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After dealing with a lot of wet feet issues I have learned some tricks. Keeping feet dry While hiking, use gaitors that come above your socks and divert water away from the wicking material. Keep your boots well oiled, using a product like Nikwax, or minkoil. This keeps the leather from absorbing water as much. In normal conditions (not marsh hiking) use ...

The only real way to stop erosion is of course not to walk on them at all - but that's not really a viable solution per se! Realistically, I'd stick to the marked, worn path. Most people will do that anyway, so you'll be treading on well worn ground which has two main advantages over trudging elsewhere: The organisation responsible for maintaining such ...

This is one of the reasons I always hike with at least one extra pair of socks and tend to wear shoes that shed water quickly as opposed to being water proof. If you're in a consistently wet environment there really isn't much you can do as it won't really help to change your socks every 10 minutes as they keep getting soaked. Just make sure that when you ...

Heat illnesses are about heat, not light, and while the two are not unrelated, the hue of your clothing would be a very minor factor— red would not provide better or worse protection than green or blue or any other part of the visible spectrum. The shade may have some impact: since darker clothing absorbs more energy than lighter clothing, it warms up and ...

It is my understanding that the Nordic or Exercise Poles are for walking fast and the grip is designed to release quickly forward in stride with a glove like fit and usually have either a rubber or paw type tip. The Trekking or Hiking poles are designed for pushing slightly down on to take pressure off of your lower body with a lighter thinner strap and have ...

Whatever you do, the membrane will wear out in a few years. That's one of the reasons why many people prefer leather boots, because once the membrane starts to leak, they can still waterproof the leather (it's much harder to perfectly waterproof textile). That said, you can always try to keep the membrane as long as possible. One thing manufacturers ...

The Gore-Tex trail shoes I'm wearing right now have the Gore-Tex layer on the inside (between my socks and the outer suede/synthetic). I'm not sure that you can do anything to fix that layer once it is worn out. I would make sure you clean mud off your boots as soon as you can (usually once you get home from a hiking trip). If you have leather boots, then ...

Carry extra socks and a couple of kitchen-sized trash bags. When you soak a shoe or boot, squeeze out the wet sock and let it start drying on the back of the pack. Put on a dry sock. Then put the trash back over the dry sock, and put your foot, sock, and trash bag inside your wet shoe. After a while your shoe will dry out a little, maybe enough that you no ...

If there was a magic solution to preventing plantar fasciitis, then no one would have it anymore! Different things work for different people. It's important to find out what works for you. This can be done with experimentation or the help of a specialist. One thing I would caution against is just throwing more padding at it! There is something wrong with ...

know if you will be going through marshy areas. If you are hiking in the Everglades, pack more socks than if you will be hiking through the Sahara. If you have to cross a river, try to not cross in your boots. There is a favorite trail in my area, and it ends with crossing a waist-deep river. I'll drop pack, change into my trail-sandals, stuff the socks ...

If you are expecting snowy and wet weather then I would suggest following the concept of "layering", with a base layer of merino wool, and a hard shell jacket and pants (Gore Tex or similar) as the outer layer. If it is raining or snowing quick dry clothes have a hard time drying as the air is already very humid. Quick dry clothes are not typically very ...

A white colour for head protection (and all other clothes) will keep you the coolest, black will keep you the hottest. All other colours are somewhere in between. This is because white fabric reflects the most light (all wavelengths of visible light), while black absorbs all (red reflects only the red channel). As for the efficiency - I have sometimes ...

I have no direct evidence to support this, but I believe that wearing minimalistic shoes like moccasins or Vibram toe shoes reduces trail damage, as does learning to walk and run barefoot. Soft-soled shoes conform to the terrain rather than gouging in. You also learn to walk with less impact when wearing this kind of shoe. Going barefoot, even if not ...

I live in Sweden and I hike a lot in the wild. My personal top three properties to look for in a handheld GPS receiver for The Great Outdoors: Battery life Battery life Battery life I honestly don't care if the measurement is 20 metre off. In the Swedish mountains, it usually isn't, there are no deep canyons, and if there are you can only go in one ...

If you really do need exceptional accuracy, you could use the solution many Ingress players use - a good Android phone with a battery pack. In the game you often need accuracy of 2 or 3 metres - so the Galaxy S3 or a phone paired with the Nexus 7 (which has an excellend GPS) are the tools of choice. The game uses google maps and wireless navigation, as well ...

The essential items are a jacket and boots. You need a decent waterproof and windproof jacket with a good hood. The jacket must be properly waterproof (eg GoreTex or similar) and not just water resistant. You should also have a decent pair of waterproof boots. If you're taking one of the popular routes and staying on paths/tracks then lightweight summer ...

If I was going, I would bring something like what I brought for an overnight walk from Braemar to Aviemore in the Cairngorms at the start of February some years ago. So apart from gloves, hat/scarf or balaclava - base layer top and bottom, hard shell jacket and pants, gaiters, a 100wt fleece and a 200wt fleece (giving 3 options for warmth) and for a day ...

Overboots are a solution I don't see above. Some fabric based ones take up less space in the pack than an extra set of boots, and they can be taken off relatively easily when the rain abates or when you have cleared a marshy area. In warm weather on reasonable trails, Vibram Fivefinger shoes are quite comfortable even when wet, because when sized properly ...