When starting a season for a new trail crew, several questions come to mind. What will the work consist of? Who will my co-workers be? What are the mountains in Colorado like? What kind construction will we be doing? And most importantly, how many pairs of new socks do I need?
Turns out I already have an excessive amount of hiking socks (in questionable condition) acquired over several years working on a trail crew. So what steps do you need to take to prepare the socks for another season in the backcountry?
The first step is to find all your socks. This may be harder than you would think. Socks end up in all kinds of weird places, stuffed inside shoes, lost in the bottom of a sleeping bag, jammed between the seats of a car. Regardless, you will never find all of your socks as they seem to migrate to harder and harder places over time. I believe this can be explained by the second law of thermodynamics; entropy (an ordered system tends toward a higher state of disorder over time). It could also be explained by sock hiding elves but that’s for another blog post.
Check your socks for holes. Every sock should have at least one hole which your foot can fit into. If you find more then one hole that your foot fits through, it will help with ventilation. If you find a sock with three foot-sized holes it should be properly disposed of.
Attempt to match your socks. Don’t try to match them back to the original pairs as this is completely imposible. Instead try to find pairs of socks with similar shape, thickness, smell, and pattern of holes. Disregard color.
Wash your socks! This should ideally be done as little as possible as the washing process contributes to the breakdown of the socks.
Now you have your socks ready for a new season of abuse! I’m sure you’re wondering, how do I pack my socks for hitch? Luckily, I’m here to help!
First you want to pack an equal number of sock pairs as days you have in the backcountry. However, 16 socks (8 pairs) is way too many so eliminate half of them and save them for the next hitch! But how do you keep your socks “clean”? Lucky for you I’m here to let you in on the some trail secrets!
- Wear your socks.
- Remove socks at end of the day noting the level of crust.
- Put the used socks at the bottom of your backpack. Here the heat, pressure and vibrations will slowly clean the used socks. (see thermodynamics)
- After several days (when your out of clean socks) find the used socks from the bottom of your pack. Now you will want to turn them inside out to help break up the crust!
- Wear the “clean” socks!
Now you know the most efficient method for sock rotation. Use this information wisely! Knowledge is power.
