How Many Pairs of Socks Do You Carry?

[Brian Crain]

My feet sweat a lot and I've had the early stages of trench foot while in the USMC – thankfully it was caught early and only involved a lot of pain, some meds, and scraping. Since then I tend to take better care of my feet (better boots and socks mainly) and keep them dry. On a single overnighter I take 2 pair and anything longer I take 3. As is the case for most of the above, I dedicate one for sleeping, that is the pair I wear the next day and constantly wash/rotate through the three pairs.

[AT Hiker]

Wear one, one for sleeping and a spare…..3 pair. I wear the sleeping socks into town on my resupply day.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Usually one spare pair. You could convince me to carry two for a wet winter trip, as there is little chance of getting the rotating pair dry unless there is a campfire.

There's nothing like stuffing your feet into cold wet socks and wet boots at dawn. Lovely, delightful…. NOT!

[Bob Gross]

"There's nothing like stuffing your feet into cold wet socks and wet boots at dawn."

The only thing that is worse is stuffing your feet into frozen socks and boots at dawn.

But, as they used to tell us in the Army, it's good training.

–B.G.–

[Nick Smolinske]

I wear liner socks any time I hike, so my answer's a bit different. I bring more liner socks than hiking socks (almost never more than 2 pairs of hiking socks) and for trips under a week I'll just bring one pair of hiking socks and swap liners out every 2 days. Liners are super light, so switching them out every 2 days is a small weight penalty for a major luxury. They also keep my regular socks from getting smelly as quickly; I find that when I wear liners my regular socks can go for 4 days and be fine.

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