barefoot hiking/camping

i've been needing to get alone out in nature lately, and have been thinking of taking my bare feet out to the woods. has anyone here done any amount of hiking or camping barefoot? my feet are used to city pavement, and i'm a little aprehensive of pokey sitcks and pine needles. advice?

 

Worst of all, if you use any kind of "official" campsite, you'll be walking around a place where people have probably been smashing beer bottles for years. And I once saw a woman going around barefoot at a cabin run by a devoutly ecological outdoors organization, and she stepped on a nail left on the ground. Just one nail dropped during some volunteer renovation project--you're really betting on other people being careful.

 

the only thing that will cut you is the tops and bottoms of broken bottles and straw that has been cut with a mower(and is still growing) other then that you should be fine. unless your afraid of something, then it can cut you too.

 

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Yes, do check out The Barefoot Hiker. I've met Richard in person, up in his "stomping grounds" of Connecticut, and he took me on an hour's hike around some trails where he lives. He is a great guy, and very knowledgeable about the subject of barefoot hiking. He's poetic about it, but also does not gloss over the safety aspects of it. (He's not as foreboding as some posters here, though, whose warnings are enough to scare anyone away from the activity!)


You might be able to find out, through him, where to order a paper copy of the book. (I ordered a case of them back in 1998, and I have some left. I might be able to be cajoled into parting with one or two.) A guy named Mike Berrow was custodian of the remaining stock, and I don't think the book is still in print (though it ought to be).

I hope you do decide to get your bare feet out into the woods. Enjoy!

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

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I have done some barefoto hiking and it is wounderful. Glass is not much of a problem because it is easier for the glass to sink into the ground rather than your foot. I have never had much of a problem with nails on campgrounds, (I have stepped on a couple of nails before) and lots of things arn't a problem. The only unpleasent things I have ever stepped on are throns. I am always barefoot so my feet are tough enough to with stand thorns. With a little practice your feet will be tough too. The worst injury I even got when camping barefoot was when I was walking on a concrete path for the camp ground and I stepped on some broken glass and when some people were fishing I stepped on a hook.

 

I do it all the time.. The never steped on anything to bad.. just doggie poop.. watch it for that

 

i think afterwhile your eyes just get used to scanning
the ground for every little detail . at first , it's being so
careful that you might not step on a single ant yet
then bump into a tree . oops , iz yooz a tree ?

 

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Why only barefoot.....Naked is much more enjoyable..........

In fact....Nothing's Better!!

Sans_kit

 

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I enjoy barefoot hiking. My favorite spot is the tall grass prairie in Kansas. I like to get away from where most people go, so I can avoid the sharp object they might leave behind. I have found a few rocks though... but that's to be expected. I also enjoy hiking nude. There truly is nothing like it. Especially during the summer when it's raining. Most people won't venture out, so I tend to have trails all to myself. Nude hiking is a great stress reliever.:cheers2:

 

I've been barefoot hiking for years, at least ten miles every weekend, and so far i've had only one little cut. I have stepped on broken glass a few times, but fortunately it failed to penetrate the skin, which is well developed by now. Just take it easy untill you get used to it, you will find it much more fun and less tiring than walking shod.

 

the best thing to do is just get out there and hike. be careful not to step on glass, but your feet should toughen up so much you hardly feel a thing.

 

I don't know what sort of hiking paths and tracks you folks have in america but I reckon' you'll be fine. The further away from 'civilisation' you go the fewer smashed bottles and annoyances as 'prepared' tracks full of sharp gavel. Bottle-busters and stupid littering people are usually very lazy so fortunatley they reach mostly just as far as their car will take them.

I read, actually heard a interview on youtube, about some sisters doing the Appalachian trail barefoot. Isis and Jackrabbit they called themselves. That was cool -and perfectly a feasable journey. I bet they aren't superhuman but 'just' a pair of really cool chicks.

If you'd like tips of good bf-friendly hikhing trails, check out with http://www.barefooters.org/hikers/

 

I've gone hiking a lot, always barefoot, and when I went by myself once I was also completly naked.
kind of awkward when I ran into some other hikers