OK. It's time for that all important conversation about shoes. After our Taquitz Peak hike it was apparent that I needed better shoes if I was going to be able to hike up and down hill for 22 miles. My feet hurt so badly on the way down from my toes jamming against the inside of my shoes. Also, my knees and back were feeling it too.
So I went online and started researching. I needed to buy the best shoes possible to save my feet so that I could enjoy Whitney and not be in excruciating pain for half the day.
My first stop was REI.com. I have become a regular at REI since deciding to do this hike and they have never failed me.
So I read all of the reviews on the 4+ star shoes. My favorite was the Lowa Renagade GTX Mid Hiking Boot, but at $220 I was not sure if I wanted to spend that much. I also considered the Lowa Bora GTX QC Hiking Boot.
I wrote down a few of my favorites in a variety of prices and headed for REI to try them on. When I got there, I found that they didn't have a lot of the shoes in stock that I had seen on their website, or they didn't have them in my size. So I tried on a few shoes, wrote down the styles and headed home.
At home, I looked up reviews on the boots I had tried on. None of them really sounded that great and after looking at what was out there, and the prices, I decided to go for the Lowas. I ordered both the Renegades and the Boras and when they arrived I tried them on and wore them around the house for a whole day each. The Renegades were true to the reviews. They fit like a glove right out of the box and were sooo comfortable! The Boras were nice but did not fit as well. I took the Boras back to REI and was immediately refunded my money. I kept the Renegades and starting planning a long hike!
During this same time my husband was also going through this process. He bought a pair of low rise hiking shoes at REI. He actually wore them for 2 months before realizing that they were just too tight in the toe and that they weren't going to work for Whitney. He took them back to REI and got a full refund after putting almost 100 miles on them!
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