Hiking in trail runners

In addition to all that I talked about in my last post, I'm going to be doing a bit of an experiment.  I found some $70 Trail Runner type shoes on sale for less than $30, and I snatched them up to use as everyday tennis shoes type shoes that I'd wear on weekends, or at the gym or wherever.  I don't actually need them quite yet; my former pair aren't dead yet, but they will be within months.

It occured to me as well that many people hike in trail runners, and in fact swear by the experience.  Hiking boots--and I have a big, clunky pair of those as well, are... well, big and clunky.  They're heavy, they're not necessarily comfortable unless they've been thoroughly broken in, and I was, frankly, a bit nervous about my feet.

I like hiking boots, don't get me wrong.  And I'm a little nervous about potential ankle twisting with trail runners.  But the notion of walking in these comfortable, lightweight shoes also feels like a major relief on something that I was frankly dreading.  I think it's going to make my trip much more comfortable.

All in all, I'd probably rather have a pair of high top hikers with a GORE-TEX liner.  Something like the Cabela's XPG hikers I highlighted a few posts ago.  Keen, Merrell, The North Face, Adidas, Vasque and tons of other folks make hikers like that.  However, they all sell for over $100.  Finding the shoes I did at the price I did was quite a steal.

I'll want to eventually upgrade them, but then again, I don't anticipate that they useful life on these shoes, especially considering that I plan to switch in the next few months into making them everyday shoes that I wear everywhere except work and church, won't be much longer than a year or two anyway.  For now, I'm going to just be glad I scored such a great deal, and then look for another replacement--maybe--for the 2015 hiking season.

I freely admit that this is a bit of an experiment for me.  Back in the day, when I was actually backpacking every season, I always wore hiking boots; in fact, I always wore the same pair of hiking boots.  But this time, I'm looking at my all-leather uppers Frankenstein boots and just not feeling the love.