re: New hiking boots

A couple of things:

1) I know what you mean about not finding shoes in stores to try on. I buy a lot shoes online from Zappo's. They have free shipping both ways. I've bought about 20 pairs of shoes from them, and returned all by 4 or 5, just keeping the ones I wanted. No problems.

2) I used a pair of Merrell Moab Ventilators (low) for hiking for about 2 years. Extremely comfortable and breathable. After the treads wore out, I converted them to my grass cutting shoes.

3) I just bought the Keen Koven Mid WP's a few weeks ago. They are comfortable, but don't breathe as well as the Merrells, probably because of the waterproofing. Most mid's are waterproof, so you'll want to keep that in mind.

4) Another brand you might want to look at is Oboz. I didn't try any of them, but they look good.

5) Check out REI for discounts too.