Footwear for climbing granite, fording knee-high rivers, humid weather?

Might want to look for a trail runner with less leather and more mesh that drains quickly. Also consider a rugged, lugged sole. Been wearing Salomon's for the past few years as 3 season footwear with few complaints.

La sportiva makes some good trail runners that are worth checking out. In particular, the Exum River seems well suited to your needs. Heres the link: http://www.sportiva.com/products/prod/369

Jon, I'll have to give the Exum River a try-on. Reviews suggest that they run narrow, and I have little fat feet.

Jim, you hike the Whites, don't you? We were on the so-called Dry River Trail for part of the weekend, with four or five river crossings that were tremendous fun. Met two Quebecois carrying BIG packs along the way; I have no idea how they climbed over all the blowdowns.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Hi Heather,
Was also in the Whites this past weekend (and the next 19 through the end of November) Was it a man & woman from Quebec? might have met them previous weekend, really nice folks if they were they same hikers doing a section hike of the AT. They were hauling 50lb & 65lb packs.

No, they were two guys in their early 30s – I think they had come from Dry River Shelter #3 and were heading up toward Lakes of the Clouds. We were all too disheveled for conversation, light packs or no. :-)

This was the trip that was meant to be a Washington climb, except we had such a hard time getting down to a legal campsite on Dry River that we knew we couldn't turn around and climb back up the wet rock faces in the morning. Live & learn.
P.S. It must be great to get out there every weekend!

Hi Heather,
That was a pretty tough section that you were out on, been beat up a few times in that area, narrow contour lines on the map are usually not your friends. Heard that there are some really great options for stealth camping in Dry River section. Feel free to PM me for info on great hikes up there.

Season has been really great so far with past 6 weekends out and nineteen to go, starting to get requests from AMC tent site caretakers to come by and visit their sites for weekends so destinations have been easy to plan out, really great group of folks working in the Whites this year.