Footwear question

It's been cool and rainy here and I have my clothing pretty much dialed in except for the footwear. Currently I'm using Merrill hiking shoes which are water-resistentish and wool socks. They soak through fairly quickly, but it's not a big deal with the socks, at least above 40F (4C). Now it's below that and my feet are getting cold.

What to y'all use to cover your feet in this weather?

Hike a Bike

My normal route has been cut off by a fallen bridge, but not to worry, this one was brought down on purpose. By a badly worded sign and an invalid assumption on my part, I was forced to detour. There is a walkway over the highway that required me to push my bike up the steps and keep hold of it on the way down.

"No big deal." you say, "cross racers do it all the time."

With a fully loaded Big Dummy? I happened to be carrying breakfasts and lunches for the week and my bag in the back. Wrestling 70 plus pounds of ponderous [searches in vain for words to continue the alliteration], uh, bike isn't really the way I like to start my morning. Pushing it up is one thing, but the trip down was the tricky part. A bike this heavily laden tends to take even the smallest suggestion from gravity and run with it...

Anyway, put on yer woolens and ride (or push) yer damn bike -- this is the best time of the year to ride.

Time flies...

...and so does the snow. It's already November here in Minnesota with the attending wet snow and damp cold.

Excuse me.

... What? ... It's not? ... Still October, huh? ... I haven't been temporally shifted to Greenland, right? ... Lighten up, I'm kidding. ... Yeah, yeah, whatever. Still October? ... Tell my tomatoes, pally. ... Okay.

I've been corrected. It's still October. I thought I missed Halloween. I mean sometimes I miss it, but I was there. I can't remember, but I can remember why I can't remember. I'll have to put the turkey back now.

Winter looks like it's gonna come early and probably leave late. Eat before you ride and wear your woolens, folks. I just hope there's snow. Winter is fine with snow, you can go out and play in snow. Frozen grass isn't much fun to snowshoe on, trust me and -20F (-29C) and no snow just feels wrong. This year I plan to fish out my Cross Country skis and start doing that again, so it damn well better snow.

Time for my hot cereal...

Well, it's cold and rainy...

...but it's windy. Bleah.

If you're still out in this, Costco has Merino wool sweaters for sale at $19.99. I've picked up a couple and they'll be my base layer (underwear for you normal folks) for the next 5-6 months. They also have wool socks that are just like Smartwool's for $10 for 4 pair.

Steel is real, but wool is realer...