I've been wearing a pair of leather combat boots for years, although those sum-va-britches seem to be getting tougher and stiffer now than they were when new. Will try mink oiling them to soften them up perhaps. Anyhow, I've sort of grown accustomed to having full ankle support especially while hauling a heavy pack and walking rocky non-trail terrain. All leather boots dry pretty quickly if you just keep them on and it takes an effort to really get them soaked, although it happens. Coupled with wool socks they are great.
As a backup, I sometimes put some gortex socks in my pack for really wet conditions or crossing streams. I dawn the gortex socks and then put my boots back on. The boots will get wet, but my socks stay dry and I just keep on walking afterwards until the walking action dries off most of the boots. I try not to dry my leather boots by the fire, generally no need and it takes too long anyhow. Snowboots, however, need frequent drying and unfortunately because they have synthetic sides they are more prone to damage. Most folks I know recommend having a spare set of liners for their pack-boots that can be exchanged when the first pair get wet and then use of fire to dry the first pair.
I also tend to do a lot of work in the water. I think a lot of people underestimate the foot hazards that can be found in water - broken glass is a lot more common in many places than people think. Old cow fence posts with rusting wire or razor wire and other metal edges have a habit of showing up pretty often so that I don't really trust sandals that much. The other thing about sandals is that around the Great Lakes, the fill up with zebra mussel shells and then that cuts you or it works its way into not-fun places within a few steps. Aquasocks seem to suffer the same thing. I found that the best solution was full soled scuba booties. They have a running shoe sole and 1/2" neoprene. They can get a little warm in hot water, but nothing ever get in underneath them. The 1/2" neoprene also offers a lot of protection, although it gets cut and slashed, rarely does something penetrate to your foot. Shoe goop or silicon places the fix to the gash later.
