 welcome to another video. In this video we're going to talk about shoes, specifically hiking shoes, whether you should be thinking about using trail runners compared to traditional hiking boots, something maybe a little bit in between. Having done a number of long distance hikes, I reckon I'm pretty qualified to give a little bit of advice about these, about the footwear that I use and a lot of people ask about the footwear, so let's get into it. So I've recently just done the Cape Wrath trail, which is roughly 200 miles through very boggy wet terrain and so my thought process was that right I want to keep my feet dry because the idea of hiking in wet feet is it's not good to think about, but having weighed both options up I'm glad, very glad that I went for these, the Altra Lone Peak 5s, this is what I went for in the end. Let me just tell you what I had at first, so at first I was going to use these and these are my lower renegades or lower renegades and they're leather with a Gore-Tex inner, very sturdy boot, lots of ankle support, you know the grip is fantastic on them, I really love these boots. If anyone's looking for a hiking boot just for mountain hiking and one to two day or hiking in winter I recommend these, these are excellent. The more research I did, the more I found out about the Cape Wrath trail, the more I was worried that these were going to get wet and the thing about boots like this is once they do get wet they can take a long time to dry out and so the thought of having a heavier and wetter boot over a lot lighter, my thought process was that these are going to get a lot wetter, I mean you could just walk through the morning dew in the grass and my feet were soaking, but I used really thin marina wool almost like a sock liner which dried really quickly and this has got, you see the holes, it's got holes all in the toe box there, your feet dry out so quick and so I sacrificed having wet feet all the time for the fact that they would dry and they'll be a lot lighter to use and I'm glad I did it because although I had the expected wear and tear on my feet, I wasn't stopped, I wasn't putting my, I wasn't, it didn't hinder me finishing so I'm glad I went for these. You've got to know your terrain, at times you're crossing rivers and they're up to you, to your unmentionables, your unfathomables in water so these, they're not doing anything so you do one river crossing, that's all the water in your boot and that's going to take a lot longer to dry out, there was a guy on the ferry on his way over to do, I think it was section hiking it and he had flip flops or crocs or something and he said oh well every river crossing I get to I'll chuck on my crocs but when it's raining and when the rivers and and the streams and stuff are in spate that you could be crossing a river getting your crocs on, crossing the river, getting your boots back on, setting off and within 10 minutes you're at another river and you're not going to be wanting to do that when when you need to be making up time and and crushing the miles man. You can see the tour box is a lot wider there, they've got a really wide tour box and that's to give your feet your toes room to spread out more stability and for me when you've been hiking for days on end your toes and your feet swell up so it gives you a lot of room to sort of for your feet to pulsate within also I do a lot of well I've been doing a lot of bare foot walking and your feet they move differently so these as well have the the heel and the ball of your foot at the same distance from the ground just to encourage proper low impact they also what I found very good is because they are low you don't want to be getting little stones in your shoes because even the little ones that you don't notice over a 20 mile there they can niggle at you and cause you a lot of grief so the good thing about these they've got this hook which you can easily just snap your gaiters onto and there you go that just that just stops any little stones bits of debris getting into your shoes and causing unnecessary blisters or soaps but hotspots what is a hotspot not the laces as well on these sorry to just keep flitting between the two but the laces on these are excellent there's no they didn't come undone they're they they're so grippy so it's 305 grams or 10.7 ounces for the uh for the lumb peak fives and the lowers at 1,105 grams or two pound seven ounces and that's quite a lot of difference in it and you might not see me when you're wearing them at first but after a week of hiking you're going to notice these are the Solomon ultra threes mid GTX boots and these they serve me okay I did the coast to coast in these and um I had them as my bushcraft shoes and just general hiking but for people who are going to get them they did bust open at the the bust open at the toe box on eat on both sides the laces were constantly coming undone and the thread I mean that it's worn down to a nub now that's probably because of overuse but yeah these are good but they're only good for sort of 300 or 400 miles I reckon there's no longevity in them whereas I think something like the these lowers the leather ones these are going to last you a lot longer if you look after them that's something I would say so you're going to have to choose your choose your time between trail runners and hiking boots what do you want to do so I would say anytime in any winter hiking I'm using these because I want to wear I want to wear my thick wool socks I want to keep my feet warm your feet are going to be cold in these in the winter so I wouldn't use these in the winter months for winter hiking if you're going to be hiking in the wet and it's just wet grass and you're only going for a few days maybe two or three days hiking and it's just wet grass there's no river crossings I'll definitely choose these just to keep my feet dry if your feet are going to be getting absolutely drenched and it's the summer months I would wear these because your feet dry out better but if you so perfect for the Cape Wrath trail and things like that where they're at where it is going to be quite wet so my granddad was a keen keen hiker he's done a lot of a lot of the trails around around where I'm from in Yorkshire and in fact I am I'm doing another trail next week actually so stay tuned for that and that's one he's done as well when my granddad passed away he had his hiking boots put on top of his coffin and they were proper old-school leather hiking boots that he'd had for years I can't see me unless I die tomorrow I can't see me having these on my coffin a pair of trail runners so that's what I will say about a good pair a good pair of leather hiking boots they can transcend their monetary value because you just haven't for so long and they become a part of you and you look after them and you look after the leather and treat it and it's I don't know it's more visceral it's just a lot more you feel a lot more connected to them which might be baloney but for me it's something it's something to consider if you're a quick a quick a quick hiker and you and weight is of you're a gram counter then you want to be going for these because they're so lightweight you don't really think about them and I found them very comfortable and the ankle support I wasn't really that bothered because I walk around in just without boots on most of the time anyway so my ankles are pretty sturdy there's a lot to consider and I'm not going to tell you the right thing or the wrong thing to do because what do I know I've got a few miles under me under my feet so I can I can give you my opinion at the end of the day it comes down to your personal preference and what you want out of these I hope this is sort of helping or helped you to to make a decision if you were sort of sat on the fence and you were worried about which to choose for which sort of hike then for an example for for people in the UK if you're going to be going up to the Lake District for a weekend of hiking in the mountains these I would definitely go for something like this if you're going to be doing long-distance multi-day hikes you know over four or five days and and you're really putting in the miles and at the end of the day you're stopping you're getting up you're carrying on and you might be going you're doing a lot of river crossing your feet are definitely going to get wet I would choose these I mean if you can have both get both have the options see what works best for you but I'm aware that these are quite expensive I think these are let me have a look actually these are 125 pounds sterling you're going to be paying upwards of 180 190 pounds for these so these are a lot more expensive they will last you a lot longer and I do recommend them do recommend these yes I do recommend these as a these are like a compromise because they're very light for a boot and they are pretty fast drying as well so consider something like this sort of hybrid in between the two it doesn't have the longevity for me so man these are already retired bust them up I'm only keeping them for I don't know maybe just a bit of sentimental value yes they've had some they've got some memories attached to them but yeah man on always go and get go and get fitted as well if you can go to a proper shoe shop don't buy them online go to a proper shoe shop get fitted for your shoes because the right shoe is the one that fits the best because it's only hiking hiking is it sounds all out all you need all the gear and stuff but it's just walking we've all been walking well most of us have been walking for a long time we know how to do it it's just putting one foot in front of the other so as long as you've got something that fits it's comfortable for you don't worry too much about it unless you're getting into these long long long distance hikes where you know your footwear is is important but just don't worry about it mate just wear a pair of stilettos if you want you do you wear a pair of clogs I'm just trying to shed a little bit of knowledge of what I've learned firsthand hiking and using things like this so I thought I'd try and share a little bit of it with the people that watch and that are interested in it and there we go I hope that all made sense it didn't seem to make sense but hopefully I can edit it all to make sense right yeah I'll be doing I've got another long distance hike coming up in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned for that and I'll see you soon au revoir