Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Backpacking creek/river crossing leggings.

Use your rain pants. cinch the cuff area of the rain pants tightly around your boots with a Velcro cinch, multiple wraps of shoe lace/parachute cord or electrical tape. Used the technique many times to cross creek and small rivers up to crotch deep when hunting Northern BC. Have your boots well greased (Sno Seal) and don't waste time when crossing. Never got a wet foot yet, but I wouldn't go wading/fishing with the setup.

I settled on liking the Velcro cinch the best...which was left over from a relative's removable cast and is Velcro about 2" wide with a rectangular O-ring in one end. Too much waste with electrical tape but it worked well. Nothing wrong with the multiple wraps of boot lace or parachute cord either...make a loop on one end and cinch back.

As per the rain pants, I like the KUIU Chugach for backpack hunting. Side zippers are plenty waterproof for the quick crossings. Easy to take them on and off too.

Not sure what you are looking for Mike. Ive used sourdough slippers, wiggys waders, the old red ball branded version of the same thing. Sounds like you're thinking of a lw upper married to a lower of the same thing. I have seen lots of talk about that, but never anything viable that I remember.
All of the above can work, and I have done the gaiter high step and the rain gear run too. It just depends on how deep, how cold, and how many times you have to cross the damn thing before you get to where you are going. For the most part I have settled on waist high goretex waders and crocs/water shoes. It weighs more and takes some time, but I generally stay dry and don't freeze my nuts off, so I guess it's worth it.

This is them, Rock Chuck found a good picture, but no info. to be found so far.

I'm moving back to Idaho, it's mostly high dry desert. If I was going to be in a place where I cross water a lot I'd be OK with some of the waders mentioned here.

Kurt52, that's a good idea but I've gone to ankle high boots. I don't think this would work very well with them.

Beach shoes work much better. take off pants, boots socks


https://www.amazon.com/Wave-Waterpr...p;adgrpid=65884145727&th=1&psc=1

Have done that. Crocks were so slippery that I have to use a walking stick to be sure not to fall down in mid stream.

I have worn wet boots but prefer to keep them dry, so more usually have stripped down and waded barefoot.

In a week long backpack hunt with two waist/chest deep river crossings, I bought a cheap pair of vinyl chest waders, took them on the float plane, carried them miles in my pack, and they split out an inseam when the water got about to the bottom of my ribs.

Yeah. Sometimes. It is real hard to see broken glass in the stream bed underwater .. and there are ass-munch types who'd deliberately do things like that out there. Also I find that fairly rough bottom and really cold feet don't get along very well. Tendons that will stretch just fine in warm conditions are very stiff, very inflexible when "properly chilled" making foot strains / injuries more likely than I like.

If I know I have to cross a stream or two I carry "camp shoes" of a sort that dry quickly and don't weigh much in the first place. Favorite choice is Merrill "Trail Glove" zero-rise running shoes. They're usually 10-12 ounces for a pair which seems worthwhile overall.

I was just checking out those ninja, five toed shoes! Ghey looking but I bet something like that might could get the job done , in a pinch!

My stream wading has been way out there a looong way from roads and people in northern and Central BC. Broken glass is possible but not likely. When a kid and teen in WA State I got cut a few times from broken glass when swimming and wading in the Columbia River, a lot farther south.

Glacier melt is amazingly cold. Ice water and sharp gravel is a recipe for cuts, and with cold enough feet I don't even feel some cuts till later. If the sun is shining it sure feels good to dry and warm legs and feet after wading ice water, almost pleasurable. Camp shoes idea is a good one. I use Crocs for camp shoes usually.

No help finding the lightweight waders/leggings, BUT what I've been using instead of Crocs are Arcteryx Norvan SL's- very light, meshy trail runners (with a Vibram sole!)- lighter than Crocs, full lace up (they aren't coming off), better outsole and in a pinch if you had a full boot failure that wasn't repairable- these would get you by better than Crocs

I use them as "camp" shoes and for fording higher creeks/rivers.

13 oz for the pair

Getting your feet wet might be fine in the summer but for backpack hunting, it might be hard to get them warm again when it's 20F and there's 4" of snow.

agreed; but often there is no other viable option- I've found even in cold conditions after fording- drying my feet, donning my dry socks and dry boots (which are usually tied together and hanging around my neck as I ford) and starting hiking again I'm good to go pretty quickly

slogging through a cold creek/river, in cold conditions and getting your hunting boots (and socks) fully soaked is not a good strategy

The viable option is the whole point of the OP. However, we haven't been able to find the waders he's looking for. Apparently they aren't made any more.

I guess that would make it a non-viable option, so maybe go to plan B

I mostly wade with either Vibram "finger gloves" or Merrell Trail Gloves. In older days, Merrell "Overdrive" shoes. Those are roughly 10-12 ounces per pair.