Carhartt Work Boots for Travel
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I am highly selective and proud about the gear that I use to travel. My boots, rucksack, bags, and clothing are never happenstancialy chosen. Rather, I prim and ponder over all of my travel gear in an effort to outfit myself with the best possibly equipment and supplies for the Open Road.
This is kind of a hobby to me. It is something that I am just into. I like talking about, searching for, and pondering upon the travel gear that I use and carry with me. I do not travel with very much gear, and what I do haul around has been carefully chosen over a period of trial and error that has been going on for the better part of a decade.
In this time I have found that a sturdy pair of boots is a travel essential. The ones that I choose to wear are a seven-eyed, fully leather set of Carhartt working man's boots. I have been tramping in them for two years, and they have not failed, nor even faltered yet.
Carhartt makes gear that is meant to be used, beaten, and battered. They make gear for the working man. I push my travel gear to the breaking point, and I have found that my Carhartt boots not only hold up to the test of the working man, but also that of the horizon struck wanderer.
When choosing travel footwear, it is my opinion that a solid pair of all leather working man boots are the best option. Hiking boots tend to fall apart surprisingly quickly, as I believe they are really made for the suburbanite or the weekend hiker, and sneakers hold up on the Road about as well as a pair of Japanese grass slippers. I hike in my boots everyday, and I do not want to deal with them falling apart and needing to be replaced regularly. I hate shopping. I do not like to buy things. I would rather make a purchase that will last me five years than have to completely re-supply myself yearly. I need a pair of boots that are travel worthy. I have found that hiking boots disintegrate in travel and sneakers are unmentionably worse. The Open Road necessitates a sturdy pair of working man boots.
For a couple of years I wore a pair of Redwing logger boots while traveling. But, although these were made for rigorous use and are still unscathed, they were a little too heavy for traveling. What I needed was a cross between Redwing logger boots and a pair of hiking boots. What I found was my current pair of road-doggers: my Carhartt work boots.
The advantages of these boots are as follows:
1. They do not have steel toes - I nearly had a couple toes freeze off during one winter night of sleeping under a pine tree in Albany because the steel in the toes of my boots got far too cold for my feet that were housed inside of them. I actually had to take my boots off in order to make my feet warmer. It seems ironic that I needed to remove my boots to warm my toes, but it is true: steel toes are perilous in winter climes. On another occasion of wearing steel toed work boots while traveling, I found my self walking for a very long distance over a mountainous terrain. Every time that I descended a highly vertical mountain side my toes would jam up against the steel in the front of the boots, which eventually began cutting into my feet. This became so painful that I eventually slung the steel toe boots over my shoulder and plugged on barefooted over the sticks and stones. Steel toed boots are not travel worthy.
2. Weight - My Carhartt work boots are very well put together, but they can not be considered heavy in the least. I think a balance was struck between quality of materials and weight in these boots.
3. Lack of Insulation - They are not insulated, which I think is really good for traveling because they do not run the risk of excessively over-heating my feet while tramping long distances. This is also good because the absence of insulation cuts down on their weight and if they happened to be fully submerged in water they can be dried relatively quickly. If additional warmth is needed in colder climates, I just wear multiple pairs of socks.
4. All Leather Exterior - The outsides of these boots are 100% leather, which is good not only because of leather's natural durability but also because they can be cleaned, shined, and waterproofed easily.
5. Water Proof - There is a Gore-Tex like fabric liner in the boots that has not failed in two years of wear. The boots come pre-waterproofed but I also add mink oil and polish to them at regular intervals.
6. Can be polished and waterproofed - Due to the leather exterior they can be cleaned, polished, and water-proofed easily using conventional supplies that can be found all over the world.
7. Comfortable - I have found my Carhartt work boots to be comfortable and relatively easy to break in. They do not blister my feet or make them sore. Their simplicity of design allows them to easily take the form of the foot rather than forcing the foot into a rigged mold.
8. Look worthless - My boots are old, battered, not fancy, and, I assume, do not look to be worth much money.
9. Durable - They are well put together with quality, stitching, good materials, and tough soles. These boots cannot be broken, and, in two years, I have found that they are not prone to breaking down.
10. Price - Compared to hiking boots and other work boots, my Carhartts are not too expensive. $80 - $120 gets you a pair of boots that will last through five years of travel.
All in all, I have found my Carhartt work boots to be good enough for long haul travel. They stick together, are easily maintained, and have kept me tramping on over mountain, desert, and jungle for the past two years. They are comfortable, not too heavy, simplistically made, and have a very general design that allows for cobblers the world over to be able to fix them if they were to someday need repair. These boots are an old-time classic, I did not think that such quality gear was still manufactured.
Carhartt work boots are for traveling.
Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
Antigua, Guatemala
April 19, 2008
Links to Previous posts:
Travel Sickness in Guatemala- Sick again, fever dreams, don't know why. Travel Sickness. Antigua, Guatemala.
Dirty French Men and Courtship- Getting some tips on how not to court a girl from New Zealand.
Hippies in San Pedro, Guatemala- A hippy town on the other side of Lake Atitlan where drink, drugs, and "freedom" flow.
Immigrating to the USA- The glory land at the end of the rainbow is a lot of work.
Boat Travel on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala- Working the hustlers of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.
Read the above posts to travel further into the Vagabond Journey story.
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