Vegan Hiking Clothing Part 2 - Socks

Okay, so I must confess that in addition to possible glue in my shoes, I wore... wool socks sometimes. Although I unnecessarily broke from my vegan covenant, you certainly don't need to.

For a warm season thru-hike you most likely won't need particularly thick socks - in fact, so much of the Pacific Crest Trail is in deserts that thin, well breathing socks are your best bet. I am an Eagle Scout, and thus grew up in the old world of hiking - heavy leather boots that required nothing short of a sweater wrapped around your feet for padding with poly-pro socks underneath. The last mile of trail was usually a near sprint as I couldn't wait to get to camp, tear off my boots and air out my feet in some camp shoes (running shoes!). Well, fortunately I now wear running shoes to hike in and don't need all of the padding. The only times that I wear something thicker than a light running sock is when I know that I'll be spending the day in the snow or if a blister is beginning to form. Incidentally, I didn't get a single blister after 2 weeks on the PCT.

Within the world of thin socks there are endless possibilities. Just about every athletic company makes wicking socks for running these days. Hiking companies still make a number of different types of non-wool hiking and walking socks and liners that also do the trick. The "Ray-way" is probably to grab some polyester dress socks out of the bargain bin at your local clothing store. I hiked with people that wore poly dress socks and had no complaints. I carried 3 pair of socks with me at any given time on the trail - 2 thin pair for hiking and 1 thick pair for sleeping. The world of thick socks gets a little trickier for vegans. Companies are pretty good at making it unclear as to exactly what goes into their products. It seems as though wool is enough of a selling point these days to the average outdoor enthusiast that companies often advertise the wool content even if there is very little. CoolMax is an engineered high-wicking polyester material used by a number of sock companies such as ThorLo and WigWam.

Part of the reason that I wore wool socks is because I have pretty sensitive skin to synthetic materials. There are a number of non animal natural fibers out there, althoughI do not have a great deal of experience with them. I have a pair of hemp socks that are marketed as hiking socks, however, even though hemp has more oil than cotton, the socks seem to perform like cotton when wet - i.e. they don't. I've seen bamboo socks available but know very little about them. Although not organic (yet) there are a number of treated cotton socks that offer a nice balance between natural fibers and high performance. Many CoolMax socks are, in fact, a blend of polyester and cotton.