An Infantryman's Leave: Dunes and Mountain Trekking in Foot Fingers

By Justin Owings on Oct 14, 2011 | In User Stories | Leave a comment »

Eric on leave hits up Birmingham and Colorado in his various FiveFingers shoes.

FiveFingers fan and infantryman Eric sent in the above photos that make me wish I had enough balance to hold a handstand (working on it!). Eric was recently on leave and took his multiple pairs of Vibram "foot fingers" mini-golfing, hiking, and trekking sand dunes. Here's his report:

Hello fellow "foot fingers" I would just like share what I did in my FiveFingers while I was on block leave.

The first picture (Bham) is just me in my home town Birmingham, Alabama playing around at a mini golf course "Roll Tide".

My second picture (last chance) took place in Creede, Colorado at the last chance mine. The view is an insight of the mining life before technology.

The third picture (sand dunes) is where my gorgeous wife and I climbed the great National Sand Dunes in Colorado. My wife is wearing pink Bikilas and I'm wearing the Bikila LS. The hike was a great first experience for both my wife and I in FiveFingers (I finally convinced her to get a pair, she was a non-believer because of some previous plantar fascitiis while in Iraq). They worked great until the sand got in between your toes and burnt her skin...the sand was over 100 degrees. My wife's KSOs did great but the LS model did not protect the feet as well ... I guess that is why hers are really called "keep stuff out" because they sure kept the sand out.

The fourth picture (Mt. Shavanno) is of me on the top of Mt. Shavanno in Colorado. Most people I talked to advised me not to wear the shoes to climb a fourteener in Colorado because of the terrain. But the KSO Trek Sports were fit for the job. We started out at night so I had to be careful where I stepped unlike me wife who just casually walked wherever she wanted, she had on thick heavy anchorlike hiking boots. Ten plus miles of rocky terrain later the KSO Sport Trek shoes did not show any sign of wear. Not only did the shoes hold up but my feet looked just as they did before the long hike — not even a blister.

Sounds like you need to convince your wife to drop her anchors and put on her KSOs for hiking! It's a free foot massage!

Thanks for sharing your story, Eric! No doubt your wife and you have many more "almost barefoot" adventures ahead of you.

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 750 articles and 302 comments.