It's 93 miles long, with lots of elevation loss and gain, and in places there are still snow fields to cross. I have a pair of Yaktrax to slip over them if the trail gets icy.

I have Trail Gloves and I've worn them on and off all spring and summer in the Texas Hill Country (i.e. very rough and rocky). I like them but you have to be aware of their limitations. Here are my thoughts
1. Have you trained your feet to hike in this kind of shoe? If you haven't gone through the adjustment period I'd wait.
2. Think about rocks. If you land on a sharp rock hard you will definately feel it. You may have to take extra care in some sections and slow down a bit at times. I've never seen a place I couldn't hike in Trail Gloves but I've definately had to slow down sometimes.
3. Trail Gloves have a rounded bottom and not very big lugs so they aren't going to do well in snow by themselves. I like the Yaktrak idea but its seems like I often hear of Yaktraks failing hikers. My guess is the design just isn't durable enough for long term us.

I'm jealous. Please give us a trip report!

Luke,

Thanks for the response. It was good to hear some specifics from you since you have a fair amount of experience with these shoes. I'd love to hear some additional opinions from anyone who cares to weigh in on the subject.

In regard to Yaktracks, I talked with a ranger a few days ago who said that the current snow fields should be passable with trekiing poles and Yaktraks.

I've been wearing more traditional trail runners most of the time when carrying a pack, so I haven't trained with this type of "barefoot" shoes, but I find them so comfortable I'm tempted. There's a 50/50 chance that this will be a solo trip (still waiting to hear back from a friend who might join me). If so, I would be happy to slow down and take extra care in some sections. I don't mind spending most of my daylight hours on the trail.

If I keep my pack light, I don't need much arch support because my feet are fairly strong. I grew up going barefoot most of the time (except for the hours when I was in school). In the summer I made a game of running over hot earth (or even asphalt) quickly to get to the next shady spot. Even as an adult I spend 50-75% of my time barefoot--I don't generally wear shoes when I'm at home, whether I'm indoors or outdoors. Recently I did the WCT, and for a lot of the time I spent in camp I went barefooted, even when walking over rocks and logs.

Well it sounds like you know what you're doing. As far as the actual shoe goes they seem to hold up pretty well. I purchased a pair of trail gloves and New Balance MT101s at the same time this spring. The 101 are trashed, the mesh is torn and the sole is seperating but the Merrells show only minor wear on the sole. I thing the shoes can easily handle the hike as long as your feet can.

How many days are you taking to do the trail, and are you caching anywhere? The two places I can think of that might be an issue in these shoes are the approach from Carbon River to Mystic Lake---very large rocks, we had to pick our way amongst them in some places, and maybe the Summerland side of Panhandle gap, although I think it's mostly gravel there, some rocky areas. We did it last year, going up through Spray Park rather than Ipsut Pass, and Spray Park is fairly rocky on the Carbon River side as well. Otherwise, it's good trails and you should have no problem--although, I haven't looked at the trail conditions site yet, don't know of any rock slides/washout areas. Take it slower and watch your foot placement and you should be fine. Since you say you haven't trained extensively in them, if you are caching at all, you might consider placing another pair of trail shoes in a bucket to switch into if your feet start giving you trouble. We crossed several snow fields with trekking poles, didn't use any Yak Traks, and did fine, but we may have had more lug to our soles.

Where are you starting, and which direction are you going?

"How many days are you taking to do the trail, and are you caching anywhere?"

I'm not sure how many days I'll be on the trail. I will be applying for a walk-up permit, so I'll have to be somewhat flexible on the number of days and distances traveled per day.

I'll probably food cache in two places. I was already considering stashing some shoes in one of the food buckets, so I'll give that some additional thought.

In regard to which direction I'll be going. I'm hoping to go the most common direction (clockwise?) because I've read that the views are better when traveling that direction.

So how did this turn out?

Jake, here is her trip report

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=52770&skip_to_post=444966#444966