Gear Review: Hiking Clothes + Shoes

From the bottom up, here's a review of what I wore every day.

Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 4 (women's size 11)
I am really happy with these shoes and went out and bought another pair right after I got back from my trip. Plenty of room in the forefront but a narrow enough heel to keep my foot in place. These were almost always muddy and wet, or at least damp during the entire hike except on rest days when I could get them really dry, and they held together surprisingly well. I wore small holes in them on both sides of the forefoot early in the trip, but they didn't get worse once they were there. I got them about a size bigger than my normal size and had zero blisters or hot spots the entire trip. Their light weight, though, means that they are pretty porous, and I regularly had mud coming in through the tops of the toes. I'd wash them out in a river every couple of days if it wasn't too chilly.

Insoles: Spenco Flat

My feet are funny, and most arch support feels like it's in the wrong place for one foot, so I went with totally flat, thin insoles and had no foot problems during the trip. Before I switched to lightweight trail runners, I'd often have tendon troubles when hiking. Training + this shoe/insole combo kept those troubles away during the whole trip. My feet were definitely sore in the mornings (both during and after the trip), but it was whole-foot soreness instead of painful tendonitis. I might experiment with a bit thicker insoles in the future, but overall, these worked for me and after the trip, I bought another pair to go with my new shoes.

Socks: 1 pair Darn Toughs (pictured below), 1 pair Wright Socks (pictured above), 1 pair of fuzzy socks to sleep in

My original plan was to rotate between the Darn Toughs and Wright Socks for hiking and keep the fuzzy socks as my dry sleeping pair. However, it soon became clear that there was no point in having two pairs of wet, dirty socks, so I wore the Darn Toughs almost exclusively--all but 10 miles of the trail. At my first resupply point, I sent the fuzzy socks home and kept the Wright Socks for camp/sleeping socks.

I wore the Wright Socks for 10 miles of the trail--one 4-mile day early in the trip when I was babying a sore knee and later for a half day after this picture was taken and I realized I should probably wash and dry the Darn Toughs:

I ended up slipping off a boardwalk into a bog with the Wright Socks on, and the advertised anti-blister properties of this brand simply don't work when they are wet (as I knew from one of my training hikes), so I promptly switched back to the wet Darn Toughs anyway. In Grand Marais, I shipped the Wright Socks home and picked up another pair of Darn Toughs to sleep in for the last few days of the trip. I was so, so excited to see a wall of clean, dry socks at Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply that I couldn't resist buying a pair. I kept hiking in the pair you see above, though. After nearly 300 mostly-wet miles + who knows how many training miles, they socks still have no holes in them. They've worn thin along the outside edge of the sock but will probably go for another couple hundred miles before really wearing out. I highly, highly recommend them.

Gaiters: Dirty Girl

No problems with these, either. At about an ounce, they're light and you can customize your order to your ankle circumference. I ordered them a little big and then added elastic so I could adjust the size, which is nice if you wear different thicknesses of pants during different seasons. The velcro that's supposed to keep them on your shoes never really worked since my shoes were soaking wet all the time, but they stayed attached to the shoes pretty well anyway. My shoes have a little tab near the toes for hooking them on, which was also convenient. For the Superior Hiking Trail, these were best at keeping ticks off of my legs, especially in the more overgrown/grassier sections in the northern parts of the trail. I had only one tick bite during the trip, and I saw it crawl off my gaiters and onto my leg as I was changing clothes the last night of the trip. I couldn't get it brushed off quickly enough before it bit me, but I pulled it off within seconds. I'd definitely wear these again, too. I soaked them in permethrin before the trip, but they were wet so often that one treatment didn't last the entire trip.

Pants: Cabella's Guidewear

I don't remember the specific model of these pants, but I've had good luck with 2-3 different styles from this series. They tend to be cheap and sized for those of us who are a bigger than the average North Face/Patagonia/Prana adventurer. I planned to wear long-pants the entire trip, so this specific pair is just pants (the legs don't zip off to make them shorts). I used the cargo pockets for my map on one side and my phone on the other. The velcro on both cargo pockets was worn out by the end of the trip. I superglued it back on when it fell off, but in the future, I'd reinforce the velcro by sewing it on more firmly before the beginning of a trip if I planned to get in and out of the pockets several times each day like I did on this trip. I kept them tucked into the gaiters and soaked them in permethrin before I left, and I saw only a couple of ticks on them during the last couple of days when the trail was grassy/overgrown and the permethrin probably wearing out.

Underwear: Champion 9" inseam boxer briefs

Ladies, especially chubbier ladies, I think the guys are holding out on us. These long inseam shorts are great for preventing thigh chafe and wedgies. I use a pStyle, so having shorts with a fly was a priority for me (no bare skin = no bug bites during bathroom breaks). I tried 6 or 7 brands before my trip but found that these were the best.

Shirt: Levi's Thrift Store Special

This is my favorite hiking shirt--loose enough to keep me cool when it's warm but warm enough to keep me warm while I'm on the move down to around 40 degrees. It was $6 at Savers. There's a little pilling at my lower back where it rubbed against my pack all day every day, but it's still going strong. Fabric content: 65% polyester, 35% cotton. I duct taped the slit at the sleeve when the mosquitos started coming out so they couldn't get in that way.

T-shirt: Wool

I love this shirt, but I ended up sending it home since I was barely wearing it. Temps were cool enough that I could wear my long-sleeved shirt all the time. There was no use stinking up another shirt, so home it went.

Bra: Cheap sports bra

I can't remember what brand this is, but it was a cheap but comfortable synthetic sports bra from Target. It worked fine, but it smelled pretty bad some days...

Hat: Superior Hiking Trail!

I have a small head, which makes finding comfortable hats a bit of a challenge. I started the trip with a nearly worn-out Life is Good hat with a brim that was barely clinging to the rest of the hat except by the seams at the edge, so when I got to the Superior Hiking Trail office in Two Harbors, I was thrilled to find a SHT hat that fit. I sent the old hat home, and my cat apparently went crazy over it (I think she missed me...).