The shoe dilemma

[staehpj1]

The only bad combinations are those that involve poor shoe fit, or hiking in cleated shoes.

Limited hiking in cleated shoes isn't an automatic fail.  It depends on the person, the shoe, the fit, the distance, and the trail conditions.  Short side hikes in not too technical conditions are fine in mine.  Since that is the extent of what hiking I do on a lot of tours my spd sidis can be serviceable.  As the distances get long or the trail conditions involve something closer to rock scrambling they get more questionable.  Actually the distance is less of a problem if the surface is forgiving, so on the right surface I'd hike moderately far in my sidis.  When it is rocky less so.

The bottom line is that the choice for me is different dependent on the trip.

[BikeliciousBabe]

Xero, mentioned above, offers some lightweight options. With that said, I am no longer a fan of their Z-Trail EV sandal.  There are two plastic loops that secure the heel strap. On both pairs I have owned one of those loops broke.  The first time it happened not that long after I purchased the pair.  Maybe a 3 months with one two-week tour and a couple of months walking around town use.  Got a refund since the REIs in my part of the world did not stock them.  Ordered a replacement pair from another source.  Loop broke a little after a year and outside the warranty.

Last year I picked up a used pair of their Mesa Trail.

https://xeroshoes.com/shop/shoes/mesa-trail-men/

Nice shoe.  Walkable, light and compact. A men's size 9 is less that 8 oz.

And I agree: You can do some light hiking in a cleated shoe.  I tour and commute/run errands in PI shoes with recessed SPD cleats.  I have walked from the road to both Kootenai Falls and the "rope bridge" over the gorge in them as well as the Ross Creek Cedars nature trail.  Neither are short or smooth walks.

[staehpj1]

Xero, mentioned above, offers some lightweight options. With that said, I am no longer a fan of their Z-Trail EV sandal.  There are two plastic loops that secure the heel strap. On both pairs I have owned one of those loops broke.  The first time it happened not that long after I purchased the pair.  Maybe a 3 months with one two-week tour and a couple of months walking around town use.  Got a refund since the REIs in my part of the world did not stock them.  Ordered a replacement pair from another source.  Loop broke a little after a year and outside the warranty.

Last year I picked up a used pair of their Mesa Trail.

https://xeroshoes.com/shop/shoes/mesa-trail-men/

Nice shoe.  Walkable, light and compact. A men's size 9 is less that 8 oz.

Yeah, something like that is great until you need a real hiking boot on really rocky tough trail.  It would suffice for even very long hikes.  I would wear a shoe like that for just about anything I have hiked on tour.  I wouldn't want to scramble up Mount Katahdin in them, but I generally don't do stuff like that on tour.  If I did, I'd make arrangements to have real hiking boots mailed to me and mailed home after.

And I agree: You can do some light hiking in a cleated shoe.  I tour and commute/run errands in PI shoes with recessed SPD cleats.  I have walked from the road to both Kootenai Falls and the "rope bridge" over the gorge in them as well as the Ross Creek Cedars nature trail.  Neither are short or smooth walks.

Yep, I have happily done a quite a bit longer hikes on less than perfectly groomed trails in my spd shoes when they were the only shoes I had along.  They were fine as long as it wasn't super tough conditions.  They might be dangerous in some rocky conditions where the cleats tend to slide on the rock and extra care would be needed and maybe even skipping some trails might be prudent.  Again I wouldn't want to scramble up Mount Katahdin in these either.  Something like the Mist trail would require a lot of care and be iffy (I bought a pair of trail runners in the camp store there just to use for the hikes around the Yosemite Valley area).