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| | Gaiters
Gaiters
are like the old-fashioned white canvas army putty, but are now usually made of
nylon and use zips and / or Velcro in place of the old buckles. There is a
number of excellent reasons for wearing gaiters:
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They
cover the boot laces and socks. This not only prevents the laces from
collecting mud, burs, thorns and other muck, it also prevents them from
becoming hooked up, especially on the lace hooks of the other boot.
The author has seen the latter happen to a luckless backpacker, who fell
flat on her face, smashing her glasses into her nose and breaking four teeth
in the process, besides knocking herself out!
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They
provide a fairly effective seal at the top of the boot, thus preventing the
ingress of small stones, twigs, thorns, burs, spear grass, etc. They
also help delay the entry of water into the boot (but not for long!).
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Full-length
gaiters (as opposed to anklets) provide further protection, especially from
snakes, bracken, brambles, shin grazes and small rolling boulders.
However, some backpackers complain that the full-length type are
uncomfortably hot. This is especially true if they are worn only with
ankle socks, but are not too bad if worn over full-length socks. Most
experienced backpackers wear at least the anklet-type gaiter.
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