Blood Sucking Leeches attach themselves to Vibram Five Fingers KSOs on Mt. Makiling

Joey and his fellow hikers at the Summit of Mt. Makiling. Those other shoes sure do look heavy.

Vibram Five Fingers Fan, Joey, wore his Vibram Five Fingers KSOs on a 12 mile hike to the summit of Mt. Makiling, a potentially active volcano on the island of Luzon, Philippines.. He encountered all types of terrain and ground conditions. He even had to fend off some pesky blood leeches. Luckily, his KSOs protected him from the little buggers and there was no blood loss.

Read Joey's description of his hike.

My KSO's did a great job for a 5k fun run last month, but I wanted to use them for a trail run. I was asking myself if the VFFs would be able to handle the abuse of trail run. Then, last Monday I was invited for a day hike in Mt. Makiling. Excited to test it on trail, I packed my stuff and agreed to be there before dawn strikes. From Sto. Tomas, Batangas to the Summit of Mt. Makiling and descent to Entry Point of UP Los banos is almost a 12 hours of barefoot trekking.

A map of Joey's route.

My KSOs performed very well on dried river streams, grasslands, large logs and rocks. Also, some limatik (Blood Leeches) got attached on my KSO, but they were not able to bite on my skin. This reminds that they are to "keep stuff out". On our descent from the summit, I was slowed by the fact that they were a bit slippery on mud as it rained just before we reached the summit making the trail soft. Upon reaching the Agila Base, I had to embrace my feet to trek a very rocky road for about 2 hours on the way down. I was asking myself, "What type of adhesive did they use for this?", as it was still attached to my feet and I was feeling that my legs were the ones that will fall off, not my KSOs". Finally, after reaching the Entry Point, I was smiling like a child as I was able to finish the climb with my KSOs. While preparing ourselves to go home, I was saying to myself, damn, I'm ready for the trail run!

Joey's KSOs look ready for a bath.

Thanks for sharing your story Joey and we're glad your KSOs kept stuff out. Especially, the blood sucking leeches.

About the Author — Hailing from College Station, Texas (Home to Texas A&M!), I grew up running cross country. Believe it or not, I gave Justin the name for this site back in early 2009 but I didn't jump on the toe shoes bandwagon until a year later. I am also really into quadcopters and drones and have a blog called OddCopter.com.
Britt has written 161 articles and 67 comments.