Hiking Shoes for Light Pack, Day Hiking on California’s Hiking Trails

Recommended light pack, day hiking shoes I use for dealing with the variety of terrain on California’s hiking trails.

I’m based out of the Southern California Mediterranean climate zone, with the vertically challenging Santa Monica Mountains in my immediate vicinity, and the equally challenging San Gabriel Mountains in the periphery. Thus my go-to trails not only can have grade related challenges, but can consist of slippery, dry, powdery dirt with the occasional crop of sandpapery sandstone that contains pebbles/cobbles, as seen in Topanga State Park, or jagged & massive, wet & snowy, and slick granite found in the Angeles National Forest, on trails like those seen in Big Santa Anita Canyon.

Hiking Shoes for Slippery Trails

With trails like these in mind, it should be stressed that they shouldn’t be hiked in jogging sneakers, regular shoes, flat skateboarding shoes, or anything else that isn’t a dedicated hiking shoe (or trail runners that seem to be popular in the thru-hiking community). When I first moved to the area, almost two decades ago, I tried hiking Topanga for a year in my trusty Reebok Tennis Shoes I used for jogging. The end results were frequent slips, falls, near-falls, cramped calves, and stubbed toes (since non-hiking shoes don’t have a protective toe box).

Since then I’ve tried several brands of hiking shoes and the ones that have worked the best for me on these sometimes treacherous trails have been the Salomon X Ultra GTX series shoes.

Salomon X Ultra GTX Series of Hiking Shoes

Update: Salomon is now on their 4th generation of their X Ultra GTX series shoes. I’ve pulled my links for now, but you can find these on their website.

I’ve actually been using the same pair of Salomon X Ultra 2 GTX Hiking Shoes for lightweight day hiking the last 7 years; that’s how durable this model is!

Shown above is the updated X Ultra 3 GTX models, which are roughly the same shoe, except they’ve replaced most of their metal eye-holes that hold the lacing cord with nylon ones. Before there was just one nylon set closest to the toe, then there were metal 3 pairs up the tongue, and that was it; now there are 3 pairs of nylon eye-holes up the shoe, with just one metal set in the 4th position, and an additional, more standard eye hold towards the top of the tongue to keep the shoe snug on your foot during descents on steeper slopes.

Rigid But Cushioned Lip

The lip of the shoe is has a lot of cushion mass to it, but it’s still rigid enough that it won’t give when dealing with oddly shaped or sloping terrain, and the material is extremely durable. On most of my other hiking shoes, the reason they fail is that the inner lip ends up tearing open around the area that cushions the Achilles tendon. This then makes them uncomfortable to wear, as it rubs the posterior of my foot in an unsmooth fashion, which obviously isn’t good for long, multi-mile hikes. Seven years in, and these shoes are still a long way from failing in that respect.

High Friction Coefficient Outsole

The outsole is designed with deep treads made of rubber that feels like it has a high friction coefficient when walking on loose dirt or wet rock, allowing for confident assents and descents on the aforementioned trail conditions. I’ll post a video below of yours truly taking on a large rocky outcrop on the side of Topanga State Park’s East Topanga Fire Road. The camera is a bit shaky from the steep climb but notice the lack of slippage up the rock:

Insoles of the Solomon X Ultra GTX

The insole and cushion are thick enough to comfortably hike for a good 5 or 10 miles on the trails shown above, but still light enough that they have some give, thus allowing one to get some feedback when dealing with uneven terrain.

Oboz O Fit Insoles for Solomon X Ultra Hiking Shoes

After 5 years I actually replaced the insole with a set of the green, Oboz O Fit Insole Plus insoles, just to change things up a bit. They are comparable with at least the used original insoles, but of course, less torn up after something like 500+ miles of hiking (plus many more using them at work, here and there). I think that says a lot about the quality of the Salomon’s – that the first thing which looked like it might fail was the easily replaceable insole.

Gortex performance of the X Ultra’s

As far as the Gortex goes in the Salomon X Ultra’s, I’ve tested it on several local trails that feature multiple stream crossings, including those found at Santa Anita Canyon above Arcadia, CA, Paradise Falls in Thousand Oaks, CA, Eaton Canyon Falls Trail in Pasadena, CA and up in the Angeles National Forest.

Update for January 2023: I performed a stream crossing on the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains the other day. My shoes were half submerged under a running stream and still they kept 100% of the water out of the inner section of the shoe. And that’s will these shoes having battle scars, and wear cracks in their outer rubber layers.

I’ve been through some pretty tricky stream crossings, having to balance on half-submerged step stones in the middle of those cold mountain waters, and so far I’ve never dealt with soggy shoes or socks. This is actually super important when hiking up in the mountains in the winter months, where the last thing you want is cold, wet feet 4 miles from the car. Below is some old footage I took at Santa Anita Canyon, with regard to examples of streams that need to be crossed on this location’s particular trails.

Will Gortex Work in the Rain?

The Gortex in these shoes also works in rain related hiking which I’ve dealt with on multiple occasions in Topanga State Park and Santa Anita Canyon. However the best way to minimize rain related failure of the Gortex in one’s low, day hiking shoes is a simple engineering control: Always pack a rain poncho in your backpack; something big enough for both you and your day pack to fit under. I prefer ones that don’t have sleeves because why would you want your hands to remain exposed to the elements? Something like the Anyoo Waterproof Rain Poncho should do okay for the occasional rain hike with up to a 30L backpack (our personal Patagonia pack is 24L).

Runner Up for Light Pack, Day Hiking Shoe: Merrell Moab 2

Update: Merrell is currently distributing their update to this shoe: the Moab 3 Waterproof hiking shoe. Links will now point to this particular model.

This might be a bit cliche, but my back up hikers and everyday shoes for work are the Merrell Moab 2 Waterproof Hiking Shoes. I always have 3 pairs of these in our closet: one for work, one for working around the house, and one with failures for dirtier, DIY handyman type work. However they’re also credible on the trails too.

Moab 2 is Comfortable Out of the Box

The Moab 2 is a drastic improvement over the original Moab with regard to being comfortable right out of the box. I used the original ones in the Grand Canyon, AZ years ago, and it felt like they needed to be broken in before they were ready for a 5 to 10 mile hike. But these are ready to hike on day 1. Unfortunately, they don’t hold that comfy shape in the insole too long, and after a year of daily wear, I can tell a big difference between a new set, and one that logged in around a thousand miles of walking (I stand up and walk all day at my job).

Tendency to Tear Up in Lip Area

Further with regard to wear, they do tend to tear up after a few years, in the lip area where your Achilles tendon is positioned. They are softer than the Salomon’s in this lip area, which does add to that great out of the box feel, but this softer material just doesn’t hold up like the Salomon’s do. This could be a bias because of how I use each brand: The Salomon’s are mostly for hiking, and the Merrell’s are mostly for working; so keep that in mind.

Waterproof Feature Doesn’t Perform as Well as Gortex

The waterproof feature of the shoe is likely not as robust as the Gortex in the Salomon’s (or even in the higher priced Merrell Moab 2 GTX presumably). I notice when I’m working around the yard in an old pair, that if they need sprayed off with the garden hose, there is a little dampness that migrates through to my socks. I’m assuming that wouldn’t happen with a brand new pair, as I’ve been out in Topanga State Park before during rainy conditions with a newer pair, and my feet stayed dry the entire time. Just know this waterproof feature can marginally degrade over time.

In summary, these are comfortable enough to wear daily, and are often priced below the Salomon’s, and that’s why I’ve been using them for the last decade and a half, and will continue to do so.

Further Reading

Thanks for reading guys! This was my first attempt at writing about hiking gear, and since then I’ve done a few more gear related articles. Visit my Hiking Gear and Camping Gear landing pages to see more articles as I write them.