Last updated on April 13th, 2021 at 10:59 pm
Have you ever made it halfway through your hike only to notice your feet were soaked? This is more common than you may think, but there are ways to combat this. In this post, we cover how to keep your feet dry on a hike AND ways to help your feet dry out faster.
Keeping your feet dry on a hike depends heavily on terrain and duration. Selecting higher elevation trails that receive heavy sun increases your likelihood of dry feet. For hikes of just a few hours, where stream crossings aren’t required, waterproof boots should suffice. For multi-day excursions, one should accept their feet will get wet and consider instead footwear that has the ability to dry quickly.
Through the rest of this post, we cover why dry feet are important, how trail selection and hike duration impact your feet, and what type of footwear will keep your feet most dry.
Why Dry Feet Are Important
There are a number of reasons why you should aim to keep your feet dry on a hike. Not least of all, it just makes for a more comfortable and enjoyable hike.
In addition to making your hike more comfortable, dry feet are important because they are more likely to protect you through the duration of your experience. Here are our some reasons why dry feet are important while hiking:
- Calluses can do their job: Calluses form on your feet to protect your feet. They are your body’s natural form of blister protection. When your feet get wet (and stay wet), the calluses become soft and might even begin to loosen. In worst-case scenarios, these calluses can start to come off in the form of a HUGE blisters. While this might be painful, the big downfall will be one the callus is removed completely – your sensitive thin underskin will be completely exposed.
- Blisters become more likely with wet feet: I mention above what can happen to a callus when it becomes soggy and wet for long periods of time, but blisters can really happen anywhere when water is added to the inside of a shoe or boot. With wet feet, blisters are more likely to form on your toes, arches, and heels.
- Comfort and enjoyment: Being comfortable on a hike IS important! Sometimes we feel like part of the hiking experience has to be our ability to work through difficult scenarios. That can still be true, but one of those difficult scenarios does not have to be extreme discomfort and painful feet.
- You’ll be able to hike longer: One of the biggest reasons dry feet are important for me, is I find I hike longer when comfortable. And hiking for longer durations is always a goal of mine.
Select Trails That Will Keep Your Feet Dry
This should be a no-brainer, but I make the mistake all the time, especially in the spring months when it is most wet. One of the simplest ways to keep dry feet on a hike, is to select trails and terrains that increase your likelihood of staying out of water. Below are two ways to base trail selection that increase the odds of dry feet.
Select Trails That Have a Higher Elevation
Rainwater, melting snow, rivers, and streams…they all start high and make their ways down to lower elevations. Because all these water sources are working their way towards valleys and lower elevations you will certainly have a sloshy and wet experience if hiking the valley.
RELATED: When to Replace Your Hiking Boots? | Average Lifespan of Hiking Boots
Instead, aim your hiking goals higher…literally. Pick hiking routes that stay in a higher elevation in order to avoid the water buildup that occurs in lower elevations. This can be specifically true in the spring months.
Select Trails That Get More Sunlight
Another common way to select trails when avoiding water is by sunlight.
When planning your hike, scope out the trails with the most sun exposure… these should be your target locations. The more sun making contact with the soil, the more firm the ground will be, and as a result… the less soggy your feet will get.
It seems like common sense, but finding trails with full sun exposure can actually be a bit difficult. After all, the allure of many trails is their seclusion away from people, and quite often their near full tree cover.
While it may be difficult to select trails in full sun, it is likely there are at least a few options near you.
Hike Duration WILL Impact How Dry Your Feet Stay
While your foot comfort relies heavily on whether you have selected trails that are drier, duration of your hike will also be a huge factor in how wet or dry you get.
For many of us, we are only hiking for 2 to 5 hours at a time. In these instances, if the correct trails are selected and the proper footwear worn, it is possible to keep your feet dry.
For others, however, hikes may not be measured in hours, but in days. In these instances there is almost no getting around having wet feet in some capacity during part of the hike.
Even the best waterproof boots will allow water to slowly seep in through the seams and crevices. This may not be noticeable immediately, but for this reason, multi-day hiking excursions need to have a feet drying strategy just as much as a strategy to prolong dry feet. A lot of this has to do with selecting the correct footwear, which we cover a bit more below.
Wear Appropriate Footwear For Your Hike
Having terrain and duration appropriate footwear is imperative to a successful hike.
Appropriate footwear can take many forms, too. This could mean hiking boots, speed hiking shoes, or even trail running shoes that work well on hikes. Regardless of what you decide to wear on your feet, it is a good idea to evaluate how long you will be hiking and where you will be hiking.
Waterproof Boots Are Ideal for Most Hikes
Waterproof hiking boots are awesome, and they tend to work nearly perfectly for the majority of my hikes. More specifically, waterproof boots work well for my hikes that are between 2 and 5 hours long through terrains without stream crossings where water could rush over the cuff of my boot.
For 90% of the readers out there, the above likely describe your hiking experiences exactly. That is to say, most people are hiking for just a couple of hours and most people aren’t intending to wade through streams. If this describes you you can rest assured that finding a good pair of waterproof hiking boots is among the best routes to keeping your feet dry on a hike.
Breathable Fast Drying Footwear Are Good For Longer Hikes
For those looking to hike for multiple days, it may be more important to focus on the breathability of footwear.
For longer multi-day through-hikes you’ll most likely encounter some water… It is inevitable. This could be in the form of a stream crossing, or just an extremely muddy stretch of trail through a valley. Regardless… it will happen. Long duration hiking will result in wet feet.
So, how do you plan and adjust your footwear to adapt to the realization that your feet are going to be soggy for stretches of time? Focus on footwear that dries faster and allows water to make its way out of the shoe or boot.
Believe it or not, many long-duration through-hikers might find value in wearing breathable trail running shoes for swathes of the hike. Trail running shoes typically come with more extreme toe protection, a rock-plate, and superb comfort that might make these a perfect multi-day hiking companion.
For those that aren’t interested in jumping right into trail runners, there are a wide variety of speed hiking shoes that are both waterproof and breathable. You can check out our post on the best speed hiking shoes for any terrain if this describes you.
Wearing Socks is Actually a Big Deal...They Prevent Blisters
It isn’t very difficult to select a sock perfect for your hikes. There are some made specifically to wick moisture away from your feet, but I have found a nice pair of cotton socks work perfectly for me.
More importantly than the type of socks, it is important that socks are worn at all. Yes, some hikers swear by hiking without them. Damp feet inside of boots, that aren’t protected by socks, are without a doubt more prone to blisters and other foot ailments.
Gaiters Are Another Way to Keep Feet Dry
If you’re unfamiliar with gaiters, they are in their simplest form, a bit of fabric that wraps the top cuff of your footwear and extends up your leg. In a sense, gaiters extend your cuff up your leg. Having a higher cuff can make it more difficult for water and mud to make its way in your boot or shoe. This can, in turn, help keep your feet dry during the hike
Gaiters probably have the most benefit for long-distance/long-duration hikers, or for any hiker who knows mud will be a big part of their adventure. We actually list gaiters as one of our 11 tips for hiking muddy trails, but an added benefit of keeping mud out of your shoes is drier feet.
Dry Feet Makes Enjoying the Trail Easier
Hiking doesn’t need to be about trudging through the discomfort. Yes, there will be some of that if you are in the outdoors, but the discomfort should never be overwhelming… specifically for the part of your body you rely on most: your feet.
Taking care of your feet is a very important part of having a safe and enjoyable hiking experience.
While making our way through adversity is a part of the thrill for hikers, dry blister-free feet will allow the adversity we tackle be in the form of the trail itself.
Hopefully, you can approach your next hike with a good plan, the appropriate footwear, and drier feet.
Image Credit: deldevries |(https://www.flickr.com/photos/deldevries/) | Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Comments are closed.