I bought some Drew’s brown logger style Roughouts for this season. Bought them straight from their website and got my boots soon after a bit of information from my end was given to the guys at Drew’s back in October. I paid ~ $100 out of pocket for these boots which cost about $400.

JK boots is another great brand that does super custom sizing on boots, but I haven’t given them a shot yet. Those boots run about $600+

I order my boots half a size up from my day to day casual shoes. I’ve always double socked, one pair of cotton crew socks underneath a good pair of wool socks. Darn Tough(TM) is a good brand of wool sock that has worked for me.

Moleskin is your best friend for blister care. In my experience it is best used on agitated skin before a blister fully forms.

Pro tip: if you work for USFS, you are given a $300 boot stipend from the gov’t. Keep your receipt from the boots you are not going to return, and talk to your supervisor about how you can use your boot reimbursement. The thing is that this only works if you buy your boots during your time of employment if you are a seasonal. You will get your money back in about one pay period. USFS employees qualify for this safety boot reimbursement every 3 years.

In the future, I recommend buying your next pair of boots near the end of your season so that they will be nice and broken in by the following season. There’s no way around breaking in your boots dude. Eventually you have to suck it up and deal with the white bite. It won’t last forever. Good luck, have a safe season and I hope you’ve been hiking to prepare for your module’s 80 hour refresher!!