For a Cornwall coastal walk from St. Ives to Zennor, we wore the wrong shoes. At Mile 5 (of 7) my shoe heel disembarked for a deep crevice between two big boulders. Michael’s brown leather Rockports would be great in Montpelier, Vermont, but on the rugged Southwest Coastal path, they were like bubble-wrap negotiating rocks.
How we made the near-eight-mile trek (I lost the other heel just off the trail), I’ll never know. We are too out of shape for this and too inexperienced. Not bringing walking sticks was our biggest mistake.
What saved the misery of a hike-you-don’t-want-to-continue-after-the-first-hour were the stunning vistas.
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Ruined shoes, sore legs, weak knees, mud-caked pants and grimy, scratched fingers (from crawling on all fours up a mud-slipping streambed/trail) are pains well worth the price.
We averaged just over a mile an hour.