Provisions

 As a Guider I do know about a few basic outdoor needs.  Have I always followed my own advice and been prepared for any weather situation?  Well, no.  But I have a good reason, I’m lazy lol.  This last year however, I have been actively trying to “up” my prep game.  I picked up some rain gear, I have a bin of cold weather clothing now and proper socks.   I know right, where's my medal……or rather crest?  Perhaps your medal was actually staying dry when we were rained on at Port Burwell?

There is a difference in what I need to make a weekend camp with my Guides more comfortable than actually being able to do some of these extreme parks.  Have you actually looked at outdoor gear?  That shit is expensive!  Now add in the fact that I’m plus size and that shit is even more expensive, if you can even find a brand that is actually size inclusive (which is a whole other rant - spoiler fat folks like doing stuff too!)

After our hike at John E Pearce it became abundantly clear that I was in desperate need of some appropriate footwear.   Thankfully so did the other 2 so off we went to find some hiking shoes.

Now dear readers, should we have done this in August when the shops had sales and stock?  Yes, yes we should have.  But here we are, at the end of October, doing our very best.

Our plan, get to the city and hit up the outdoorsy stores, try on a variety of shoes/boots and secure a reasonably priced pair each.

What is reasonably priced?  Well I had fully anticipated paying around 250$ which made me feel kind of sick if you want the truth.   

Store #1 - Stock but not inclusive sizing, womens went up to a 11 in a few options, nothing larger. Great prices (think 50-100$).  The footwear was on sale for 50% off so that helped but no luck. I think this is where we should let our readers know that out of our trio, we all wear different sized shoes, with the smallest feet being a size 9/10… Add to that we have wide feet, AND still want a “pretty” hiking shoe. So, while stop one went up to an 11, they did not have wide widths, and that was the problem for me. My issue is that I have size 12 feet, which no one makes womens size 12 anymore (I miss Payless so much). I was stuck trying to figure out which men's hiking boot I was willing to wear while deeping longing for a pretty female looking hiker!

Store #2 - Stupid expensive zero inclusive sizing anywhere - total failure.  They did have some really cute hiking dresses with anti chafe shorts (IYKYK) that had a pee pee hole in the crotch for modest trail peeing.  Given that there was an entire rack of these dresses on clearance I think they weren’t a big hit.   Now friends, I love a good gimmick.  Like….I LOVE a good gimmick.  This was really hard for me to pass up and I still have regrets.  Imagine if you will getting ready to go out for a day in the wilds, your bare shoulders chafing under the straps of your daypack, the mosquitoes and blackflies having ample exposed skin to nibble on, the sun beating down on you.   Suddenly you have the urge to urinate, no worries your shorts have a secret hole for your ease.  What luck, as you squat down to relieve yourself you suddenly remember that alas, your underwear does not have such a slit and now you smell like piss for the rest of the day.  Definitely not a chicken dinner here.   Although to the credit of this dress manufacturer, they were fairly size inclusive.

Store #3 - Better options, lots of stock, fairly inclusive sizing, not a lot of sales.  However I found success here in getting a pair of clearance Helly Hansen hikers in my size for 84.99$!  They are cute and lightweight and I’m really looking forward to taking them out for a stroll. I found that stop number three actually had less options size wise. I literally asked the sales person to just bring out every single size 11, and she brought me two pairs, that were the same, but one was a shoe, and one was a boot. Spoiler alert, the size 11 did not fit. However, their clothing was very size inclusive… Maybe that is what you meant. In that case, they were a great stop, and had lots of clothing options.

Overall a good day for me, not a great day for the other two.  Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come for our future provisioning. I ended up finding a pair of mens hikers online but I have no idea how they are cause they now sit in postal purgatory due to the postal strike. I can only hope that the place I got them from has a very understanding return policy if whenever I do receive them they end up not being right for me.