How to Select Socks for a Camping Trip

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is John Stewart, and this is how to select and pack your socks for a weekend camping trip. One of the most important things you can do for preparing for a camping trip is get your socks right. Socks and your feet are going to be take a beating during camping trip. You're carrying a heavy load, your socks are contained in a tight laced boot, and they just take a beating, hiking ten; twelve miles a day, so you want to treat them real nice. Don't wear cotton socks; Hanes socks, stuff like that. Cotton takes and absorbs moisture and holds it; it doesn't wick it away. So you get a wet, soggy sock. This is going to lead to a lot of moisture building up on your feet, and you can get fungus buildup, hot spots, and those are going to lead to blisters. These are things you don't want on a camping trip. So treat your feet to some nice wool socks, or some synthetic blended socks. Wool socks you might think are going to be a lot warmer. They are going to be warm, but they also are cool during the summer. They do all this naturally, okay. Wool naturally moisture wicks, it naturally regulates heat. The nice thing about wool though, is if you get it wet, it's not going to lose its thermal advantage, so it's still going to keep your feet warm. So just nice, heavy wool socks are going to be real nice for a camping trip. If you're doing some light packing, you can definitely go with a little bit smaller sock, a lower cut sock; in case you're wearing a lighter shoe, trail running, something like that. You can get them low cut. They've got cushion in the hard part, so your shoe, so that it doesn't bruise your foot or anything. They don't rub against your foot, so it doesn't build up hot spots. The other type is going to be a synthetic blend. These socks don't naturally do stuff, like a wool sock does, but they've been made to where they do all the things that a wool sock does. So when you pack your socks, you always want to take several extra pairs. Have a pair for each day. If you're doing a minimalist trip, have a pair for one day, and have a pair for another day. That's so that the other first pair can air out during the second day, while you're hiking. But always make sure you take extra socks, so that you keep your feet happy on a camping trip. When you pack your socks, you want to keep them in the driest spot of your pack, in case your pack does get wet. So try and put these in a central location in your pack, not on a outside edge or anything, just so you can keep your socks dry. And this is how you pack your socks, and select socks for a weekend camping trip."