Barefoot Hiking on Grass and Dirt Trails
Hiking Without Boots
It would help if you hiked El Camino de Santiago, at least once in your life. It's a tremendous effort for the body and a significant challenge for the mind, but it's a fantastic pleasure and indulgence for the spirit.
Hiking Barefoot Benefits and Tips
Barefoot hiking is a therapeutic process that stimulates the entire human body. Hikers take the approach slowly as they walk across lush meadows and through deep green forests. Some even walk on dust, stone, or in streams. They find it electrifying for the body and the spirit.
Have you ever had a foot massage? Then, you understand the benefits of having areas of your feet massaged. Barefoot hiking is like a foot massage. The process improves your body's circulation and completely relaxes you.
You are in the vast outdoors with fresh air and vibrant life. You expose your feet to the natural habitat with all the body's nerve endings reaching out through the feet and out towards nature, literally breathing.
Some information about being barefoot, its benefits, and rules to follow:
- It is healthy for your feet to go barefoot.
- It is not against the law to go barefoot into any establishment, including restaurants.
- It is also not against any health department regulation.
- It is not against the law to drive barefoot.
- There are barefoot walks and hikes throughout the United States.
- Practice walking barefoot outdoors before your first walk.
- It is okay to bring flip-flops, but you must start barefoot.
- If you want to go on a hike or walk, read The Safety Guidelines for Barefoot Grass Walking
- Since the weather and other circumstances can cause a cancellation, each participant must notify the Coordinator that you plan to attend a barefoot hike at least one day in advance.
- On any walk or hike, while everyone looks out for each other, your health and safety are your responsibility
Flip Flops in the Backpack
“Going barefoot in the forest is a very sensuous and a pleasurable experience. For some of us it is almost a mystical experience. I know that I dreamt of it long before I ever durst try it. It is also an experience that brings into question our entire relationship with nature in a way that disturbs and challenges our ideas about ourselves as civilized beings.”
— Richard Keith Frazine, "The Barefoot Hiker"
Hiking Benefits
Barefoot hiking means taking your shoes off and hiking barefoot on a trail. You walk as your bare feet step on grass, mud, leaves, twigs, rocks, sticks, dust, gravel, pine cones, and dust. People hike barefoot and report that they experience a new sense of touch with their feet and feel rejuvenated.
Barefoot walking stimulates the entire human organism because the foot has twenty-plus glands that become electrified by the experience. Beginning barefoot, hikers take the process slowly as they walk across lush meadows and deep green forests. Once the calluses form on the feet, it doesn’t take long. After that, the hikers relax and enjoy the scenery.
Barefoot Hiking Comfort
First Time Bring Flip-Flops
Like going on any hike, you must wear light, comfortable clothes. On your first barefoot hike, you bring a pair of sturdy flip-flops. Your feet will be tender, and they will get sore after a few miles. However, the flip-flops help make the hike more enjoyable toward the end.
Barefoot Hiking in Autumn
"The sensations she was asking about were very pleasant; some of them were nothing short of delicious; but to know them one simply had to go barefoot. I could sense a mixture of envy and fearful reserve. It was time to tell her what another barefoot hiker had once told me, when I had stood, still shod, on the edge of wanting to go barefoot: 'Take off your shoes.'"
— Richard Keith Frazine, "The Barefoot Hiker"
Hiking Without Shoes or Boots
We all know the benefits of hiking. But, taking your hiking further by leaving your hiking boots at home is an adventure you will not forget. Most likely, you will go without your pair of boots more often.
Barefoot hiking means hiking in your bare feet on a trail as you journey through grass, mud, leaves, twigs, rocks, sticks, dust, gravel, pine cones and the season's spirit. People who barefoot hike explain how they have opened up a new sense of touch with their feet and have a renewed sense of awareness. Just like barefoot hiking for the first time—the feet wake up—come alive.
Barefoot walking stimulates the entire human organism because the foot becomes electrified by the experience. It's like suddenly hearing when before they couldn't, all the sounds are loud and vibrant.
Beginning barefoot, hikers take the process slowly as they walk across lush meadows and deep green forests. Once the calluses form on the feet, it doesn't take too long. The hikers relax. They enjoy the scenery and the feeling of being barefoot in the wilderness.
Barefoot Walking
- Barefoot Walking: Free Your Feet to Minimize Impact, Maximize Efficiency ... - Michael Sandler, Jess
The essential guide to the life-changing benefits of barefoot walking, shedding your shoes, is good for the body and the soul. - Walking barefoot vs. with minimalist footwear – influence on gait in younger and older adults | Spri
Minimalist footwear or barefoot hiking depends on their use in sports and recreational activities. The sources consider these shoes to function naturally, like barefoot walking and a means to feel comfortable being barefoot.
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2016 Kenna McHugh
