Hats and Shoes

Today, after attending a young friend’s graduation, we headed over to Cabela’s to exchange my hiking shoes. I had purchased a pair of Merrils several weeks ago, but after about 20 miles of hikes they had not broken in.

In fact, they’d gotten more and more painful the more I wore them. So I exchanged them for a pair of Keen Siskiyou Mids. These already fit better after just one very short hike.

I also bought a hat. Now, I’m a hat guy; I certainly own more hats than shoes. Other than my pith helmet (which is hardly appropriate for hiking or the Camino) I had nothing that constituted an adventury hat.

The Tilley hat I bought is amazing, and it looks to be near indestructible. I’m very pleased with it.

I did notice one odd thing, though, when we were hiking around Nisqually later, I ran into a number of older gentlemen wearing Tilleys. Each of them without fail would look up at my hat, smile, and make what I now know to be the Secret Old Guy Tilley Hat Fist Bump.

It was weird.