A few weeks before the trip started, I picked up a pair of Vibram FiveFingers, the “barefoot” shoes with the individual toe pockets.  I’m not a runner, so my purchase was driven primarily by novelty.  Yeah, I was that guy.

My FiveFingers on my feet. Kind of like gloves, eh?

Happily, I’ve found my brown leather KSO Treks to be quite comfortable and functional as traveling shoes.  They have been great for driving — over 7000 miles so far — largely because of the excellent pedal feel they provide.  I haven’t brought them backpacking, since I like a bit more protection on the trail, but I have been using them while walking around town.

I have had to adjust my walking gait slightly while wearing the FiveFingers. The strong heel strike in my normal walking gait made my knees a bit sore after more than a few miles of walking on concrete in cities, so I experimented a bit and found a solution.  It’s simple enough: I just focus on performing a more uniform foot strike rather than a hard heel-first strike.  Kind of like the change necessary for running in them.

While in Denali, I tried using them for a very small bit of trail running, less than a mile, the day before we started our backcountry trek.  That led to some sore calves later during the backpacking, but the actual running felt fantastic.  It was like I was bouncing down the trail on springs.  Perhaps I’ll have to give them some more running use.

In short, they’ve been functionally satisfying.  That alone would have been enough, but they’ve also managed another useful trick: they’re great icebreakers.

FiveFingers have been on the market for a couple of years now, but it seems that many people are still unaware of their existence.  That has led to numerous situations where people have struck up conversations with me to ask about about my shoes.  “What are those?” and “Where did you get them?” have been the two most common questions.  One lady even took a photo of my feet (awkward!).

I suspect that my experience with the FiveFingers drawing attention has not been unique.  Tyler also had a pair with him in Alaska, and he was wearing them around Denali NP after we got done backpacking (I was wearing sandals at the time).  He, too, had a stranger come up to him and ask him about his shoes.

Now if only they could somehow get me more inbound links…

One of the questions I often get asked is, “Will everything fit?” (That’s what she said.) Until today, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stuff everything needed for the trip into my Outback. I’m happy to report that I did a dry run this afternoon, and everything fits nicely.

With the seats up, no less.  And without blocking the view out the rear window.

As you can see, the hockey gear (giant red bag) dominates the cargo area

Unfortunately, a couple of things don’t quite fit in the cargo area.  My hockey sticks, for example, need to ride in the rear seats.

The hockey sticks have to ride in the back

Then again, they don’t fit in the cargo area even when they are the only items present; they’re just too long.

Likewise, my camera gear is in the main passenger area, but that’s part of the plan to keep it easily accessible for impromptu photo opportunities.

During the actual trip, I'll probably keep the camera out of the bag so that it's even more handy

I’ll admit that a few things were missing from this experiment.

First, I forgot about my hiking boots.  Those will probably go in one of the rear footwells.

Second, I’ll probably want to have a cooler and a cache of reasonably healthy food so that I can cook for myself.

Finally, I haven’t actually tried traveling with this configuration of equipment.  I’m planning to do a couple of short test trips before the main trip, so it’s possible that I’ll need to radically alter my gear manifest.

Still, this early result is quite promising.