text: My hiking boots have taken me along 1000 miles of trails in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. I found them five years ago while on a travel writing gig with AAA Arizona Highways Magazine in Taos, New Mexico. The top-of-the-line New Balance high tops had an original price tag of over $250. I scored half off. We walked New Zealand's iconic Milford Track together. We schlepped the backpack from Lourdes, France, to Santiago, Spain, and besides other trekking adventures
  Since the boots are no longer available in stores, I scoured eBay for the past year for a replacement pair. Unfortunately, I could not find the correct size, so in April when I left for the 1000-mile walk from Le Puy, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, I was wearing my old boots and praying they would go the distance.
  Ian, a sprite 40-something must have prayed the same thing as he left his home in Paris for Le Puy. The smallish man of Vietnamese descent started his trek in his favorite, but well-worn Solomon hiking boots. Within the first 20 kilometers, the soles had totally separated from the uppers at the toes. The front of each boot looked like a laughing mouth. Ian was fortunate enough to find some hay binding twine in the surrounding farm fields. He closed the sneering smiles of his boots with the cord and continued forward.
  I met him at the first pilgrim albergue on the pilgrimage route from Le Puy. He showed me his boots sporting his own big