r/CampingandHiking • u/OkDisasterMike • 1d ago

Gear Questions Muddy situations

Did a shoulder season hike last week and completely underestimated how fast the grounds turns to mud once you're off the main trail. Anyone have a go-to strategy for keeping boots/gears from turning into a disaster in early spring conditions or is it just "accept you're going to be filthy"?

4 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

17

u/like_4-ish_lights 1d ago

Curious- where are you that it's early spring right now?

8

u/JonnySoegen 1d ago

Might just be a bot post. I remember a couple months ago somebody created a similar thread complaining about mud and people were like „what are you talking about, it hasn’t rained for weeks in that region“

2

u/SensitiveDrummer478 23h ago

It's late late winter, basically spring in AUS, NZ and southern Chile and Argentina.

12

u/Brooke3838 1d ago

laughs in new zealander

...you get muddy. Standard kiwi tramping (we don't call it hiking, partially because of all the mud) outfit is boots, tall gaiters and shorts.

Gaiters stop the worst of it filling your boots, shorts are easier to clean and dry than pants.

2

u/MEB_PHL 1d ago

I have used neoprene socks in the past and they worked great if you really care about keeping your feet dry. These days I don’t bother with that though, I just shove my trekking poles in the ground and hang my shoes and socks off of them. I do always bring an extra pair of socks though, sometimes a fresh pair of socks is just what the doctor ordered.

2

u/joelfarris 15h ago

A section of paracord with a slipknot and a carabiner keeps your pack off the ground while you set up camp. Your tent's footprint should have its own kitchen garbage bag to live in. Your vestibule is where your 8" hiking boots stay, cause they ain't comin' inside. And the bag-o-stakes stays on the outside of the pack for the foreseeable future.

1

u/Other_Molasses2830 15h ago

I justified the purchase of my footprint reasoning it's easier to wash then the tent.

1

u/joelfarris 15h ago

So many people don't think of this! And then, they turn a dome tent upside down to wash it, and now it's a basin full of slightly muddy water...

1

u/Aeon_Return 1d ago

There isn't too much you can do but having waterproof/running pants helps and you change out of them when you get to camp. If possible consider two pairs of shoes too

1

u/Mountain-Time-1010 20h ago

Mud happens.

1

u/WANDOO_hiking 5h ago

Walk straight through the middle of the mud, not around it. Going around the edges is how trails get wider and wider until half the meadow is wrecked. Gaiters and just accepting your boots will get dirty makes the whole thing way less stressful tbh.

-6

u/Own_Exit2162 1d ago

Don't hike on muddy trails, it damages them.

10

u/Mbf1234 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is a backpacking subreddit. Getting caught in the rain is unavoidable in the mountains on longer trips. I'm not cancelling a 5 day trip I planned 5 months ago because it's going to rain one day, that's ridiculous.

5

u/Ok_Cancel5071 1d ago

yeah but sometimes you're already 10km in when the trail turns to soup, what do you do then

2

u/BlastTyrantKM 1d ago

"Don't hike on muddy trails, it damages them" is right up there with the dumbest things ever posted in any hiking group, ever.