Best Anfi-Chafing Cream for Hiking, Running, and Biking
How to avoid (or fix) chafing while running, hiking, backpacking, and biking
June 6th, 2025
Home > Gear Reviews > Hiking
Let’s face it: chafing can really ruin a nice hiking, running, or biking experience. What begins as a pleasant excursion into the outdoors can quickly turn into an uncomfortable, burning, stinging, painful time. That’s why anti-chafe creams and powders can be such a game changer for any outdoorsperson.
Our writers spend a lot of time being active outside–from hiking, backpacking, running, biking, climbing, and beyond–and have learned tricks for preventing or treating chafe. No matter where you chafe, one of our suggestions is bound to do the trick for you so you can get back to enjoying your time outdoors.
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Hiking and Backpacking
Gold Bond Friction Defense Stick
The very first time I went backpacking, I knew nothing about chafing or anti-chafing products. On the cold morning of my second day, my horribly chafed buttcheeks were the only part of me that was warm, and I realized I needed to learn ASAP.
As a very sweaty person who also lives in the humid Northeast, anti-chafing cream is a required part of my packing list for anything from a walk around the neighborhood to a 12-mile long run, to a 25-mile snowshoe adventure or a 400+ mile thru-hike. I need to use anti-chafing cream any time I’ll be sweating heavily, which is during most exercise for me. It goes on my buttcheeks, thighs, groin, shoulders, feet, or any other place where sweaty skin rubs on skin or gear, and the cream helps keep my skin intact.
I tried different products, like Body Glide and Squirrel's Nut Butter, and while they helped hold chafing at bay, they were also expensive and only available at outfitters or similar specialty shops. I had trouble resupplying my anti-chafing cream on thru-hikes, particularly on hikes out west where chafing seems to be less of an identified issue by outfitters. One day at a pharmacy, I saw a Gold Bond Friction Defense Stick for the first time.
It’s the size of a stick of deodorant and only $7; I decided to try it. I was thrilled to find that it worked as well or better than the products I’d tried before. It’s easy to find in person at pharmacies, Walmart, or grocery stores with pharmacy sections across the U.S., or online, and it’s very affordable.
During a thru-hike, using it multiple times a day, each stick lasts me ~14 days. It softens in the heat but never melts, and it’s easy to apply, like a deodorant stick, with no mess or fuss. I’ve used close to 100 of these sticks and I can’t imagine my life without it.
Gold Bond Friction Defense Stick
As someone who hikes almost exclusively in a hiking skirt, I usually get some thigh chafe early in the season. For years, I preferred to suffer rather than get any lotion or goop on my hands. But as an ultralight hiker, it's difficult to find a chafing cream that is lightweight and has hands-free application.
The Chamois Butt'r Stick is the same size and shape as lip balm with the same hands-free application. But the product inside works on chafe much better than lip balm (believe me, I've tried). The Chamois Butt'r stick creates a glide but doesn't feel thick or goopy. It also doesn't melt in my pack when it gets hot, which is important in the desert. As an ultralight hiker, having a lightweight anti-chafing solution is important to me and at 0.2 oz, this stick is all I need for just-in-case moments.
Chamois Butt'r Solid Travel Size Anti-Chafing Stick
I thought I only chafed in cold and wet conditions until I experienced the warmth and shirt-soaking humidity of Maine’s 100 Mile Wilderness in August. The extreme humidity was causing my back to chafe where my pack rubbed against it. So, I spent three days with my Buff wrapped around my torso, which is an effective way to prevent back chafing, but then I couldn’t use my Buff for anything else. So the first chance I got, I picked up a small tin of Squirrel’s Nut Butter salve from an outfitter along the Appalachian Trail.
This chapstick-tin-sized container of anti-chafe magic is small enough to fit in a tiny shoulder pocket on my pack, and it lasted for over 2,000 miles of my thru-hike. It’s a coconut oil and cocoa butter-based salve, so it remains solid at room temperature and never fully melts. A little goes a long way with this salve. Whenever I feel the slightest inkling of chafing, I rub a pea-sized amount on the area and that is enough to lubricate the area. As you rub it into your skin, your body heat softens the salve, making it easier to rub in. It’s all-natural with no added scent, so I feel good about putting it on my body, too.
Squirrel’s Nut Butter Anti-chafe Salve
Boudreaux’s Butt Paste was designed for infants in mind, but it caters to crying backpackers, too. I made this discovery in Virginia while backpacking the Appalachian Trail when the humidity became thick and sticky. The hip belt on my backpack became saturated from sweat, which rubbed my hips with every step. Before I knew it was happening, my skin became red and irritated. I began dreading the idea of putting my pack on in the morning because I knew my hips would burn in a matter of minutes.
Luckily, someone in my trail family had already discovered the wonders of Boudreaux's and lent me a squeeze when I started recounting my trail woes. The thick paste easily applied to my skin, drying out the area and adding a barrier to lock out the moisture. After a few days of regular use, I was nearly back to normal, forever changed by the power of butt paste.
Boudreaux’s Butt Paste
My thighs touch, therefore I am extremely familiar with chafing and have had some extreme cases on thru-hikes where I didn’t tend to it quickly enough. A+D Ointment was available in regular grocery stores and gas stations on my PCT thru-hike, which is why I opted to try this for my chafing.
I feel instant relief on my skin whenever I apply this to raw chafing. The whole area calms down. The ointment is thick enough to really cover and protect the irritated skin. It comes in tubes of various sizes and it is safe for delicate areas as well. I like that it is easy to find in stores and that it is thick enough to stay stuck in place once applied, I don’t feel like it rubs off quickly or needs to be reapplied as often as other balms and creams.
I love hiking in a skirt and this tube helps with any chafing. I now keep it in my pack for all trips. For short trips I squeeze some into a mini screw top lightweight container. For longer trips, I will just carry a 2-oz tube and use it liberally.
This ointment can also be used as lip balm or on small cuts and scrapes. It is nice to carry something that has many purposes, which makes it essential in my pack. I have used it on my cheeks in high wind to prevent wind burn and on dry skin, too. I like that it comes in a squeeze tube so I can carry one tube to share with my partner. You just squeeze what you need and the rest of the tube stays clean.
- Sara “Socks” Kruglinski, Operations Coordinator and Contributing Writer
A+D Ointment
Others have mentioned the simple go-tos, like Vaseline, for soothing chafed thighs/underarms/backpack-rubbed areas, and I love these products as well. However, if I’m really in dire straits with itchiness, chafing, burning, heat rash, and/or other skin irritations anywhere on my body, I need Nellie Tsosie’s Piñon Balm.
I received this for the first time as a gift years ago, and now it’s one of those must-have-on-hand-at-absolutely-all-times, ideally-in-all-rooms products in my household. It’s made with hand-harvested piñon sap, coconut oil, and vitamin E, and the packaging and website list its effectiveness against cuts, sores, bites, dry skin, eczema, sunburn, and more. It has basically the same consistency as petroleum jelly, maybe a little more solid, and as you can imagine it smells pine-y and amazing.
I can personally confirm that for skin that’s chafed and burning, this provides the most relief I have ever experienced from a salve or balm (not to mention how great it is on insect bites!).
To be clear, this is a niche product handmade by–you guessed it–Nellie Tsosie, a Navajo woman based in the Southwest. It is on the expensive side, it has to be ordered online (unless you’re in a few shops in Arizona and New Mexico), and I can’t say whether or not it melts at high temperatures. HOWEVER, it’s also 100% worth it, and my family and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I never go anywhere without it–for travel I put it in one of those teeny Vaseline jars (the ones the size of a walnut) and have never had a problem with it leaking out.
Nellie Tsosie’s Piñon Balm
Running
Aquaphor / Vaseline
I’m a big proponent of making running, and spending time outdoors, as accessible as possible. Running can get expensive quickly, especially if you fall into the trap of items marketed for running when everyday items will work just as well. When it comes to avoiding chafing, you certainly can buy Body Glide or other running-specific antichafe creams, but I’ve found Vaseline and Aquaphor to be simple, effective, and cost-efficient anti-chafe products.
While Vaseline and Aquaphor are both petroleum-based products, Vaseline is 100% petroleum jelly whereas Aquaphor contains additional ingredients that may make it better suited for, say, wound care. I use both products, applying whichever I have on hand in areas I tend to chafe, such as the inner thighs or armpits.
I’ve used Body Glide before and have found it effective, but it hasn’t proven worth the extra cost and shopping trip (i.e., Vaseline and Aquaphor are easier to find at places I’d shop anyway, like a grocery store). And with the cost of outdoor gear, including running gear and accessories, already adding up in your shopping cart, it’s helpful to cut costs where you can. Plus, Aquaphor can be applied to clean cuts and small wounds to help maintain a breathable barrier while they heal, so it can double as part of your first aid kit.
Aquaphor
I found ultramarathon running by way of my thru-hiking adventures. Through years of trial and error, I'd settled on what shoes, socks, and insoles worked best so blisters were rarely a hiking problem for me. However, ultrarunning was a different matter entirely. The mechanics of running meant my feet were more likely to experience rubbing, which quickly turned into hot spots and then blisters when running for hours. And running in wet, rainy conditions was much more challenging than hiking in the same, with a higher risk of skin abrasion and maceration.
At the recommendation of another ultrarunner, I tried Trail Toes in advance of my first ultramarathon race and I fell in love. Unlike other products I’d tried before, Trail Toes is more of a thick salve that can be applied in a thin or thick layer based on need. While I do need to use my fingers to apply it, it’s worth the trouble.
And Trail Toes has a lot of staying power—I only need to reapply it a few times during a 100-mile race. Trail Toes is composed of petroleum, silicone, and beeswax, and lasts a long time even in tough conditions. I’ve used it on my feet as prep for dozens of ultramarathon efforts, including long days snowshoeing in the mountains in wet conditions. Trail Toes helps protect skin from saturation with water and sweat, and helps keep athletes moving forward!
Trail Toes
Biking
Body Glide Cycle
Thankfully I usually don’t have too many problems with chafing while hiking or climbing mountains. But when I’m getting ready to sit on a bike saddle for 10 or more hours in the summer heat, I know there are some consequences: saddle sores, boils, inconvenient ingrown hairs, etc.
I spent years ruing not having something that helped protect my delicate posterior from the salt and sweat of long days in the saddle until I found Body Glide’s Cycle Glide. And, as one who also finds chamois shorts or underwear inconvenient, uncomfortable, and not at all preventive of butt boils, Cycle Glide does prevent the pain.
This vegan, plant-based stick goes on like an invisible butt and taint barrier and is only noticeable for the first few minutes after application—you hardly notice it’s there. However, I’ve found this mildly scented butt balm lasts all day and is effective at significantly reducing the pain of long days of pedaling in the saddle, both immediately and in the aftermath, which sometimes takes days to manifest afterwards.
While I’ll admit I haven’t tried many other products in this space, after using Cycle Glide and checking out reviews and ingredients in other saddle creams, I don’t think I need to.
Body Glide Cycle
Why you should trust us / About the authors
Treeline Review writers have spent thousands and thousands of miles and days in the outdoors, hiking, backpacking, thru-hiking, running, mountain biking, climbing, and more. They’ve endured hot, humid, muggy days on the Appalachian Trail, backpacked in the Colorado Rockies under intense UV rays, mountain biked in the relentless Arizona heat, hiked in persistent rain in the Pacific Northwest, and trained for ultramarathons in every weather condition imaginable. Throughout it all, they’ve honed their anti-chafing solutions.
