Boots, twice laced

The Lake Line is the gentlest route we run. Six kilometres of shore path, no real climb, a rest at every bend, and a lunch you could carry a child to. It also has, by some distance, the highest count of walkers who do not finish it, and the reason is almost always the same: boots that were bought for this walk. New leather, no give, and six kilometres where the left foot is on wet stone and the right is on dry moss the whole way round. By the far shore the heel has gone and the day is over.

I have carried people's boots back along the shore path while they walked behind me in socks. I have taped feet on the flat rock at the far end that looked like something had been at them. None of it was necessary. All of it came from the shop.

A boot you have not walked in is a boot you are about to learn about.

So the rule is simple and we are not flexible about it. Boots you have already walked in, at least thirty kilometres, and laced twice. Once loosely at the gate so the foot settles into the boot, then again, properly, after the first kilometre, when the foot has found its shape for the day.

Why thirty kilometres

A boot is not a shape. It is a set of materials that are trying to become the shape of your foot and have not got there yet. Leather stretches where it is bent and stiffens where it is not. The footbed compresses under the heel and the ball and stays high under the arch. Thirty kilometres is roughly the point at which the boot has stopped arguing with the foot and started agreeing with it. Twenty is not enough. Fifty is better. A boot that has done a hundred is a boot you will not think about once all day, which is the goal.

Walk them on pavement if you have to. Walk them to work. Walk them up and down the stairs of a block of flats. It does not matter where the kilometres come from, only that the boot has bent ten thousand times before it meets the shore path.

Why twice

A foot is a different size at 06:00 than it is at 09:00. It swells with the walk and the warmth, by something like half a size, more on a hot day. A boot laced tight at the gate is a boot that is too tight by the first rest, and the toes go numb and the walker stops feeling the stone under them, which on the shore path is how ankles go. A boot laced loose is one that lets the heel lift on every wet step, and a heel that lifts is a heel that rubs, and a heel that rubs for six kilometres is the end of the walk.

The second lacing, after the first kilometre, is the one that counts. The foot has warmed and swollen and settled. The sock has found its place. Now you lace for the day: snug over the instep, firm at the ankle, and the toes left alone. Jonas will stop the group for it, every walk, at the bench past the boathouse. It takes ninety seconds and it saves the day.

How to lace

1. Undo everything, all the way down.

2. Push the heel back into the boot by tapping the toe on the ground.

3. Pull the laces tight from the bottom up, one crossing at a time, so the tension is even.

4. At the ankle, use the top hooks to lock the heel down: over, under, and pull.

5. Tie it, tuck the ends, and forget about it.

If you are thinking about your boots at the second rest, something has gone wrong, and tell Jonas.

Everything else

• Wool socks, not cotton. Cotton holds water against the skin, wet skin is soft skin, and soft skin is where blisters start.

• One pair on, one dry pair in the pack. Change at lunch whether you think you need to or not.

• A spare lace. A broken lace on the shore path is a long way from anything, and a boot that will not close is a boot you cannot walk in.

That is the entire list. People arrive with gaiters and poles and insoles and we do not stop them, but none of it does what the two lacings do. The Lake Line is gentle. It only asks one thing of you, and it asks it of your feet.

If the heel goes anyway

It happens. Say so at the first sign, which is heat, not pain. Jonas carries tape and knows how to use it, and a heel taped when it is warm is a heel that finishes the walk. A heel taped when it is already open is a heel that goes home in the car. Nobody has ever been embarrassed about stopping for tape. Plenty of people have been sorry they did not.