u/allanrps

The following is guide and brief overview of barefoot walking in wild places. It was written by a human for humans. PDF

Those of us who grew up wearing closed toe shoes and walking on clear paths learned to walk in one way. However, once we take the shoes off and start traversing varied terrain, we discover a quite different reality. Walking is not the rigid routine of ‘one foot in front of the next’ that we thought it to be, but is rather a freestyle dance, where your feet and the earth are partners in expressing the relationship of nature and man. Of course walking is first nature to us and is ingrained in our DNA, but in modern times many are separated from this innate understanding by the rubber sole. How can we return this knowledge and again take part in this ancestral dance? By removing the rubber sole, being brave, and simply walking. 

This can however be a painful and infuriating process. Mistakes can easily lead to injury, and even superficial injury to the foot can have huge implications in an outdoor scenario. The foot is subject to constant stress in nearly all physical undertakings, and keeping it clean and rested long enough to heal before it succumbs to infection is a serious challenge. So, walking barefoot in the bush, while a primal part of man, should be looked upon as a serious undertaking for the uninitiated. It is ideal to embark on this learning journey as a child, while the body is light, the skin heals quickly, and the mind is perpetually attentive. An adult is more than capable of reaching competency in barefoot bush walking, but it will take time, attentiveness, and some level of pain. To expedite the learning process, or at least give a reasonable understanding of the goal, I have isolated 6 facets that are critical to successfully walking barefoot in the bush.

Vision
Foot placement
Foot sense
Gait
Balance
Conditioning
Footwear

Vision
Vision is perhaps the most challenging to develop, and also the most likely to be taken for granted. Before one can take a step, one must identify where to place the foot. This includes assessing the constitution of the ground — the traction it provides and how likely it is to shift under weight — as well as identifying hazards and determining the path forward. These tasks are trivial when walking down the sidewalk, but when facing dense jungle undergrowth they are a considerable challenge. 

Having a familiarity with the environment that allows you to easily distinguish its features is the first prerequisite. Looking into the bush when you are entirely unfamiliar can be like staring at a camouflage wall, with no leaf or branch being discernable from the next. Even the sense of depth can become confused. Once your mind has begun to categorize and describe the constituents of your environment, the landscape will open before you and the path forward will begin to reveal itself.

Finding the best path forward is only one of the duties of the vision. The other is to assess the conditions underfoot. Dedicating our eye's focus forward and neglecting to observe the ground beneath you will surely and swiftly result in injury. This task requires the same familiarity and acuity of the previous task, so sharing these faculties between the two will double the challenge. You must be able to reliably identify the features of the ground in front of you and how they will support you, as well as hazards to avoid. This skill, like all things outlined in this essay, is something that is gained by experience, through practice and pain. You will be surprised how the leaves of a thorned plant or a line of ants pops out to you after you have felt their painful presence in your skin.

The inexperienced might find their gaze fixed at their feet, rarely lifting to observe the environment around them. Not only does this leave you oblivious to harvesting opportunities, but it can result in you losing your way, taking an inopportune route, or stumbling into hazardous terrain. I remember vividly a time when I was just beginning to walk barefoot in tropical terrain. I was completely fixated on my next step, terrified to lift my gaze for a second lest my suffering feet be impaled by a palm spike. While stumbling along trying to keep pace with my friends whose hunting cries were growing distant, I placed my hand directly on the horrifically thorned trunk of a palm tree. Not once had I looked up to note the presence of this terrible thing until I felt its points on my hand. Small wonder that my feet were full of its thorns. Usually while walking in the bush your eyes will be glancing back and forth from ahead, to around your vicinity, to your feet—your feet getting more or less attention depending on how demanding the terrain is. Sometimes just looking forward five meters or so will give you enough information to subconsciously place your feet in good positions without having to look down.

Foot placement
Foot placement follows directly from vision, but there is further nuance to guiding each step than determining an inoffensive place to put your foot. Firstly, you must be well acquainted with your feet and the different ways you may use them. Sometimes you may want to spread your toes and grip the ground, sometimes you may point the toes and dig them in. Sometimes you may want to plant the forefoot, sometimes you may drive the heel. You might choose to bend your ankle at an angle that would be sure to result in a sprain if wearing shoes, to maximize traction and take advantage of a good foot placement. You will discover that your heel, forefoot, side, and instep are all capable of carrying your weight, and you will make use of all of them.

There is endless variety in where you might choose to put your foot in different terrain. I will simply list a few examples. In gravely terrain where stepping on pointy rocks is inevitable, rather than trying to avoid pointy rocks you should look for places where there are enough of them to spread the weight across more of your foot. In muddy terrain, favor stepping on vegetation and roots. If it is especially mountainous, you may find yourself dancing across tree roots without touching the bare ground. When you do touch ground, you might choose to dig the heel into a pocket rather than try to use the full surface of the foot. Stepping on roots also ensures that you are not stepping on a low cut stem that has been covered by mud, which could badly impale the foot. Where there is very dense undergrowth and you can't see the ground, you may want to push the foliage over with the side of your foot, creating a bed for each step. This will soften any unpleasantness found below and hopefully scare away snakes. Large rocks are simply a pleasure to put your feet on.

Foot sense
Foot sense, as I will refer to it in this essay, is one's ability to sense with the sole of the foot and make unconscious, often imperceptible adjustments to the shape of the foot and how one's weight is spread across it. This happens nearly instantaneously every time the foot is placed. It is far too quick and frequent to be a conscious process; in fact, one is mostly oblivious to its occurrence at all. Once you get some miles under your feet, you will simply start to notice yourself gliding over terrain that before would have been an arduous plod, your balance shifting subtly in ways you don't anticipate. You will carelessly stumble over a sharp rock and instantly recall the pain it might have caused you, but you will barely feel its presence at all. You may step on a thorn, expecting it to embed itself deep in your foot, only to find that miraculously the tip did not penetrate the flesh. These miracles happen in fractions of a second, the nerves in the skin of your sole commanding the musculature of your feet to accommodate the weight of each step as it is placed. The importance of the sensitivity of the foot is immediately recognized upon putting on footwear after walking barefoot. The step becomes clumsy and increased force is instantly felt in the foot and knee.

I believe that this foot sense is a key reason why, even with the prevalence of foot coverings at the furthest reaches of the globe, many bush walking peoples to this day favor walking barefoot over utilizing foot coverings. When precision and consistency is key, the full use of the foot is a great advantage. I have met many people living a barefoot, close to nature lifestyle, and have seen many scars and injuries that they have sustained (people of all walks of life suffer injury and infirmity, and I have not seen this to be more prevalent in "bush going" people than in "town going" people of similar underdeveloped countries). Never have I met someone who badly twisted an ankle or a knee from walking barefoot, even over the most difficult terrain. This is in stark contrast to urban hiking areas, where I have met many people who sustained those injuries going over quite inoffensive terrain. If one should choose to cover the foot, it must come with a high level of protection to make up for what is lost in the sensitivity of the foot.

During my life journey I quickly noticed improvements in the other areas of barefoot walking, but I did not begin to recognize the development of this foot sense until after quite a few years of walking barefoot outdoors. Perhaps this is because this faculty is highly terrain dependent, and I did not stay barefoot in one place long enough for my feet to understand the ground I was walking. I believe that more than this, the maturation of this faculty takes time and lots of data. To anyone who aspires to capably walk barefoot in wild places, I would advise them to remove foot coverings as soon and as frequently as possible. Only by putting foot to ground over a long period of time will your feet gain the experience they need to develop effective foot sense. Even the most minimal footwear will completely block this learning process.

One important note: I find that once fatigue sets in, particularly mental fatigue, this foot sense is the first thing to go. The diminished effectiveness of this important faculty is felt profoundly, as each little mistake becomes punishing, leaving one feeling quite vulnerable. This means that more conscious effort must be taken to make safe steps. Adding increased mental stress, pain, and possible injury onto pre-existing fatigue could easily result in a downward spiral into a dangerous situation. If you are getting tired on the trail and find yourself getting hurt where you shouldn't be, take a break. When you start up again, slow your pace, be careful, and try to keep your mind in a low energy state. As long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you will reach your destination.

Gait
This section comprises the technical manner in which one walks and the strategies employed to address various conditions. Of this whole essay I saw fit to write, this is perhaps the only section that contains actionable information that could directly improve the results of an aspirant bush walker in the field. This is because, unlike the other facets of barefoot walking which develop quite unconsciously through the walking process, gait has a more deliberate refinement process. You will find yourself, when lacking experience and muscle memory, making adjustments and revising your approach frequently until you stumble upon a gait with which you can safely and ably navigate your environment.

Here are included three diagrams illustrating different types of gaits that might be employed when walking, the path of the foot being represented by the bold colored line. Let us observe below the gait represented in green. This is the gait that all of us bipedal humanoids will be quite familiar with, the heel first strolling gait. There is a reason that this gait is instantly recognized by all of us as the default means of locomotion. It is very efficient and has a long stride length, allowing humans to effortlessly cover long distances without much energy expenditure. The stepping leg lifts very slightly and the foot glides just above the ground until the leg is outstretched in front of the body. The heel touches down and the straight leg receives the weight of the body, thus moving it forward. Notably, the body weight is received directly on the heel, with the foot remaining quite inactive until the very end of the stride, when the forefoot is used to push the body forward before it lifts off the ground. Because of the seamless weight transfer of this gait and lack of much of a downward step, there is very little impact to the heel or knee. This gait is ideal for clear flat paths, but has drawbacks that limit its application in the bush.

Because of the way the foot glides just above the ground, the presence of any obstacle can create an injurious situation. Kicking stones has obvious repercussions, but even a slight irregularity in the surface of the ground could fold and skin a toe if one is careless. Fairly benign undergrowth like low grass can become dangerous, as it gets caught between the toes and creates lacerations. If any sort of thornage is present, it will shred the soft skin between the toes creating a bed for infection that is very difficult to keep clean and dry. Because the weight is received by the heel, any obstacle underfoot is felt in full, without the surface area of the foot to spread the force. Even though there is little downward stepping of the foot, there is still puncture risk where the rest of the foot falls flat to the ground. If the brush is high, you will be unable to see your foot as it stumbles through the hazards beneath.

Rather than stumble dragging their feet through the undergrowth, those who wear protective footwear such as hiking boots will often adopt a gait similar to that illustrated in blue, the hiker's gait. They lift the foot up, drag it through the top of the underbrush, and drop it straight down with the weight of the body over it. With each step their weight falls forward onto the leading leg as it crushes whatever is beneath it. This gait, if attempted barefoot, is disastrous.

A minor issue is that the foot is still dragging through the top of the brush, and so is subject to lacerations and debris getting caught between the toes. A more severe issue is the falling weight and the downward trajectory of the stepping foot. This is almost guaranteed to result in a puncture injury if attempted barefoot in the bush. Thorns, branches, stones, even new grass growth will be driven into your foot and cause you to fall badly. Especially dangerous are the low cut stems of saplings which were slashed with a bush knife to clear a path. These become the perfect spike to impale the unscrupulous trekker. (As a side note, this is why when you are cutting a path you must not cut stems too close to the ground, or such that they could be covered with debris or mud. The next man to walk the path must be able to identify and avoid these hazards). Another issue with this gait, even and especially when protective footwear is used, is that it is loud and clumsy. Lots of brush is crushed under each foot as it descends to its uncertain landing place. Crunching branches and other unseen debris release an alarm that not only are you present in the area, but you very much do not belong.

To fix the issues with this gait, the stride must be shortened such that weight is not falling forward onto the stepping foot and the trajectory of the foot must be changed to mitigate the risk of puncture. Here we arrive at the bushwalking gait, illustrated in red. Several important characteristics stand out: the short stride length, the high step, and the forward projection of the foot. 

The short stride length allows the foot to be placed delicately and weightlessly. The weight of the body is held fully by the supporting leg until the ball of the stepping foot makes contact with the ground, and only then is the weight transferred forward. This allows increased precision in foot placement and gives your foot a chance to feel the ground and prepare to distribute the weight of the body. As it receives weight, the shape of the foot will change and obstacles will be accommodated. If the foot was placed badly, often it can be picked up and replaced without stumbling. If stumbling does occur, short light steps can be easily utilized to recollect. Notice how the foot does not move forward until it clears the brush line. This high vertical step avoids dragging the toes through the sharp brush, and the feeling of safety it offers is palpable. It also prepares your foot for the projection of the forward step. 

The foot does not descend straight down, nor slide across the ground. The ball of the foot is pushed forward at a downward angle through the brush, with the toes pulled back. Abrasion and laceration hazards will slide off the hard ball of the foot as it is guided through the brush. Puncture hazards on the forest floor will be pushed forward, flattening to the ground rather than piercing the foot. The ball of the foot touches down first, then the rest of the foot follows as is fit.

On downward grades, the foot must descend farther to touch down and the danger of falling weight is magnified. Lean back and lower yourself delicately as you extend your stepping foot in front of you, making sure to get a solid footing before dropping your weight on it. It will feel quite like the standard bushwalking gait, minus the high lifting of the foot. Walking in this way puts quite a lot of stress on the supporting leg in a “knee over toe” orientation. This will lead to considerable strengthening of the knees over time, but can also cause acute fatigue in the short term. This fatigue can lead to issues as your footsteps get heavier and less controlled, so as always be sure to manage your physical resources. If the path is very clear, you might choose to turn around and take long steps backward, landing on a straight leg. This allows you to reduce stress on the supporting leg, make better use of the shock absorption of the foot, and greatly increase stride length. The trade off of course is you must look behind you. On steep terrain you might choose to walk sideways, smearing with the side of your foot for increased traction. If it is quite vertical you might turn backwards and use your forefoot, gripping with the toes, and using your hands to support yourself. If the ground is quite soft, you might pull the forefoot up and dig the heel into a pocket.

Walking uphill is quite straightforward and generally easy and safe. While it can be physically tiring if under load, mentally it is quite relieving. Falling weight is not an issue, it’s easy to place your feet, and it's easy to use your hands to assist yourself. If your legs become fatigued you might use your arms to push off your knee or nearby obstacles, transferring some of the load to your upper body. Walking, like most full body physical activities, is all about spreading the load and not overworking one muscle group. You might keep a straight back, driving with your glutes with each step, or you might lean forward to transfer more of the load to your quads. Try changing your approach if one method becomes very tiring. The foot can be placed flat on the ground, with a stretch felt through the back of the ankle, or the heel might be lifted, only the forefoot touching down and gripping with the toes. Roots, rocks, and brush can be particularly useful for getting secure footing in mountainous terrain. A stick can be supremely helpful for very steep terrain. Especially in muddy conditions where secure foot placements are limited, being able to put your weight on a securely placed walking stick can lighten your feet just enough that they get purchase where they may otherwise have slipped. 

The walking gait is not a strict predefined procedure. Now that you understand some of the different considerations, it is up to you to manage these considerations and adapt your gait to your environment. As the density, height, and hazard level of the brush changes, so will your gait. So too will you accommodate the presence of stones, mud, steep grades, etc, fluidly changing how you walk according to terrain.

Balance
Now that we understand the dynamic nature of barefoot walking and the danger of falling weight, the importance of balance is obvious. If one poorly placed step results in a loss of balance, the next step, hastily placed to catch a fall, could be disastrous. Indeed, most of the times I have hurt myself seriously while walking barefoot have come from this exact scenario: I step on something sharp or slip, then in my attempt to stay upright I step directly on a puncture hazard. When balance is lost, it is best to catch yourself across many small steps rather than one heavy step all at once. Depending on the situation, I may not even attempt to stay on my feet, preferring to catch myself with my hands close to the ground. 

Balance will come naturally with time, hand in hand with the "foot sense" mentioned earlier. Having good balance on one foot will allow you to take advantage of foot placements that would otherwise be infeasible, and to catch mistakes by safely making corrective foot placements. Balance will also allow you to traverse fallen logs and branches, which are very common on bush paths. Sometimes the trail opportunistically conforms to natural deadfall, other times logs are used as bridges or long branches are strewn in muddy flats to give traction. Balance is especially tested when walking with load, in wet conditions, or when carrying things in your hands.

Hand in hand with balance is flexibility, or rather strength/stability at the ends of your range of motion. In dense jungle, you often must fit yourself in small openings, slithering over and under obstacles in your path. If you are unable to support your weight on one leg in a nearly fully closed position, you will find yourself barrelling through terrain that you otherwise could have slipped through seamlessly. In steep, rocky terrain you will need to step at angles that cause considerable stress to the ankle, knee, or hip, perhaps loading them in ways you are unaccustomed. If these joints are not up to the task, you will fall or be forced to choose a less than ideal path. The bottom line is that you need to be versatile in the ways that you use your lower body. If your flexibility is inhibiting your movement, you should dedicate a few minutes daily to stretching. This area is the easiest and fastest for you to improve in, so don’t neglect it. It will also pay off when you need to do #2.

Conditioning
Conditioning is often heralded as the end all be all of barefoot walking. In reality, it is perhaps the least significant factor. That being said, some level of conditioning is a necessary prerequisite to engage in the learning process of walking barefoot. That is to say, your foot must have the strength to ably hold your bodyweight without assistance and your soles must be sufficiently durable to facilitate stints of barefoot walking without the inevitability of injury. Aside from foot strength and durability, there are also the factors of foot shape and sensitivity. Your feet will develop in all these areas naturally through the process of walking.

Foot sensitivity will probably be the most prominent part of the barefoot experience for anyone who has newly shed their footwear. The soles of the feet, which ought to be the most grizzled veterans of all the skin on the body, for many of us were wrapped in cloth and coddled since birth, rarely being subjected to fresh air or sunlight, let alone the unpleasantness of the great outdoors. This sheltering leaves one with unreasonably heightened sensitivity in the foot, causing every feature of the ground beneath you to present as an offence and potential hazard. This will subside with time, and the sensitivity of the foot will decrease as its durability increases. That is not to say you will experience decreased sensation in the skin of the foot. In fact, due to developing awareness, you might find that you receive more information from your feet while also receiving fewer distress signals.

The suggestion that barefoot walking leads to extreme callouses, causing the foot to resemble some sort of hoof, is an absurdity. There is absolutely no truth in it. The pictures that have been dispersed of seriously disfigured feet being touted as the natural human condition are a product of complete and willful ignorance, and are a great insult to the design of man and his natural sensibilities. 

The natural foot, not surprisingly, looks like a foot. The thickness of the callouses of the sole will of course increase, but not in a manner that is immediately visually obvious. The position of the toes also will spread a bit to assume their natural position, but not so much that the bones of the toes are out of line with the bones of the foot preceding them. The big toe, even in those that walk barefoot almost exclusively, seems to have a natural propensity to angle inward, not following the metatarsal bone beyond the inside edge of the foot. Even the very occasional use of closed toe footwear seems in some to result in the extreme inward angle that most "modern" feet share. The pinky toe, likewise, seems to have a natural propensity to roll outwards, which is exacerbated by closed toed footwear. For some the ankle will sit inline with the heel of the foot, for some it will roll slightly inward. Both seem to be a natural structuring of the body, the above heel orientation perhaps offering more mechanical stability and the inward orientation perhaps offering more shock absorption and elasticity. The arches, which in many shoe wearing people are completely collapsed, will appear prominent but not extreme, unless there is a genetic proclivity to present so. Overall, a healthy bare foot should have a familiar shape, with evidently strong musculature and rather straight toes. Unless it is important that your foot have the appearance of a "natural" foot, there should be absolutely no need for physical aids or specific exercises to reshape the foot. Simply walk, and your feet will develop to accommodate that practice. This is another area where you will feel the benefits of maturity after many years.

Footwear
While perhaps outside the scope of this article, I will briefly discuss the topic of footwear. These days it is often infeasible to spend all of your time barefoot, so let us explore why and with what one might cover their feet.

Hiking boots
The de-facto “right” choice for anyone walking off the beaten path. It is not for nothing that this choice of footwear has become an essential kit for many who venture into the bush. Hiking boots offer supreme protection, encapsulating the foot and insulating it from the outside world. It's not hard to see why this is desirable for one occasionally leaving the comfort of their home to brave the “great outdoors”. There are, however, considerable drawbacks to opting for supreme protection. Surrendering all sensation of the foot renders foot placement imprecise, leaving it entirely dependent on foot-eye coordination. This can be especially problematic in uneven terrain where view of the ground is obfuscated. Balance is considerably compromised, the adaptive structure of the foot, ankle, and toes being constrained to a rigid form. The presence of “ankle support” severely limits the gait, forbearing the precise, considered movements that are requisite for stalking prey or navigating especially precarious terrain. That is not to say that these limitations cannot be overcome with practice, but achieving this proficiency is perhaps not worthwhile for one who endeavors to experience nature with feet unclad.

Flip-flops
There is good reason why the simple foam thong is the most prevalent piece of footwear on the planet. It is light, low maintenance, doesn't hold water, and it serves the purpose of offering a bit of protection underfoot for under 1 usd. The protection it offers isn't much, but it's enough to extend the human range to cover almost any environment where foot sensitivity or health might be an issue (notable exclusions are deep mud, running water, cold temperatures, and high presence of leeches or other malicious ground dwelling life). It lacks some of the drawbacks of more significant footwear, its only major downfalls being durability and the unavoidable fact that it blinds the foot to the ground beneath it. Where foot sensitivity is more of a hindrance than a benefit however, flip-flops are a great asset. When that balance shifts against them, they can be slipped off effortlessly and carried in hand or bag as the user continues barefoot. Indeed, flip-flops are best viewed as a supplement to the barefoot experience, rather than a replacement. Most of the considerations for barefoot walking apply to flip-flops as well, but the risks are lower. In an urban or semi-urban environment which is likely to contain sharp objects, hazardous waste, and general uncleanliness, the flip- flop is an easy, if imperfect, solution.This is my footwear of choice, supplanting the homemade rubber sandal tied with cord (huarache) due to its better traction when wet and greater convenience.

Moccosyn/Primitive footwear
It’s easy for the modern mind to take hold of the idea of “primitive footwear” as being the ancient analogue of its modern counterpart, fulfilling a similar role to shoes. While this is true to the degree that both are forms of footwear, primitive footwear served a particular niche and was not so ubiquitous as the use of modern footwear today.  “Primitive” peoples did not invest time and resources into the crafting of footwear because of the foot’s inherent need to be pampered, but rather they developed them as a tool to address a particular need. For example, the plains Indians of North America utilized a leather foot covering which afforded very little under foot protection but was sufficient to guard the feet from the sharp blades of grass that covered their terrain. Snow dwelling people fashioned insulative, waterproof foot coverings to protect their extremities from the icy earth beneath. Many peoples found their uncovered feet quite capable of serving their station un-assisted, and so forewent footwear entirely. With any footwear, a considered analysis should be taken of the benefits and drawbacks of covering the foot. Footwear made from natural resources, which is often limited in durability, traction, and protective coverage, often can not justify the investment required in crafting, nor the compromising of the foot's innate capabilities in use. In the modern day, with the inevitable surrendering of traditional ways and their unique demands of the feet, the prevalence of the foam thong sandal has caused primitive footwear to be rendered all but extinct, relegated to the role of a mere cultural artifact.

That's all folks. Get out there and touch some dirt!

S tier: short grass/ground cover, boulders
A tier: red/brown dirt, sandy river beds, moss
B tier: mixed rocks, cement
C tier: sharp gravel, wet leaves
D tier: rotten jungle mush, burnt brush, asphalt
F tier: palm spikes, leeches, snakes

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