Barefoot hikers?

[Justin Baker]

Anybody here hike barefoot? I mean actual barefoot, not barefoot (minimalist) shoes.

I have a goal to be able to hike at least a few miles barefoot. I think it would be awesome if there is someone hiking 20+ miles per day barefoot.

[Steven McAllister]

I think a lot of people hike from time to time barefoot. It depends what condition your feet are in.

People do thru-hikes barefoot.
Remember the Barefoot Sisters yo-yo'd the AT barefoot.
The people who hike the full or most of the trail barefoot spend most of their lives barefoot and so their feet are conditioned for barefoot hiking.

If I remember correctly the Barefoot Sisters wore shoes during the the icy winter part of their Southbound leg, but only for traction reasons, not the cold.
Bare feet don't get good traction on ice.

[Dale Wambaugh]

I wouldn't make it across the trailhead parking lot!

[Steven McAllister]

I grew up wearing shoes only at school.
I could and would walk on anything back then, broken glass, thorns, cactus,…

Not anymore after having to work a job that requires shoes:-)

[Kattt]

When I was little I hopped around the Alps barefoot for hours on end. My feet have gone soft now.
Four years ago I went on a trip with my Swiss nieces and one of them, aged 12 , hiked all 18 miles barefoot. Some of it was craggy and quite rough. Her feet were sore by the end as her callouses had been "exfoliated".

I would love to work back to tougher feet and leave my shoes at home.
Here are a couple of pictures of the area and the girls and I.

Edited…autocorrect sucks.

[Justin Baker]

Tough girls. It's funny when a 12 year old girl with no shoes can outhike you.

Kat, I think I briefly heard you talking at the last GGG and I noticed an accent. Are you Swiss?

I hike in minimal shoes so my feet are conditioned for impacts but it's my skin that's soft. I can step on rocks all day in 3mm soles but it hurts to walk barefoot on prickly leaves.

[Kattt]

Hi Justin,
Yes, the barefoot twelve year old beat us all on the way back to the car; partly because she was having a pre-teen attitude problem and was making a point :)

I have an accent??. What?? I sure can't hear it!
I am half Swiss and half Italian, which does not make me Swiss Italian by the way. Swiss Italian is a Swiss person from the Graubünden region, where Italian is the main language. I am Swiss, from the German speaking part of Switzerland, AND Italian, as my dad was Italian. I was raised in the Alps the first 10 years, then we moved to my father's hometown, Firenze ( Florence).

[Jake D]

"If I remember correctly the Barefoot Sisters wore shoes during the the icy winter part of their Southbound leg, but only for traction reasons, not the cold. "

I think they wore shoes/sandals of some sort for the White Mountains also.. (i really need to read their books one of these days)

since that is my home turf i'm happy wearing trail runners but would be fine in teva/keen/chaco type sandals if they would ever put stickier rubber on them. I use Tevas and now Keens for rock climbing approaches and slide type sandals daily unless there is snow.

going totally barefoot would definitely be a process to build up the calluses and tune yourself to avoiding things that will hurt no matter what.

[Michael L]

One got hurt and had to wear them some. Then in the winter they both did. But I think it is important to note that they crawled along at a very slow pace when barefoot. They were amazed at how much faster they could go with shoes.

[Steven McAllister]

The Barefoot Sisters books are great examples of the advantages and disadvantaes of doing a thru-hike barefoot.

I read them a long time ago, so I don't remember all of the details.

I believe the sister had a knee injury or something unrelated to being barefoot.

Yes, they did have to walk a little slower and more carefully, not to avoid sharp object, but to avoid bruses from stubbed toes and such.

They did have to apply lotion to their feet regularly to keep their calluses from cracking. A cracked calluse would be like a split sole on a hiking shoe.

[Les Waddel]

6 years ago my goal was to go barefoot.  I made my own sandals, light, thin and flexible. I haven’t gone back to shoes.  My feet are so much better now.  After the first year I cut back on the idea of going barefoot.  The sandals allow my foot to move naturally so no need, desire.

You can do it… it just takes time and dedication!  You’ll be much better off for doing it.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I met a lady when I was backpacking in the Sierras a couple years ago who backpacked barefoot. She was a tiny lady with the hugest backpack ever. She carried flip-flops for when the dirt was too hot or for some of the sharper stuff and snow. She lamented how when she was 20 years younger the dirt was never too hot and the sharper stuff and the snow never bothered her, but alas, she had grown a little soft over the years. She was really cool.

[Matt Swider]

My wife and I were eating lunch on top of Cloud’s Rest a few years back.  I thought I was “tough” as I was hiking in my VFF that whole trip.  Then a guy came up the trial from the Half Dome side in bare feet, just wearing shorts, a t shirt, and carrying a satchel over his shoulder.  I did not feel so tough after that . . .

[Jerry Adams]

Cody Lundin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cody_Lundin “Dual Survival” on Discovery Channel

He got along pretty good walking barefeet.  In the snow or whatever.

He was fired from the show over differences of opinion about safety.  Maybe they thought it wasn’t safe for him to walk around barefoot?  Or they wanted him to do stuff that was unsafe to get better ratings?

[William Kerber]

When I was a kid we ran around barefoot all the time. Now I can’t walk across the dead grass in our yard barefoot. I need to work on that.

[DAN-Y]

There were a coupla dudes in the movie “deliverance” that hiked the woods barefoot.

[Paul S.]

Cody did two seasons on the show and only occasionally wore anything on his feet: three layers of wool socks for glacier travel and crafted sandals from a car tire for very hot desert travel. I think the safety thing must have been some dumb stunt or staged crisis but we’ll never know.

[Anonymous]

Not sure if it was the same two barefoot sisters but there were 2 northbound barefoot girls on the AT a couple years ago. Supposedly all they carried for food was fresh fruit. Not even dried. Last I heard they had made it up to Va. Supposedly they were averaging 13-18 mpd

Beautiful Alps pictures btw

[Larry De La Briandais]

I ran into to young (20 something) ladies that were hiking up the Yosemite Falls trail a few years ago.  I was winter, but there was no snow on the trail and it was warm enough.  They seemed to be moving fine and that trail is moderately rocky.  They were extremely interested in my trip (I was only my way down from backpacking for 2 nights) and had a million questions.  Their male companions not so much.

It appeared to me that they were quite comfortable hiking barefoot.  I’m guessing that they walked barefoot most of the time.  They did have a minimalist approach to clothing also.  ;)

 

 

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