didn't miss the boots but wished I had had my poles for the descents. I have a blister on my heel now, which I guess is a result of wearing trail running shoes instead of my hiking boots, but it was totally worth it!

Yesterday we did the most amazing hike right from our campground in Colorado in the Proutt National Forest east of Steamboat Springs (and 3000' higher). The info online on the campground about the trail just said "Rabbit Ear Trail - 2 miles". We had no idea that the trail was a summit hike, very, very popular and well known in these parts. Nor that it would have us climbing from 9500' in altitude to over 10,600'! And they got the mileage wrong too -- it was more like 2.75 miles one way, so round trip from our campground was 6.2 miles -- a nice 10K.

This trail was classified as "easy" on alltrails.com, but I beg to differ. With over 1000' of climbing and lots of rocky areas, I would call it moderate. We had thought it was "easy" so didn't take water or our hiking poles. Dumb! Fortunately, we'd just eaten a big breakfast and had plenty of coffee, and it was cool out, so we were actually fine -- other than needing to pee badly for about half the hike since there were no vault toilets and just a few too many other hikers to squat. :rolleyes: Would have liked to have had the hiking poles, especially coming downhill. The last 1/4 mile to the summit was killer steep and very slick on the way down.

It was a gorgeous hike with amazing views on the way up and down and at the top of Rabbit Ears Peak!

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Incredible location Emily! I am going to...ummmm...borrow a couple of those shots for my devices background. They made me smile and are just beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

I've a question about these trails - I get that there were steep inclines/declines. That's clear. Were there steep vertical step-downs? My knee can't handle those, and I'm looking for a good road trip destination for next year where I can get a relatively inexpensive hotel room and go for day hikes and drawing. I think the Arches Nation Park might be a good destination - but I can't handle that one particular trail feature. With the right boots, my poles, and patience I think I can handle most "normal" descents.

Scenery looks very inviting. Would love to hike this area too. Been a while since I hiked. Think I'll head out this afternoon down the Niagara Gorge. Not too soon to practice.