I live in the bay area. Thankfully zombierunners is between home and work so I no longer have to get all my minimalist shoes mail order.
I started to experiment with minimalist shoes in 2003, and have been wearing them exclusively since 2005 (around town, trail running, backpacking/hiking). I have never been a barefooter... I never was able to build up my feet so they were comfortable without some sort of protection.
I like shoes with large footboxes. I mostly live in Inov-8 shoes, though I wear vivobarefoot (Aqua and Dharma) when I need to be a bit more dressed up around town. I have a pair of vibram five finger (original model) that I have used one and off over the last few years. I don't love them or hate them. I am not sure if this community counts them as minimalist, but the inov-8 flyroc 310 http://www.verber.com/mark/outdoors/gear/reviews/inov-8-310.html are my favorite shoes.
I stepped my way down through a pair of the Flyroc 310s. I really liked those shoes. Too much heel for my taste these days, I wish Inov-8 would put the wide toebox on some of their more minimal models.
It is good to have another backpacker/hiker here! Thanks for stopping by!