Smart Wool socks. Three pair of them. The only way to fly.
Makes the old adage of heavy socks with light poly liners "old hat" and outdated.
No liners, no extras, just three pair of the expedition weight. The inside of them is so superior that no liners are needed or wanted. YOur feet are bathed in luxury for the entire day.
Don't believe me? Try it yourself.
Put a Smart Wool with liner on one foot and a Smart Wool without the liner on the other foot. Wear them all day and decide for yourself. My experience was that the liners made your foot slip and slide against the Smart Wool necessitating a need to lace the boot tighter to stop that which also restricted circulation which is counter productive. The wicking ability of Smart Wool is so superior that your feet stay dry all day long.
If your pair them with Gore Tex boots (which I don't for hiking) it's a win - win situation for dry feet.
So, I just use the plain naked Smart Wool.
Wear one pair, then wash them in the evening.
Put on a washed pair the next day.
Put on the second spare pair the second day.
On the third day, you put on the pair you washed the first day.
You do the math, but if you wash the freshly dirty pair each day, with three pair then you have 48 yours after washing for it to dry. That's plenty of time without resorting to hot water bottles and wearing wet socks to bed.
Fully ninety percent of the time at Philmont your socks will dry in just a couple of hours.
An old trick I use effectively is to tie the wet pair to the top of my pack while on the trail.
On those really heavy duty days, I have been known to switch socks midway through the day. A fresh, clean pair of socks is right up there next to heaven.
That's an old Army trick that we used back in 1967 when we were fighting the unpopular war in the jungle.
Some things change and some things don't.
Foot care hasn't changed a bit but the material you get to work with today has certainly improved.
Speaking of "to bed socks".
My feet sleep cold year round so I wear socks to bed. Used to pack a pair of down socks for that purpose, but recently I have found some all nylon really fuzzy womens very low quarter socks at WalMart. I own several pair and a pair reside in the foot of my sleeping bags. At less than two ounces for a pair, they are worth their weight in gold.
Smart Wool is the only way to fly down the trail today.
They are expensive, at $16.00 a pair but worth every penny of it.
Sometimes you don't get what you pay for (in this case you do) but you never get what you don't pay for.
John LeBlanc
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Received on Thu Dec 2 20:42:37 2004
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