I buy light weight hiking boots as seen in Cabella's etc catalogs.-part leather, part nylon.  The first pair lasted me 10 years.  Currently I have a pair of Moab boots by Merrrell.  ( now 3 years old)  Like Wally writes wear them all day in and out of the water, dry them when in camp( wear them wet if not dry) and wear another pair of dry shoes or sandals in camp.  Only use them for canoeing

I also recommend the OTB boots.  JD's complaint is the only one I have heard of so far on the OTB.

Always a good idea to do some research on the gear review websites to see if things have changed, and to get a bigger sampling for most items.  Haven't looked for OTB reviews myself, as they were a new item when I bought mine.

My Abyss boots have done two Quetico trips and are still in almost new condition, after some 58 wet-footing portages this year and probably about 50 last year.  That's 22 days and about 300 total miles of use, so they got a pretty good workout.  The only wear is a slight amount on the toe-cap stitching, none on the heel.

Mad_Mat wrote on Oct 9^th, 2009 at 1:00pm:


 Considering the trips YOU do, I would say that's a pretty good recommendation. I would like too hear from jdrocks, IF he gets any feedback from the MFG, on why this happened?
 Little tip for extending your shoe/boot life IF you have some frayed stitching issues? When my shoe of choice is NEW, I coat ALL stitching and seams with welt/seam sealer. This seems to "lock" the threads down and so far has solved "that" problem.

I purchased and used the OTB Abyss boots this year in Quetico, after reading Mat's reviews.  I loved them and had no problems.  It seems as though I have been on an eternal quest to find the best portaging boot and I think this might be it for now.  It is a bit concerning to hear about JD's experience, so I will probably try and do the Seamsealer thing before my next trip. 

Boots were comfortable, had good traction, and really dried out fast.  They seemed to really hold up well to the beating I usually put on shoes/boots.

I got the "green" version, hoping they would be slightly cooler for summer trips.  Do you have black or green?

Which combination of footbed inserts do you find to be most effective.  Maybe its just personal preference (or shape of my foot), but they seem to be a tad more comfortable with the plastic (bottom layer) insert removed.

Anyone use the "barefoot" insert?  What do you think about that arrangement?

dd