Saturday, May 29, 2010

Went for a hike in Chacos, got blisters

I decided to wear my Chacos for a hike today. It would be a relatively easy 11 mile hike, first on a dirt road and then along a creek where we'd get our feet wet in the thigh-high, warm water.

The thing I noticed with Chacos is that I walk like a normal person in them, not like Frankenstein. Which is to say, normally my left foot turns in too far and I end up limping a little bit, kind of lurching down the trail like the Hunchback or some kind of zombie. Walking normal meant that nothing hurt. No knees hurting, no feet hurting. I liked that.

But, Chacos give me blisters. I get blisters from the toe strap. I should have gotten the kind without a toe strap. But I also get blisters from the heel cup. The heel cup is too narrow for me. But my feet are too small for a mens. I wonder if the wide Chacos are wide in the heel.

I brought some athletic tape because I was pretty certain before the hike that I'd get blisters. I always get them when I wear Chacos. I bought the tape from CVS. Recently all the good drug stores in town became CVS drug stores. CVS sucks. All their products are of the worst quality. The tape had no adhesive qualities whatsoever. I am not shopping at CVS again.

4 comments:

  1. I just flatten the toe strap and hike on it. I've hike thousands of miles with a flattened toe strap.

    If you ever want the toe strap again it'll take a pair of pliers to pull it out.

    I get the women's wide in Chacos. Once the sent me a women's regular and they hurt my feet and I ended up with a bump on the side of my foot that never has gone away.

    Also, I have bought the men's size when they were out of the women's wide and though they looked to be the same size, they hurt my feet as well. So there must be some difference.

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  2. Also, I almost always wear socks with Chacos. If you want to wear the toe strap get tabi socks, they have a big toe pocket.

    Socks wear out fast when hiking in Chacos, that is unless you get Foxriver off road socks...those socks last a whole thru-hike

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  3. One more thing. If you are doing a lot of road walking, like you would do in Florida, Chacos wear out pretty fast---maybe 500 miles-- at least the old sole did.

    The wear on the trail is mainly on the straps, and usually break in about 700-800 miles or so on a dusty trail like the PCT.. So I replace them every 700 miles which for me is under a month.

    Doing it again, I would buy them from REI and then send them back when they broke and get a new pair.

    My pair on the Appalachian Trail lasted till Mass. but it's not as gritty as the PCT. Then I had to strap them to my feet with electric tape and hiked 3 days like that till I could get a new pair.

    Also if you want to hike in Chacos, I would recommend carrying some neoprene socks for when your feet get cold. I even found some neoprene tabi socks for using with the toe strap.

    Even with neoprene socks, when it snowed on the AT, I really missed having shoes. That's why now I carry both shoes and Chacos.

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  4. I really prefer them without a toe strap so I think I might try to order a pair of wide ones without the toe strap. The way they give me sort of an Indian burn on the sides by being too narrow in the heel like that is really unbearable.

    I did order a pair of handmade sandals after my other post so I'm going to try those out and see how they work, too.

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