“The problem is rain (and occasional stream crossings)…”
“Anyway I'd be interested to hear other people's experience and advice.”

Last June, I hiked for 3 days in flooded Oklahoma country. It was muddy and rainy and I had to forge ~13 stream crossings. I was one of the few that did not get blisters or prune foot (which caused extreme pain). In fact, the only non-prune-foot people were the ones that hiked in sandals. People with shoes or boots couldn’t change their socks every hour because they would be out of socks. And their trail-runners/sneakers/boots never dried out the whole time! It was just too wet. But my sandaled feet just kept drying out.

My teva Terra-fi2 sandals would dry out after a couple of minutes going through a stream. In fact, I couldn’t wait for the stream since I also slugged through mud, and the streams/rivers provided instant cleaning w/o scrubbing. My coolmax socks would take about 30 minutes to dry but they would be come wet again. I went through a lot of wet/dry cycles.

Above 45F I just let my socks be wet. From 30-45F, I use seal skinz. I don’t like to use those for long as my feet start sweating. So I will take them off and on depending on trail conditions.

Below 30F, I don my down booties. And I hike in snow with them. I thought I was the only sandal-snow hiker until I saw Hooty’s pictures. However, he has closed toe sandals and I have open toe.

At stream crossings, I take off my socks and wade the stream with my sandals, no matter how cold. (there’s more to this)

This may sound counter intuitive, but in summer humid rainy months, I think it’s best to keep the feet as exposed as possible. This will minimize prune foot (which invites cracked skin).

-Barry