With the experience of my first hiking trip, I knew what we needed was good hiking shoes. Running shoes or any other sneakers would be no good.

We had a trip coming up for the Lassen Volcanic National Park. From the looks of it (from what I had read about the place), there would be a lot of walking involved on the unpaved, dirt trails in the national park. The terrain and the hilly surroundings called for ‘hiking’ shoes.

So we made a trip to REI to invest in a good pair for each of us.

Keen Voyegeur (pic 1) for Sandip and Vibram Patagonia Drifter, waterproof (pic 2) for myself.

Photo courtesy: http://www.keenfootwear.com

Photo courtesy: http://www.zappos.com

We did a test walk on the unpaved, gravel Coyote Creek trail and they seemed to fare pretty well.