Aldaron
Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,487
While I'm busy sifting through my hundreds of pictures from the Winds, I thought I would post some gear thoughts from this trip.
This was the first trip that I took the Vivobarefoot Shoes, and I loved them. The weight is great and they do the job of protecting your feet at river crossings or letting your feet air out after a long day.
I also enjoyed my Tenkara rod. I didn't actually land any fish, but I hooked a couple that I lost...one because it was WAY too big big for the line. I think I was lucky that the line broke instead of the rod! I also didn't fish as much as I had planned because I was usually just worn out at the end of the day. I need to plan more low mileage days next time.
Lastly, I have some serious impact problems with my big toes and the balls of my feet on long trips. It seems like those areas just get bruised or beat up very easily. I have terribly flat feet, so I suspect that has something to do with it. On this trip, I put thick mole foam on those areas at the very beginning of the trip and I changed it out every day. I held it on with Leukotape to make sure it would stay in the right place, and that worked perfectly. By the fourth day I was starting to feel some of that impact pain, but it usually starts earlier than that, and it didn't hurt nearly as badly as usually.
The shoes, the rod, and the Leokotape all came from suggestions I got from this site...probably from @Nick himself...so I consider that a success story for the site!
Now, pretty much the only people we saw for the first three days were through CDT hikers...so I have to resist the urge to redo all of my gear and become an ultralighter...
This was the first trip that I took the Vivobarefoot Shoes, and I loved them. The weight is great and they do the job of protecting your feet at river crossings or letting your feet air out after a long day.
I also enjoyed my Tenkara rod. I didn't actually land any fish, but I hooked a couple that I lost...one because it was WAY too big big for the line. I think I was lucky that the line broke instead of the rod! I also didn't fish as much as I had planned because I was usually just worn out at the end of the day. I need to plan more low mileage days next time.
Lastly, I have some serious impact problems with my big toes and the balls of my feet on long trips. It seems like those areas just get bruised or beat up very easily. I have terribly flat feet, so I suspect that has something to do with it. On this trip, I put thick mole foam on those areas at the very beginning of the trip and I changed it out every day. I held it on with Leukotape to make sure it would stay in the right place, and that worked perfectly. By the fourth day I was starting to feel some of that impact pain, but it usually starts earlier than that, and it didn't hurt nearly as badly as usually.
The shoes, the rod, and the Leokotape all came from suggestions I got from this site...probably from @Nick himself...so I consider that a success story for the site!
Now, pretty much the only people we saw for the first three days were through CDT hikers...so I have to resist the urge to redo all of my gear and become an ultralighter...