u/Irishfafnir

Despite being to Grayson Highlands a dozen+ times now I have always parked at Massie Gap for backpacking. This year, that's not an option(it's full, not surprised), so I'm planning on starting late afternoon from Elk Garden, which I have never really explored. Since I will only have an hour or so of good daylight, I want to confirm that I won't have to backpack through the dark to find a decent spot.

I'm not worried about the second night and will aim for somewhere past the Shelter on the ridge.

TYIA

Long Story short, I was having a lot of foot pain, and the issue was that my left leg had somehow become a quarter inch shorter than the right. The solution has been custom-made orthotics+ putting a lift into my left shoe, the problem is that after spending several thousand dollars and probably 8 or so REI shoe returns (thank god for their return policy), I'm still not close to finding a trail runner that I can wear, and I have several major trips coming up that I need shoes for, I'm also starting to worry that I'll lose my REI membership with all the shoe returns.

There are two main issues:

A- Pinky's Rub on the side of the shoe. Need a wide toe box

B- Shoe upper simply doesn't have enough volume to accommodate an Orthotic (harder to find info online about)

I owned the Altra Boot and Lone Peak prior to the issue being discovered, and liked them for the wide toe box; however, even with a wide version, they can't handle the Orthotic.

The shoes start running together(for mental sanity, I took a break from shoe shopping for a while), but others I have tried recently: Altra Olympus, Hoka Speedgoat, Topo Ultra Adventure 4 (and boot version).

Of those, the Topo had an adequate toe box and, with lacing (probably) had acceptable volume, but the midsection was way too narrow, and the Orthotic couldn't seat properly.

Any suggestions are appreciated, as I'm feeling very defeated.