I’m not exactly a gearhead.  Oh, I’m not above spending hours exhaustively researching the kayak, paddles, and SUP outfit I’d love to have someday.  I’ll click dreamily through Canoe & Kayak, REI, Werner Paddles and Hurricane Kayaks, mentally outfitting myself and imagining my paddles slicing through the water and the bow of my kayak tracking steadily along through melting Adirondack ice or warm southern rivers.  (Sometimes, in my more outlandish fantasies, I’m kayaking with whales – orcas in the San Juans or Antarctica, or humpbacks in Hawai’i – but I’m always in an orange Hurricane Sojourn 126 with Werner Camano – or sometimes Little Dipper – paddles.)  Okay, maybe I am a gearhead.  But less so when it comes to hiking, even though I hike much more frequently than I paddle.  But there’s one exception.

Last summer as I climbed Giant Mountain with Steve, more than once I caught the eye of another woman on the trail.  We’d nod, smile, and then one of us would say, “I like your boots.”  And then we exchanged the secret handshake.  (Just kidding.  Or am I?)  Because it seems there is an it boot for Adirondack hiking, and that is the Oboz Bridgewater BDry.  In raspberry red, please and thank you.  I swear I didn’t know this when I bought them.

But while I may not have realized that I was joining a sisterhood – the Sisterhood of Oboz – when I bought my boots, I like having this connection to other women on the trail.  I especially like that this connection is through boots, which carry us all so many miles, over ridges, past vistas, to summits and cols and goals.  My boots aren’t as bright red anymore – they’re faded from love and adventure.  But when I eventually replace them, I plan to buy the exact same ones.  Red as the sky at night, hiker’s delight.  And I’ll cherish every connection I make on the trail, a friendly place already that just becomes friendlier when I catch sight of a flash of red and a smile.

I’m not in the market for new hiking boots, obviously, but what are your favorite hiking sandals?