No hike today.  Because of the very wet snow/ice storm yesterday Skyline Drive is closed and I'll bet there's lots of ice on the upper reaches of the trails.  I don't mind snow but ice scares me especially if I'm hiking alone.  It's supposed to reach 50 today but I'd guess the trails won't melt until the afternoon. 

So I thought I'd put in a post about footwear.  Once upon a time, when I hiked most weekends in the White Mountains, I bought myself a pair of Limmers boots.  At the time they cost the exhorbitant price of $75 and required a year of waiting time.  I wore them all the time and eventually ordered a second pair because I didn't want to have to wait for replacement boots.  Over the years, however, I didn't take care of them and they got leaky.  I should have maintained them but I didn't.  So I moved to commercial hiking boots.  I was very happy with some men's Lowa boots but then, just as I was preparing for my A.T. thru hike, my boots died and the style had disappeared.  After reading Ray Jardine's PCT book about ultralight backpacking, and after trying on dozens of boots in local outfitters, I decided to try trail runners for hiking.  I am now a confirmed trail runner backpacker.  They were great on my thru hike (I walked through 4 1/2 pairs of Salomon XA Comps) and I've continued to use them.  Recently I've had problems with my feet (I got orthotics in 2005, have a sometimes-painful bonespur on the outside of one foot, hammertoes, and achilles tendon pain).  So I really need to find comfortable hiking footwear.  Now that I'm planning to hike in winter, I feel I need some sort of waterproof boots that will work well for miles of snowshoeing or hiking.  My Sorel snow shoveling boots and fleece lined LL Bean boots won't cut it for the miles.  So now I'm thinking of reconditioning my Limmers to see if they still fit my feet. 

Stay tuned.