New hiking boots!

Hello, everyone.

As y'all know, we were forced to cut short our pilgrimage walk last summer. We did learn, however, that our standard-Vibram soles didn't cope well with wet pavement. In fact, both of us fell on that last wet day of walking.

Recently I saw an ad from REI talking about a newer version of Vibram: Mega grip Vibram. It's supposed to be more stable on wet pavement and rocks. After running the phrase through the ever-handy Duck Duck Go search, we figured it was worth a try. It couldn't be any worse than the old shoes, after all! The pilgrimage trails in late spring aren't expected to be any drier in future than they have been before.

Here are pictures of my new boots:

 From the side, it looks pretty much like the old ones, except for the color. It's still mostly dirt-colored, but then it's going to be going through dirt. I'm fine with dirt colored shoes.

 A look at the sole. The sole shapes seem to release mud better than the old ones. At least, the valleys appear to be wider or shallower than before so there aren't a load of rocks already imbedded from the first couple of walks in them.

The folks at the Camino Forum were saying that the Merrell people had made the toe box a bit roomier. I think they're right! My toes are grateful, too. But now it's time to experiment with lacings and socks. Here the upper criss cross has been omitted. This made increased room over the arch, but after the change the heel-lock loops were loosening. I have added a simple twist knot at the top to stabilize the heel lock knot. Y'all can see that the lace is going under the side of the lace before the actual knot so my heels won't slip and the shoe will hopefully not allow my foot to slide forward on the downhills.

I have stepped on wet sidewalks with no problem at all in these. Complete confidence, even though wet sidewalks can be a problem even when level. And DH was wearing his old shoes and felt the slip. I think I'm in love with the Vibram Mega grip soles!