Foot Tractor Boot in Oregon & California
Southern Oregon and Northern California, a super diverse landscape with equally diverse rivers was ultimately a much more appropriate test of overall durability and performance. Here we wade on all sorts of bedrock, cobble, lava, marbly shit, serpentine, trails to the river, you name it. Most of its hard, a lot of it has deep consequences of loosing traction can be bad.
The gold standard on my home waters is usually a felt boot with about three rounds of Simms studs. Once the first 10 studs wear out, I’d stick another round in. Continue that process with studs every few months and you maintain great traction, but a puck of studs is like $30 bucks? Factor that into your purchase price.
Aluminum Bars
The metal bars are screwed into the Patagonia boot sole, which is a serious plus in my opinion, In my experience, the metal bars lasted about as long as the boot itself, so no extra studs, extra cost, or loss of traction down the line. Good idea!
The saw tooth edge of the bar does indeed find a few more nooks and crannies for purchase then a set of studs, and the soft aluminum bites on just about every surface. I say just about every surface because there are a few river bottoms that have just the right level of slime and slick rock that even these edges fail to purchase on. No boot is perfect. Also, get used to leaving some shiny aluminum on the rocks, especially if they are new. The way the aluminum works is it’s softer then the rocks, and kinda molds to the surface you are wading on.
Foot Tractor Durability
I barely noticed any wear or decrease in gripping performance for the first 60 or so river days. Most were a mix of Upper Sac and Klamath walk and wades, but also quite a few on smooth cobble rivers of AK. At about 100 days or so I had my first lace fray and the beginnings of the deterioration of the boot. After replacing the laces, they performed exceptionally well for another month of daily use before I began to notice the bars were quite flat, the seams were getting weak and I felt a little less then rock solid in the water.