Yellowstone Bans Felt Wading Soles

[Baughb]

https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/18010.htm

Sharing for our "enjoyment".

[BrownBear]

Just break out the non-felt boots you bought for your Alaska trip.

[DarkShadow]

Have only rubber soled boots, so I guess I'm good.

[WanderingBlues]

Felt kinda freaks me out anyway. Some weird phobia, I guess...

[clee]

I'm with DS, for the most part I've abandoned felt years ago. I know others many differ but I've never had a problem with Vibram rubber soles even without cleats.

[Baughb]

I went to Vibram after my felts kept getting destroyed by my hiking to and from rivers.

Bob

[John Harper]

Well, I'm glad I haven't pulled the trigger on wading shoes yet.

John

[Papasequoia]

I showed up in Alaska for a half day guided boat trip on the Kenai last summer. "Oh no," said the guide when he saw me, looking alarmed he said, "Do you have other wading boots? You can't wear felt in Alaska." Korkers to the rescue - I always have both the felt and the vibram soles with me just in case I need to do some hiking (vibram) or the bottom is really slippery (felt). In this case, that saved the day.

I do wear rubber soles more often, but sometimes the felt is the way to go. Love those Korkers - they fixed the problems that got them a bad rep years ago and are great for me. One of these days I will order the bottoms with rubber and cleats.

[midger]

Both types of soles have their purposes. If I'm hiking I like the rubber soled boots, for wading, felt if they're legal. I've busted my * too many times with rubber soled boots on the Klamath, Trinity, and rivers in Kansas. I'll take felt for wading, and felt with tung studs for rivers with snot covered rocks. I keep all the boots in my FF closets.

[Wingnut]

I showed up in Alaska for a half day guided boat trip on the Kenai last summer. "Oh no," said the guide when he saw me, looking alarmed he said, "Do you have other wading boots? You can't wear felt in Alaska." Korkers to the rescue - I always have both the felt and the vibram soles with me just in case I need to do some hiking (vibram) or the bottom is really slippery (felt). In this case, that saved the day.

I do wear rubber soles more often, but sometimes the felt is the way to go. Love those Korkers - they fixed the problems that got them a bad rep years ago and are great for me. One of these days I will order the bottoms with rubber and cleats.

X2 on Korkers

[NorcalBob]

I got less than a year on my Korkers until the retaining strap that secures the sole to the boot cracked and separated. Now they are useless. No more Korkers for me.
It's a great idea having interchangable soles but..........

[clee]

I got less than a year on my Korkers until the retaining strap that secures the sole to the boot cracked and separated. Now they are useless. No more Korkers for me.
It's a great idea having interchangable soles but..........

I'm with Bob. Korkers blow. I'll forever trash them to anyone who will listen.

[tomsakai]

I got less than a year on my Korkers until the retaining strap that secures the sole to the boot cracked and separated. Now they are useless. No more Korkers for me.
It's a great idea having interchangable soles but..........

I'm with Bob. Korkers blow. I'll forever trash them to anyone who will listen.

I know Korkers has updated their boots several times. Clee and NorcalBob, are your boots the latest models? Did you see if Korkers would warranty their boots? Very curious since the Yellowstone ban has me considering Korkers due to their interchangeable soles. Thanks.

[clee]

Tom my issue with Korkers is that their rubber soles suck a fat...I never felt so scared of wading in my whole life.
I wasn't fishing big water either. I was fishing water similar to Bear Creek. When I complained to them they blew me off stating that they are intended for light wading applications. Of course that is only stated on their website but not on the packaging nor on any of their resellers' websites. Who visits the manufacture's website when buying boots?
I don't. I just buy them off the site I'm on or the store I'm at. When I bought mine in person at Marriott's no one there told me that either. That's probably because they didn't know themselves.

Korkers suggested I buy their other soles for my applications. So in other words I should spend more money to make my boots wadable.

Before knowing all this I also bought an additional pair online for my father where it's been sitting in storage in the garage. His pair was a rubber sole and rubber studded set. I found out they messed that up too. I have three nonstudded soles and only one studed sole (which after talking to the guys at the shop tell me this is a regular occurrence). So essentially I have a worthless pair of boots. I will not give these boots to my old man, he'd likely become a cripple in them.

Do what you will with your own money but I'll never buy or recommend Korkers even to my worst enemy. I never had issues with Simms boots period. I've owned at least 5 pairs so far, two of them have been replaced free of charge so technically 7 pairs.

[planettrout]

I have both:



...and used each pair when I was up in Montana with my son in September. The days I was fishing in YNP, it looked like this:



...so the Simms G3's were on our feet...

I have an older pair of Korkers, but have never been impressed with their comfort or durability.


PT/TB