Footwear for a Summer/Autumn Camino

[Covey]

My first trip on the Camino Frances was to join my elder son at Sarria and walk in to Santiago in June. As I was going at 5 days notice, I hauled out my old faithful all leather British walking boots, slapped on even more Dubbin to keep them waterproof, bought a pair of Smartwool socks and set off from Sarria.

By Azura which is 40kms short of Santiago, both feet had bad blisters because my feet were sweating in the heat of walking all day and the moisture had nowhere to go because the Dubbin was doing its job.

The following year I returned to the Camino Frances and started from St Jean in September in my new Salomon boots with Gortex breathing panels and some new Smartwool socks and had a virtually incident free Camino as far as my feet were concerned. The following year I started from St Jean in early July and my Salomon's carried me again to Santiago and Finesterre, but the boot/Smartwool combination felt a little heavy and hot on occasions, especially on the Meseta where the temperature was around 35C.

After four trips down the Camino Frances, my Salomon's suffered a tear in the Gortex when I was cleaning them, so they were relegated to the bin and I started to search for a replacement.

Because I walk in the Summer/Autumn, I thought a pair of good shoes might be lighter and cooler to walk in and settled on a pair of Merrell Moab shoes and my new best friend, 1000 Mile socks. The Merrells fitted like a glove, were instantly comfortable and were one full size bigger than my normal shoe size as that felt best when I tried them on in the specialist shop with a pair of my 1000 Mile socks.

HOWEVER, whilst my training walks earlier this summer were under 15kms there were no problems, when I started to push the distance above 20kms or 4 hours walking, I noticed that my toes on my left foot were beginning to butt up against the front of the shoe and started to rub. The right foot remained fine. Having consulted another specialist shop, their expert said that in some older people (I am 62!) the foot arch can lower slightly after prolonged walking and thus the foot gets slightly longer.

As Merrells only do full sizes and not halves, I really needed TWO sizes up from my normal shoe size, but I was concerned that this might be too much, so I bought a pair of Salomon shoes which were 1.5 sizes above my shoe size.

I could not get used to the Salomon shoes and after 200kms of training walks they still felt stiff and "lumpy" so I bit the bullet and bought a pair of Merrell Moabs 2 sizes up from normal.

For the last couple of weeks I blazed the trail from St Jean to Boadilla on the Meseta in my Merrells and my 1000 Mile Trainer Socks which do not even show when wearing the shoes.

The combination was brilliant, BUT as Husky Nerd has pointed out elsewhere, shoes usually have lighter soles than boots and on some sections of the Camino where the track has a lot of 2-3cm stones, you feel the track and should slow down. On roads and gravel paths I flew and put in a number of 35+km days without killing myself, but on stony track, a more gentle pace eased the wear and tear on the feet.

In June to October you can wear shoes on the Camino and will not come to any harm. If you need ankle support, then you need boots, and for walking outside June to October, I would suggest boots are the preferable option.

[Nanonano]

The 1000 mile socks are indeed brilliant. I had one pair and a merino wool pair and ended up washing the 1000 mile ones every day!
I practiced as well with the gear for appr. 2 hour walks and thought I was fine until I was on the Camino. Merino wouldn't do for me. I read in another thread to turn the socks inside out because of the seam and that does make a difference for the toes.

[Fsam33]

What style of the 1000mile socks do you recommend.
I'll be doing the Camino Frances late May to June 2011.
Thanks

[Covey]

Last year I experimented with 1000 Mile socks and they were as good as the adverts said they were. This year, because I was using walking shoes instead of boots, I carried a couple of pairs of "trainer liner" socks which had the built in liner.

1000 Mile Sportswear - 1000 Athletics Socks

I also carried a couple of pairs of their Outdoors short socks in case the trainer liners turned out to be a duff choice, but the trainer liners worked very well.

I met one guy who had bought some sports socks from Marks & Spencers in the UK which also had a built in liner, and he was very pleased with them.