How to Keep Your Feet Dry on a Hike

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Kate with Zoar Outdoor on behalf of expertvillage.com talking to you about backpacking and hiking. Keeping your feet dry while you are hiking or backpacking is one of the most important things. It helps prevent blisters, helps prevent cold feet, trench foot; there’s a lot of things that can be prevented by keeping your feet dry. Appropriate footwear is the first thing off. You are going to want to make sure you choose the right type of footwear; boots with high sides will help keep water out. Compared to sneakers, they are not necessarily water proof. Boots that are leather or Gore-Tex are going to keep your feet pretty dry and boots that have a tongue attached will keep water out instead of a tongue that isn’t attached will let water in. Gaiters are another good option to keeping your whole foot dry. They attach to your boot, go up over your pants and these are waterproof. If your socks get wet from sweat or just because you did have to walk through a steam bed, a good idea is to bring an extra pair of socks to camp with you. So when you get to camp at night, you can take off your wet socks, put under your jacket while you make dinner, dry them out and then in the morning you will have a fresh pair of dry socks. This is the key to keeping your feet happy. If you have the luxury of bringing camp shoes or sandals to wear when you get to camp to allow your boots to dry out, that would be ideal too. Make sure if you are in a rainy area at night and you are camping out, keep your boots under your rain fly so that they don’t get soggy and gross and your feet will thank you for it in the morning."