So you're nearing the end of a trailday, and ready to make camp a ways down the trail...it starts raining. You put on your rainjacket, packcover, whatever it is you do. What about your shoes? If you're not wearing gore-tex boots, how do you deal with the sopping trailrunners that're inevitable going to be wet when you wake up in the morning and prepare to move on? I'm sure this is a very basic topic, but am I missing something? Waterproof sock liners?

Well hopefully you selected trail runners that absorb as little moisture as possible. During the night dry your socks and insoles in your sleeping bag and then in the morning your shoes will be wet, but not sopping wet. Not the kind of wet that destroys your hike, but the kind that you can barely feel through your socks. And as soon as you get some decent weather your shoes should dry out quickly on the trail since they are breathable.

> how do you deal with the sopping trailrunners that're inevitable going to be wet when you wake up in the morning and prepare to move on?


When I crawl in, I wring out my socks and put on my dry pair, take the insoles out of the shoes, and turn the shoes upside down in the vestibule to drain overnight. In the morning, I put the wet socks and shoes back on (yuck). If it has stopped raining then they'll soon dry out, otherwise they'll get wet anyway. My Gore-Tex boots and Gore-Tex XCR runners all wet out within a day, so I've found I'm better off with runners that drain and dry quicker. (I have a pair of Rocky Gore-Tex socks, but I haven't tried them yet. I'm saving them for freezing wet.)

Edited by Otter on 03/13/2007 22:58:49 MDT.

>>....but am I missing something?<<

Half way through my two week hike through Scotland my GTX boots got wet: the water was deeper than my boots were high. The shoes only got dry after being home two days. I prefer trailrunners that are anything but waterproof, but which will dry quickly so if they get wet I know they'll be dry again during the hike and not after.

Eins