Trials of the Caulk Boots

 Caulk boots as defined by Wikipedia are “leather nail-soled boots usually worn by logger” and used by those who work in the woods.  Caulk is pronounced, “cork” or commonly known as Corks.  Yes I did look it up for those who may be unfamiliar with the ways of the woods.  It was not until this past year or two did I learn the correct spelling or pronunciation of these fine boots.   #foresternewb

Let me tell you that mine are something special… At least that is what I am going to tell you because how else am I going to comfortably break them in? 

My feet are apparently little compared to the typical logger searching for boots to scale up logs and tromp through heavy brush.  The kind man of Sedlak’s Boot Store in Corvallis was incredibly helpful to find the perfect boot.  I bought a fine pair of Viberg Logger’s boots.  These are hand build rubber bottomed and leather topped made in Victoria, BC!  They only took two and a half months to arrive to Corvallis... It was barely in time for me to leave for Canada to begin work. Or so I thought…

The first day of work at WFP I discovered that my boots were too big.  They slipped around the entire boot.  The half day spent climbing over logs, brush, and streams was not pleasant.  My right heel has developed a nice bit of broken skin. The following day I was lucky enough to not have to wear them, for a little reprieve.

A fine path for Stream Traversing

On my first day off I walked my way to the local Shop Rite. It is one of four outdoors stores in Port McNeill. For a town of 3,000 people I was impressed.  I invested in these bootie socks to add cushion and take up space inside my boots. Luckily, they’ve worked for the most part! My feet are no longer slipping and sliding inside the rubber bottomed boots.

A mostly hemlock stand about 100 yrs old

However the adjustments continued after a lovely walk in the woods.  My bootlaces were way too long!  Every 10 minutes I would have to stop and retie them to keep from tripping.  Though you should know when I said lovely walk I meant more like a day of battling biting bugs, fending off salmon berry, and climbing TONS of blown down logs.  I figured to knot them as best I could to hold back the dangling strings and to deal with the consequences later. 

Spending 30 minutes in the dry room with the scent of smelly boots and sweaty cruising vests is 29 minutes too long.  Yes I could have brought them upstairs back to my room but my poor knees were not having it. Instead I sat on the floor of that dry, odorous room unknotting my too long laces.  After using them three days in the field with too long laces I had had it.  I took scissors to those lengthy laces to somewhat decrease my chances of tripping.

And so, it is the weekend and my feet can rest up a bit.  I will not have to go through the routine of bandaging the heels of my feet to manage to get through the day.   

A-Frame log dump site in Mahatta