So when I hike, usually I get a small pebble or two, or sand in my boots. How can I prevent this? I already wear pretty tight boots, and stopping every so often to take off a boot and get a rock out is annoying.
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You can get some trail gaiters. (This REI link gives a good overview of different types of gaiters, their components, and materials they can be made from.) They're basically little sleeve-like things that have a strap to go around the bottom of your hiking boot, and they come up to mid-calf usually. Because they overlap with both your boot and your pants, they should be pretty good at keeping rocks out of your shoes. They typically look something like this:
There are, however, variations in types and usage of gaiters. They can be mid-calf height or knee-high, insulated or uninsulated, waterproof or not. (Short gaiters that only cover the instep and the ankle are sometimes called spats - they are also sometimes just called "low gaiters".) |
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For me it's all about gait. We do river hiking where it's easy to flip up sand into a shoe if not careful. The trick is to lift your feet and step without either toe or heal dragging, as well as to set them down in a controlled manner. |
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If you're using mid- to high- length boots, there are a number of models of pants that have a small hook or strap at the very end of the pant leg used to fix the pant leg to the boot lace at the ankle. These are usually accompanied by a vertical strap so that the pant leg can be fixed snugly around the ankle. I personally used these while serving in the (Swedish) army. The M/90 uniform pants have these features and I never got snow/stone/pebbles etc into my boots. Lundhags "Boot-Loc"-system is an example of this. |
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