Heaven for your feet

My trusty, well worn Renegades

Teddy Roosevelt and I have a similar opinion when it comes to Whitetail hunting. It's too sedentary. I do it, because it's the only game in New York, but I don't like the sitting. There's just too much sitting around and waiting. There doesn't have to be--I've actually and some success still hunting--and I've had a lot of failures still hunting too--but, for the most part, Whitetails are hunted from stands, so thats how I hunt them.

But not always.

This one time, I was walking into the woods. My plan was to still hunt up to the ground blind where I was going to post. It was just after sunrise, but it was over cast and a bit misty. It was bow season, in early October. The place where we usually hunt, there's a power-line trail going up hill side, with woods to either side of that. Because there are some houses near by where we enter, we walk into the woods with our rifles unloaded. There is (or was, it's gone now) a large bush--at least eight feet high and probably twelve feet broad, next to the trail where we walk in. That's where we should normally  load our rifles. This day, I was bow hunting, so I stopped to do something else. Urinate. I didn't want to have to go in the woods, where the smell could drive away the deer. Of course, these deer in these woods are so used to people that smells don't seem to bother them. I've had them walk right up to me--usually when I was turkey hunting and could only look at them and say "you won't be here in a month, I know it." I'm pretty sure they are laughing at me. The deer around here are curious. That's all I'm saying. So, anyway, I set my bow down, unzip my fly, water the plant, and then as I'm finished I hear something to my right, so I turn my head. There, standing in the middle of the trail, is the best buck I've seen back here, a nice little basket six pointer, and he's looking at me, with his head cocked to one side, as if to say "what the hell are you." He had been bedded down in some tall grass right next to the trail. stood up, and stepped out and into my life, twenty feet away. Crap! I think. I know how this ends. I'm standing there literally with my dick in my hand and my bow on the ground, and the best deer I've ever seen is staring at me from inside ten yards. I slowly zip up. The deer just looks at me. But, as soon as I bend down to pick up my bow, the buck gets smart and darts off into the woods to the left of the trail, leaping as he goes. I take a few steps to where he had been, watching him go, and as I get to the spot where he'd left the trail, another deer, a big four pointer, busts out to the right. They'd been bedded down together. This one leaps off toward the woods to the right of the trail but, before he gets to the tree line, he stops and turns up hill, giving me a broadside at about 30 yards or so. He's just walking calmly. I draw and bleat, hoping to stop him, but he keeps walking. I lead him a bit and loose my arrow but at the sound of the string he drops flat onto the ground. My arrow sails over his back and he's off into the woods. I never saw either deer again.

That's how hunting usually goes for me.

So I go to my stand, stay there awhile, get bored, and decide that I'm just going to walk for awhile. I walk up the woods on one side, down the other, then over a little bluff down into a hollow, where we see a lot of deer, and up a rail road cut. Of course, by now, the deer have gotten onto the deer telegraph to tell all the other deer I'm in the neighborhood. I do however, get a really nice hike out of it, with some hills, and a steep bluff. Meaning I needed some good boots.

Thankfully, I know boots. Outdoor footwear is what I trained in and sold when I worked in outdoor retail. We got a lot of training, not just from the various vendors whose products we sold, but on hiking and footwear in general. And we tried our products out. The store organized regular hikes upstate so we could test the boots. My opinion is very well informed. I own several different brands (we got a lot of pro deals when I sold boots, and I have a couple of pairs I've still never worn), but I own three pairs of Lowas. I've got an insulated hunting boot that they've discontinued, a set of black Zephyr Task Force GTX, their ultra light military boot, and the renegade.

The Lowa Renegade is the best light hiking boot in the world. It's what I choose when I"m going to be on my feet all day moving around. I use them for day packing, pheasant hunting, and bow hunting, when the weather is warmer. I can stand in them all day long. They have a polyurethane midsole, which is a bit stiffer but much longer lasting and more durable (most light hiking boots use EVA, the foam used in running shoes, which is cushier but breaks down faster). That stiffer sole turns out to be a lot more comfortable than the cushy EVA ones. Plus the Lowas are so well made, with sturdy split nubuck leather and something they call a "mono wrap" to stabilize the foot. It is truly the best light hiking boot available. Buy a pair. Your feet will thank you.