My next journey will take me to New Mexico, by way of Lordsburg I hope. I'll need my trusty boots and all manner of gear, planning for warm and frigid temperatures. First let me tell about my boots, since they are the subject and object of all journeys:

I imagine I'll take and wear my favorite boots, the Vasque hikers that I've had for ten years. When I first bought them, mostly for light desert climbing trails in California, I thought I'd made a huge mistake. They were apparently inflexible, and showed no signs of wearing to my feet. I used to get such acheing pain from wearing them more than 4-6 hours, I would often sit down under the creosote or juniper and just take them off for a couple of minutes. Of course, I liked to do this anyway on a hike, whether or not I needed to. In Joshua Tree, I'd try to time the break with the achievement of a high boulder for air, sun, and panorama.

Now, I have been warned that this Albuquerque road trip is going to be mostly car and little hiking, but since the Vasques have at long last worn in perfectly, I think I'll wear them for nostalgic reasons if not for practicality.

I think these boots probably got a better workout on Naushon Island in New England than they ever did in California. At least I got them to the point where I wouldn't even think of taking them off. Wore 'em to work in all day, wore 'em to dinner, and wore 'em on long after-dinner walks, too. They are Gore-Tex blue with sandy sueded leather structures, with good old-fashioned Vibram soles. I checked to see if they still make them, and they don't.

On the Island, they were my workboots until I got some Timberlands. But even now I wear the Vasques as first choice. Somewhere along the way I changed my loyalty from Asolos to Vasques. (I would love to talk to someone else about this, but given this page's circulation, that isn't likely.) I think I gave up Asolos after nearly drowning in the standing wave of the Colorado rapids. Not that they had anything to do with all that. In fact, they were steady companions, and landed me solidly on the rocky shore when I escaped the killer currents.

Asolos always fit me perfectly and had absolutely zero break-in time. I bought my last pair several years ago and still haven't hiked in them. That's because I am still addicted to my broke-down Vasques, and still wear them first. But they really aren't suitable to hiking any more. Especially not in the desert. Even so, I'll be wearing them in Arizona and New Mexico in about 4 weeks.

(Boris McCutcheon plays in Albuquerque and Santa Fe in February, and I hope to find a way to hear him out in the west. That would mean meeting a fellow Naushon Islander west of the Pecos. What a blast for my boots!)