While hiking does not necessarily require a lot of equipment one thing which is vital to your enjoyment is a good pair of hiking boots. The correct hiking boots will provide you with comfortable support and have the traction which you require for even the trickiest of surfaces. However, a bad pair of boots can turn a day's hiking into utter misery.

Hiking for any reasonable distance will put considerable stress on your feet and ankles, which is transmitted upward to the legs and into your back and your entire body. While most people think in terms of blisters from bad boots, the biggest problem is not the possibility of blisters but is in fact a lack of good solid support.

The right hiking boots will give you the springiness and stiffness which your foot and ankle require. You have to be able to push against the ground, whatever the surface conditions, with assurance and know that your boots are going to give you support. Without this support, sore feet and ankles, or possibly even twisted ankles, are effectively a certainty.

Many boots today are constructed from a variety of specialized materials but, perhaps surprisingly, leather remains a large component of the best hiking boots. Leather has been used for many years in the manufacture of boots and is still in use today because it is durable, water-resistant (when treated), has good stiffness and exceptional thermal and moisture properties.

Whenever we talk about comfort it is easy to replace this with the word luxury today but, when it comes to hiking boots, comfort is a necessity rather than a luxury. You have got to be able to hike for long distances without getting blisters or experiencing chafing and you have got to be able to wear your boots for long periods of time without moisture building-up or excessive heat or cold becoming a problem.

Buy a pair of hiking boots which feel right for your feet and that means more than just buying boots which are the right size. Buy boots which feel good the minute you put them on and do not believe the old adage that ‘they’re going to feel a bit uncomfortable until you have broken them in’. Your hiking boots will naturally wear in, but if they do not feel right when you first get them then they will rarely feel right later on.

Do not forget too that hiking boots are not shoes. They should be expected to feel stiff and provide very little give on the outer sole and around the ankle if they are to do the job which they’re designed to do.

You'll be scrambling over slippery gravel, wet rocks, flaking hills and muddy trails and, while no boot can cope perfectly with every eventuality, the correct pair of hiking boots, such as modern Asolo, Timberland or Vasque hiking boots, will come pretty close to doing so.

Today's well-designed hiking boots utilize various materials and geometries to minimize slippage on wet surfaces and maximize traction on flaking hill grades and Vibram lugs with some form of tread should be a minimum requirement. These boots look a little bit like car tires, but with a bit more plastic and a bit less rubber.

Naturally there are other things which you need to look for, such as gusseted tongues which keep out stones and gravel, but the main features covered here, and that you will find on the majority of discount hiking boots today, will give you an excellent starting point. The really serious hiker will possess several pairs of boots to cope with various different forms of hiking but for the novice one good sound pair of boots will do to start with and, if you purchase the right boots, they ought to last you for many years.