By David Shelby

Flat, paved trails only require a lightweight hiking boot that’s nothing more than an exaggerated sneaker. But if you venture into the tough stuff, where you have to scramble over rocks, uneven terrain, water crossings and more, you need a boot that’s more supportive, water resistant, breathable and provides lots of  traction.

The Wolverine Terrain Mid is a perfect example of a moderately light hiking boot that can handle difficult terrain and comes with lots of great features at an affordable price.  It’s also a good-looking boot that comes available in Moss (shown above) or black.

With an MSRP around $128, the Wolverine Terrain Mid features the company’s iCS mid-sole that allows you to set the boot’s comfort settings. This is really the core technology for these boots, which make them very comfortable to wear, even when you’re not hiking.

Simply remove the iCS adjustable heel disc and turn it to a variety of comfort settings ranging from firm  to soft.  We used the “Comfort” or soft setting during our test and although we didn’t have much time to break-in the boots properly, they still performed well and managed to keep our feet very comfortable, even during an extremely long hike on very rugged terrain.

While it’s never a good idea to take a brand new pair of boots on a long-trek, we nonetheless, took them with us on the famous Rubicon Trail.  It’s a strenuous, very rocky section of trail located near Lake Tahoe, Nevada that is normally intended to test the agility, performance and off-road driving skills for Jeep enthusiasts. But we hiked the entire length of the trail with the Wolverines and aside from some soreness due to the strenuous hike, we didn’t experience any hot-spots or blisters on our feet.

The Wolverine Terrain Mids ran slightly larger for the size. But to be honest we should have used a thicker mid-hiking sock too.  The terrain on the Rubicon is very rugged and uneven, but we felt secure during each step, thanks in part to the boot’s Stabilizer Heel cup. The boots also feature a waterproof Nubuck suede and mesh upper and a durable EVA rubber outsole, all of which combined to provide excellent traction and stability over sand and rocky sections where some sections would definitely cause injury if we had slipped.

The boots felt solid during our test and gave us lots of confidence during our trek. Any imperfections in the quality would have definitely come out while on this rugged terrain. The mid-ankle design also provided much-needed extra support and although they are a little heavier than a low-cut hiking shoe, they didn’t feel overly bulky, and appeared to be a good value over other hiking boots in the same price range.

The Wolverine Terrain boots also have a simple lacing system that uses nylon lace loops that ensure they won’t snag, but also keeps the laces from getting frayed. While the boots are waterproof, they will allow water in if you submerge them deeper than midway up the boot.

Overall, the boot is a good value and ultimately provides some of the best comfort. Keep in mind that these boots often come in slightly wider sizes so you may want to consider using a thicker than normal sock to keep your feet from sliding.  For more information, visit www.wolverine.com