>>531113Tell me more. I have two questions:
People who walk a lot innawoods or innamountain with heavy packs keep stressing the importance of wearing boots with good ancle support. However, I find that when I go barefoot in rough terrain, that my feet "molds" to the surface in a way that the ancle joint doesn't have to work as hard as it would if I braced the 50 or so little joints in the foot with a stiff sole. As such, I feel that a boot with good ancle support is only a fix to a problem of its own creation. However, I have never hiked long distances with heavy backpack barefoot, so I don't know. What are your experience?
Secondly, there is also a lot of talk about the importance of keeping your feet dry, because wet feet blister. However, having many times run barefoot in the rain on concrete trails, I find that moisture alone does not make for toilet paper skin. The water needs to be warm for that to happen, much warmer than pretty much any water you'll find in nature. But, lock your feet in a boot with wool socks, and any moisture trapped inside will quickly reach the required temperature to turn your skin to toilet paper. Do you find this to be true, that water is not the foot's enemy, but that warm water is?
