[pct-l] Superfeet and Ponchos

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good evening, Piper,

I don’t buy things, I buy results.  I have very flat arches.  All was OK
until about 30 years ago when, with a heavy running schedule, I began to
experience extreme pain at the outside of my knee joints as the result of
foot impact force vectors out of alignment with the center of the joint.  Arch
support orthotics tilted the foot sufficient to regain proper alignment, and
the problem evaporated in a very short time.

Insoles like SuperFeet are not cheap, but they are about 10% of the cost of
the custom orthotics I once used, and the plastic side of a milk jug wasn’t
sufficiently long.

Basic, keep-it-simple, gear is often the best and for footwear there's a
simple, time-proven design shown at:
http://pages.uoregon.edu/connolly/FRsandals.htm
<http://pages.uoregon.edu/connolly/FRsandals.htm>

The material to make them might even be available somewhere in S. California


Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes <
diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:

> I tried superfeet and couldn't figure out what all the fuss was
> about. They appear to be nothing more than a piece of hard plastic
> and some very thin foam. And they charge how much for it? I thought I
> could do as well or better to protect my feet from rocks by just
> cutting a section of plastic out of a milk jug and sticking that in
> my shoe.
>
> I've gone more minimal since my hike, making my own shoes that have
> no molded foot-bed, no inches of EVA foam, no raised heel or arch
> support, no tapered shape at the toebox to blister my outer toes and
> deform my feet. I can hike just fine in simple footwear.
>
> Diane
>
> On Feb 17, 2011, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>
> > I should have mentioned in my post that many folks love superfeet,
> > and swear
> > by them.  It was late when I finally got to email.  For me however,
> > after
> > years of hard training and lots of pack trips and no PF, it was
> > clear that
> > putting them in my shoes caused an injury, as they were the only thing
> > different in my routine.  The stretching is very important, and calf
> > machines that allow you to really strengthen the foot.  Once they
> > had flared
> > up however, I think the distances and the mileage on trail would
> > not let
> > them really heal properly.  It was still worth hiking the trail
> > anyway.  The
> > real surprise has been the almost instant relief I got from taking
> > out all
> > the pads and arch support from my shoe two weeks ago.  We'll see if it
> > lasts, but I sure hope so.  I'm running and hiking on flat shoes
> > and it
> > feels great.
> >
> > Shroomer
>
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