>>1019927Hey, I can actually contribute. I went to Zaleski a few weeks ago with my girlfriend for the first time.
Do you know which loop you want to do? We did the middle loop starting at the Iron Furnace. (XYBCDEFGHI-CAMP-JKYX). This was also our first multi-day trip together. It was definitely an adequate challenge, and you will be dog tired by the time you get to camp. Zaleski is nice because they have water pumps at every campsite.
As far as boots go, I would say fuck boots. We didn't wear boots, we wore running shoes. IMO It's more important that you wear something that is comfortable rather than something super durable and heavy because nothing is worse than having your feet get horribly sore when you're backpacking. Zaleski does have very few streams and you'll only come across a few streams during the entire middle loop. That being said, there are a lot (probably a dozen or so) of really muddy areas on the trail that you will want to walk around.
If you do go the running shoe route, I would recommend that you get a good pair of wool socks, like Darn Tough brand socks. Cotton socks will absolutely suck if they get wet and take forever to dry.
The terrain isn't bad, on JKYX there is a good amount of big rocks, rock overhangs, and cliffs and that was the only time we had to watch out for slipping. If you would like, camping somewhere in JKYX would be awesome. There are a lot of campsites cleared under the big rock overhangs that looked really cool. Technically you are supposed to camp at the designated campsites though.
