Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/21/hiker-timelapse-wearing-out-sh.html
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Ugh…I can smell those leggings through the GIF.
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I thought pairs 1 & 3 looked familiar. My tired old feet appreciate the Olympus a bit more nowadays.
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That is pretty awesome.
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Don’t show the underwear! Please don’t show the underwear!
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Hiking shoes: my ASMR. Thank you for this.
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I love this. Pictures of human feet in, and in between, transit are fascinatingly cool to me. I almost want to upload a picture I took in 2003 for clarification… I just might…
Can’t find it now. Crap.
Man on a mission…
There you have it. I have more better ones, but this will suffice.
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Well done, Andrew! My cousin and I thru-hiked in '08, we went through four pairs apiece as well. Wore a hole right under the ball of my right foot on one set and simultaneously destroyed four pairs of socks before exchanging the shoes for good ones.
Down in the High Sierra, I definitely recall going over a pass, headed back in from resupply in town, going by a young gentleman headed for town with no shoes. He’d been doing the PCT, probably 700-800 miles north, barefoot. Which seems absolutely mad to me, but there he was anyway.
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I’m beginning to think barefoot is The Plan. As in, why the fuck do I wear shoes again? I used to wear no shoes on the University of Minnesota downtown, in the city proper…sure I stepped in vomit and urine and shit, and sure, educated people thought I’d get hookworm, but I never did. Sure, my feet were/are dirty, but oh, the miles they’ve/we’ve walked…
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Less so up north, although it’s got spots, but the south was full of every kind of sticking thing possible. Put down anything not-enameled steel or hard plastic and it’d come up with variously sized thorns. Getting into the Bernardinos and the Sierra the crushed granite is everywhere which is like 1 grit sandpaper–and beyond all of that, shoes were my security theater in the face of rattlesnakes.
OMG the rattlesnakes.
The guy we saw doing it looked like a neanderthal, iirc. He was really dusty, kinda short but stout like a football player, long black hair, and barefoot somewhere north of 8k feet. So if you can hack it, if that’s your thing, shine on you crazy star!
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Nah, in your spec, methinks I’d be shoed too.
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So I guess those french fry things cover the laces and protect them from dirt and getting snagged?
What does he do that he can take off 1/3rd of a year to walk around?
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His last name means “wood shoe”! Maybe he’d go through fewer pairs if he actually wore wooden shoes!
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I’ve never seen hiking spats before.
Gaiters.
Spats are for dress, gaiters are functional.
@Mister44: They keep rocks, dirt, and other debris you kick up out of your shoes too.
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Yes, but “spats” is a funnier word.
Goodness grief, as someone who wears hiking boots a lot day to day (i have oddly shaped ankles, so boots are the most comfortable) and also does a fair bit of hiking, wearing out four pairs is seriously impressive.
My previous boots lasted about two years, replaced in the end because the soles were getting so thin i could feel every bump in the pavement, Commander Vimes from the discworld style 
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Kittens and cats
Mittens and spats
Cool video, i really love this sort of thing. However I had to stop watching the moment I saw he was wearing toe socks.
those are just wrong and need to be discouraged
Good for areas with lots of thorny stuff if you’re the bushwhack type. Never used them myself, although saw a lot of people who did.
As for taking the time, I saved for 1.5+ years then quit my horrible job for the hike. Lots of people “section hike” the trail as well, doing chunks when they can (50 mile stretch this weekend, 80 mile stretch that weekend, etc.).
