Lying on a cot in the community room of St Thomas Episcopal church, it’s 5 a.m. and sleep eludes me. It’s okay since we have to be out by 6:15 anyways. I figure I’ll just stay up.

St Thomas church in Dubois Wyoming let’s up to eight hikers or bikers stay in their community room on cots for free! There is a suggested donation of $5. They have a hiker box where people can leave gear or food they no longer use or need and take what they do need. Tonight the room is full.

Getting To Town

I got into town yesterday after hiking 19.5 miles to highway 26. The highway crosses the divide at some 9,000 feet. I take my pack off and stick my thumb out as cars whiz by. It feels so discouraging. A man shrugs with his hands in the air on either side of him. Another gives me a thumbs up back then waves. I’m not sure why but it makes me a little mad when people give me a thumbs up back. I suppose it seems like they’re mocking me.

After about a half hour Steve from Lander who was rock climbing in the Tetons pulls over. Thank the Lord.

We chat about the hike, where we’re from, wildlife and the likes until we pull into a gas station in town. The employee is outside smoking and I ask him if he knows where the church is that let’s hikers stay there. He does and points me in the right direction. 

Homeless 

I go inside and buy a Sprite then sit outside with my back against the wall drinking and looking up what’s in town. I feel people giving me looks. When you’re 8 days no shower, dirty, little thought goes into where you sit, I’m just happy to be off my feet. 

I find the number for the church and speak to a nice lady who takes my trail name and explains where the building I’ll be staying in is located. She mentions that there is a breakfast taking place the next day and I will need to be out by 6:15 am, no problem.

Town Chores 

After dropping off the majority of my things at the church I head for laundry and a shower. Swipping my credit card gives me 5 minutes of water for $2.50. The water is not hot. I start with my feet and calves but eventually fully get in. After 2 minutes the temperature increases.  I scrub and wash quickly so I don’t have to pay for another round of water. I was able to find both soap and conditioner left by other users. Gross? Maybe, but what’s acceptable and what’s unacceptable drastically shift in thru-hiking vs normal life.

I change into my rain gear after drying off with my fleece. Clad in blue I make change and start the wash. Heading over to the gas station next door I buy some chocolate milk and cheese popcorn.

After laundry is done it’s time for a proper meal. Pizza has been on my mind so I head over to Noon Rock Pizza and order up a large Smokey Joe. Chicken, bacon, onion, BBQ sauce and cheese. Slowly but surely I devour the whole thing. If they would have sold milkshakes I would have gotten one.

Back To Church

Back at the church I notice Free Be and Samurai outside at a picnic table eating. I head out to say hi and they both give me a hug. That’s the first hug I’ve received in 43 days! After catching up a bit, as much as one can with 2 native Japanese speakers, I head inside to lay down. There’s two girls bikepacking across America. I make small talk and we ask each other questions about our different trips. It’s fun meeting people doing different yet similar adventurous things.

As I clip my nails two hikers come in I haven’t met before. Fired Up, a NOBO (North Bound Hiker), and Matcha, a SOBO (South Bound Hiker like myself). It’s funny how we click more instantly and begin talking about gear, trail, food, and other shared yet different experiences.

Another hiker, Modesty, whom I met in Leadore, shows up and I say I thought you’d be way ahead by now. He did the red line to west Yellowstone, where as I took the macs in cutoff, shaving about 40 miles off the trail. He also took a zero today and would be leaving tomorrow. 

Time for bed and remembering that Modesty snores, I put ear buds in and turn on rain sounds. The cot is comfy enough and I drift off to sleep.  Not the greatest night of sleep but at least it was a cheap one.

Up and At Em

The following morning everyone is up and out of the church by 6:15am. We sit spread across the church property and are greeted by those coming to the church breakfast, this must be a normal occurrence for them. 

I stand up to head over to the Cowboy Cafe. Ouch, I sit back down. There’s a strange pain in my stomach, a tightness. I decide to drink more water hoping I’m just dehydrated. Let’s try this again. The pains still there but I slowy walk across the street and find the cafe. There’s already several motorcycle riders waiting for the restaurant to open. 

By the time they open at 7 a.m. there’s at least 15 people banging down the door, popular spot.

Myself and 3 other hikers get a table and begin drinking coffee and chatting. It’s funny how the trail can seem so empty but when you go into town you run into all kinds of hikers. I order a slightly smaller breakfast in fear of my stomach pain. Sometimes while hiking my stomach will act weird preventing me from eating much even while in a severe calorie deficit. 

The food comes and I’m thankful to say I was able to eat and the pain in my tummy subsided.

Town Magic

I get a coffee to go and find a bench outside to hang out on. Fired Up sits on the bench next to me and before I know it someone asks us if we are CDT Hikers. “Yes we are!”

“Would you like to raid our hiker box in our car?”

“Well of course we would!”

Three individuals had just finished a hiking trip and had lots of food items left over. One of them was a triple crowner and spotted us a mile away. We riffle through their leftovers and come away with some decent items. We chat for awhile about hiking. I even remembered to take a picture.

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Over the last decade, super shoes like Nike’s Vaporfly have revolutionized distance running. With thick foam and stiff plates, they return enough of the energy produced by the human body to measurably improve performance. Now, a brand better known for comfortable and unassuming boots wants to apply those same merits to your next hike. Can super shoes really make your time outdoors more comfortable? I’ve spent the last two weeks wearing Merrell’s zany new SpeedArc Surge to find out.

If I were to write a description of my ideal hiking footwear, it’d start from the bottom: big, grippy traction lugs, a soft foam outsole, a full-length plate, a supportive mid-sole, a moderate drop of about 8 millimeters, and an upper that prioritizes breathability, all wrapped up in the lightest weight possible. In short, a good pair of trail runners.

The lugs on a great pair of trail runners provide sure grip on loose scree and wet slippery rocks, allowing me to move confidently, no matter the terrain. The soft foam above those lugs should absorb pressure from uneven, pointy rocks—and add a bounce to my step. The plate needs to spread out impact and stabilize the shoe. And the firmer foam between that plate and my foot must support the shape of my feet, helping to spread the load of my weight evenly. The breathable uppers on a well-designed pair of trail runners hold my feet down and protect them from scrapes and pokes, providing the least possible barrier while heat and moisture escape. Each gram saved minimizes the energy each step requires, maximizing the miles I cover.

That description applies to the Merrell SpeedArc—only extrapolated to maximalism. Think of Merrell’s new shoe as a blown-up diagram of your favorite trail runner. You can see each component on the outside, large and clearly delineated.

Describing the three visible layers that make up the sole, Merrell’s design director, Ian Cobb explains, “The top piece adapts to your foot for immediate cushioning, while the bottom layer adapts to the terrain. The plate acts like a strut bar that brings everything together to push you forward.”

One of the innovations in Nike’s original super shoe was in employing something called supercritical foam to boost energy return to new levels. The material is created by infusing a chemical at its supercritical point—where it’s both a fluid and gas—into a polymer to create a foam with a unique micocellular structure. This is all a nerdy way of saying that new technologies are enabling footwear designers to take foams to hitherto impossible levels of performance: they can tailor specific properties, like cushioning or bounciness, with incredible fidelity, all while reducing weight.

The SpeedArc uses supercritical foam too, for both of the exposed layers in the sole. Merrell says its tailored this material to optimize cushion and propulsion, forming it into “coil-like shapes,” designed to work just like springs.

In its lab testing, compared to the brand’s previous hiking shoes, Cobb says this enables the SpeedArc to deliver, “double the energy return.”

It’s these foam “coils”—and the way the two layers of them are mounted to the central nylon plate—that give the SpeedArc its distinct marshmallow sandwich look, as well as its performance. Its also the prominent separation of the two sole halves, both visually and in terms of performance along with the full-length, full-width plate that distinguishes the SpeedArc from other maxi shoes, like those popularized by Hoka.

While less radical in appearance, the SpeedArc’s uppers are just as innovative. Made from a woven polymer reinforced with Kevlar threads (the yellow lines running across the shoe), the material is incredibly open and very resistant to abrasion. That thin body is then secured with a two-dial BOA lace system. BOA has been replacing laces with wires since 2001, but this is the first time I’ve seen footwear equipped with not one, but two of its dials, which allow you to independently adjust tightness over the forefoot and ankle. This works with polymer overlays that wrap the arch to eliminate hotspots. Together with the seamless upper, that maximizes comfort, and allows you to really cinch your foot down onto the SpeedArc’s soles. This detail helps eliminate the movement between shoe and foot that can cause blisters and fosters a feeling of security that helps the shoes feel reassuringly stable on the trail, despite the height created by the foam coils.

Despite the marshmallow appearance, wearing the SpeedArc doesn’t feel squishy or bouncy at all, just stable and comfortable. Walking along a trail in the SpeedArc reminded me of strolling barefoot across a carpeted room. The experience is utterly unremarkable, until you realize you’re walking across an uneven surface as if it, too, was flat carpet.

Without a laboratory (I write this from an austere cabin bordering Glacier National Park), I can’t speak to numbers, but putting some effort into pace on the trail, the shoes do deliver a tangible feeling of propulsion with every stride.

The only negative here comes from the tread. It doesn’t offer as much grip as many of my trail runners. That appears to be true on both loose dirt, slippery rocks, and even bare metal. While stepping on my truck’s rock sliders to climb onto its roof and wipe dust off of its solar panels this morning—a task I perform several times a week—I slipped.

Aside from that, the SpeedArcs have proven comfortable throughout daily tasks, like carrying heavy furniture into a new guest house, hiking the dogs on mountain trails, and mowing the yard. I’ve reached for these shoes over my usual hiking boots for those tasks thanks to their comfort and stability, but that’s created its own problems. Each and every time I pull them on, my wife rolls her eyes. Reviewing Merrell’s website, we can’t decide if black and purple marshmallows might stand out less than black and white, or white and gold ones.

In 2025, if you want to win a marathon, you almost need to wear a super shoe. But hiking for me is an opposite endeavor, one that turns miles into relaxation and enjoyment instead of records and medals. Do you need a super shoe to enjoy your next hike? Absolutely not. But I’ll be wearing these SpeedArcs through the rest of my miles on trails this summer. My wife will just be walking a few paces ahead, wearing subtle looking trail runners, pretending that she doesn’t know me.

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