Bushwackin' Blisters

I spent today in a pair of “corks”.

Wikipedia defines “corks” as follows:  “Caulk boots (pronounced "cork" and usually called "corks") are leather or rubber  nail-soled boots worn by lumberjacks in the timber-producing regions of the Pacific Northwest and Canada. “  (information gathered by thousands of unqualified people might not be the most accurate of sources but it serves my purposes most of the time… ) Aside from the  questionable accuracy of the wikipedia world.. the definition here is roughly correct.  (note that they are also marketed as chainsaw boots)



What is poorly described in any definition – including the websites that sell these frightful looking things is the male bias of the logging industry  …. corks don’t come in ladies sizes… so I’ve been sporting a pair of drastically over sized steel toed, rubber boots with steel spikes on the bottom that just about reach my knee… and weigh close to 5lbs each.  Oh yes.. you heard that right.  My poor little feet need 2 pairs of wool socks plus a pair of  quilted slippers called bama-boots just to keep these things from falling off my feet.



Despite the ill-fit and excessive weight of these gastly items walking through the slash of felled logs, root-wads and heaps of branches on a set of dangerous looking steel spikes sure come in handy.  Imagine a series of giant thumbtacks sticking out of the bottoms of your shoes...   The tracktion is great, sticking to slippery logs like velcro, and leaving the coolest looking footprints. That being said - The slimy rock in the creek …. Still deathly slippery…(thumbtacks remember.. Big ones..)  with the added bonus of the weight of these orange monsters and you’ve got a recipe for drowned rat on your hands.

photo off internet.... photo of me in the ORANGE beasts
I've been traipsing around in to follow at later date!

Today I spent the day in corks…. But after a full day tramping around in the bushes with my corks… I’ve got sore feet, blistered ankles… and I’m not exactly dry or mud free.  The upside however..  I wasn’t in the office.