Sorrels ( a rubber/leather boot with an insulating insert) are a good choice. That being said, I wear hiking boots most winters down to about 10 degrees.

MrBadger,

Most days I wear Dickies to work also, and i highly recommend them. They look a little dressier than jean, so you can wear them in a more places than jeans. One thing I like about them is that they don't look "tactical", so it doesn't look like I'm trying going on a mission, plus they're not poly/cotton, so they wear like iron. They've lasted much longer and dry quicker than my heavy duty carhartts. As far as burn resistance, I've worn them while welding, and they don't melt holes in them like normal synthetics. Plus I've never had a problem with the coveralls when working on a hot exhaust, so I would assume they're pretty burn resistant.

For emergency clothes, I usually carry a pair of dickies pants and one of their long sleeve work shirts, or sometimes i have a pair of coveralls that I can just throw on top of whatever I'm wearing. Where I live the weather is pretty mild, so I don't have to worry about extreme cold or anything like that.

133tYoDuh; Thanks for the feedback! And sorry for your misfortune.I carry a bag around with me (keep it beneath my desk at work) that contains a reasonable colection of EDC kind of stuff ( Too heavy to be called a BOB), but I was thinking the other day that if I had to vacate the building and for what ever reason didn't have access to the clothing in the trunk of my car, I wouldn't be very protected in my scrubs and the coat that I wore that day. I like most people I guess, dress for the trip from home to the car and from the car to work. Like I said, I carry some more HD type clothes in my trunk so I would have access to them if I'm in or have access to the car.But what if I cant get to the stuff in the car? So I'm thinking I need to make some reasonable additions to my EDC and start thinking of my selections in terms of Environmental Armor,

Not packs, they don't breath. I'm not sure you the gentleman you reference is, but I'm going to respectfully disagree with him.

Leather that is well oiled is in my experince best unless you are heading into marsh land, in which case canvas or solid rubber (depending on how squimish you are about slimy bog water between your toes) is your best bet if you are going to be staying long.

For winter, if you have insulated boots, leather or leather with canvas or goretex panels. They'll keep you dry from without, and breath so you can stay dry from within. Better is a felt liner that can be removed and dried seperatly from the boot to protect the leather, and good socks. Thin cotton or nylon closest to the skin, then one or two layers of wool or woll blend. If your feet are still cold, (a) get out of the puddle, and (b) put on a hat. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Packs generally give you less than squat for ankle support- illusion is there, but there isn't anything there. At that point, you might as well be wearing Converse All Stars or Tevas. Ankle support needs to be real. And you want traction, which I've never been all that impressed with by packs.

But that's my experince.

These things Nasty- they start off ice cold, get really hot while you are moving, and becuase they are basically heavy duty balloons wrapped around your feet, not only do your feet not get dry, but when you stop moving, they get as cold as the inside of a tire.

Oh, and gator, aircrew might use them, but you'd never jump with them. Not ankle support, iffy traction and the landing would probably cause them to blow out. Not to mention there are better choices which are more versatile and allow stealier movement- if you ahve to take a walk a 20 thousand plus, you are generally wanting to be sneaky. Sneaky boots are approximately equal to a couple hundred rounds of ammunition. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> The valve has to do with when you are airborne (in a plane and going from point a to point b) and don't want them to pop, and have nothing to do with being in the Airborne (planning on leaving the plane before it lands so you can kill as few people as possible without dying yourself at a point between a and b). Or, if you are in unpressurized aircraft, so you can take them off again, just like the valves on Pelican cases.

I'll second the Dickies recommendation. Any time I need something dressier than jeans but still able to be worked in, Dickies are the first choice.

Much of the Dickies line is poly/cotton. If they are one of the cotton versions, they may dry quicker than the Carhartts because the Carhartts are a heavier cloth. Every Carhartt pants I've looked at is 100% cotton.

I've had the exact opposite results with jeans. Poly/cotton jeans will last years past a similar pair made of cotton. The cotton pants begin to show their age in the wear areas & seams when the poly/cotton ones are still going strong. They also dry faster.

Raven; Morning Sir! In case your wondering, yes I have a day job, been out sick all week.Maybe thats why some of my posts are less then cogent/succinct (though there are people that will tell you that I'm not cogent or succinct on my best days). Re:. Mors Kochanski (www.karamat.com) wrote Bushcraft. Considered to be the preeminent sub-arborial wilderness living skills instructor. In his winter class, he teaches you how to be warn at 40-50 below(?) in a self made structure with a fire without a sleeping bag. The fiires are 6' long and burn 24-7. You don't do much but gather fule for this beast and after the fule is gone ya got to move. Ok for a night or two or three but I'd realy like to have or make some sort of wood burning stove. Much more efficient in terms of both heat production and fule consumption ( www.fourdog.com) Visit the site and read the book, good stuff. Thanks, Jim

Times Gone By....In the case of the MM Boot's, I went into the 82nd Airborne when the Army still wore cotton all OD Green uniforms, and had C-Ration's. Our usual training Jump altitude was 800 ft. If you don't think that's low, you can stand on the ground and count the troops jumping by watching them go past the tiny green "Jump Light" located inside the door! Getting back to the MM boot's, Being Light Weapon's Infantry, most of us just left the thing's behind, prefering more ammo if we had to carry any type of combat load!

Krell