[pct-l] footwear, blisters

[Kimberly Sorbello]

I've been reading the dialog in response to Chrystal's footwear questions. For what it's worth, my husband was a foot-care fanatic, and it paid off. On hikes where previous known hikers and leapfrogging co-hikers had serious blisters (e.g. across England and on the JMT) we had none. 

Everyone is different and we have to hike our own hike, but maybe someone preparing for the PCT could benefit from considering my husband's (our) foot care:

1) Prior to the hike, we walked 3-5 miles every evening barefoot. This toughened our foot skin and strengthened our feet arches and ankles. (When I met him he was taking college tennis and running - barefoot!)

2) We wore our real trail boots for many trail miles in training on weekends and he had to try three pairs before he found ones that were "just right" on the trail and not just on the store ramp or the sidewalks. Mostly he kept having to go larger and larger as "perfect fit" boots turned out to give him turf toe carrying a 22-pound pack downhill. Key factor? ROOM. They should not "fit" right out of the box; they should be VERY comfortable right out of the box, but feel a bit too big. Our footwear was very different - I am little but have large duckfeet.  I wear a men's EE width boot and am clumsy. I have worn the same Vasque mid-high tops, mostly leather goretex for so long I can't believe it. They're so wonderful for me, that it's not been worth trying something new even to shave off a few ounces. They fit me perfectly and their stiffness, regardless of "research", have kept me from turning my clumsy little ankles frequently. They just plain don't let my ankle go far! So instead, I fall down! But I'm not terribly far from the ground and I'm falling slowly so I can usually catch myself with my hiking poles, or my arms. No sprains or breaks, and bruises never stopped me or slowed me down. (We both swear by hiking poles!) But my athletic husband had normal feet and settled on mostly-fabric lower-mid Merrill Continuum goretex (really bad ankles so basketball-sprained that they can roll all the way down with no notice and no damage!)  

3) We ALWAYS wear two sox - a thick, padded pair and a thin wicking liner. (We carry one extra of only underwear and these socks and liners. One to wear, one to dry hanging off our packs with small safety pins as we hike.) 

4) Every time we put on our socks we sprinkle in the sox or on our feet and between our toes, a 50/50 combo of a generic equivalent of Dr Scholls foot powder and Quinsana Plus Anti-Fungal powder with 1% Tolnaftate, mixed together in a travel-sized Dr Scholls footpowder sprinkler. (We send extras ahead in our resupply.) The combo of powder and liners is amazing. 

5) Mid-day as we stopped for lunch we removed all footwear and hung our sox inside-out on our poles in the sun and whenever possible we soaked our feet in a cold stream or lake etc., and elevated our feet when we finished our lunch, as well.

6) For stream crossings that were too deep to go across in our boots and stay dry, we went across in our sox (the dirtiest pair) to protect our feet and feel the bottom. Again thankful for poles!

For what it's worth, it really worked for us!  He died very suddenly in August (in only a couple of minutes went from perfectly well to a coma, then died) and I miss him! We had just returned from hiking the Lost Coast and am SO thankful it didn't happen there caught between a cliff and low tide!  I hope his foot-care legacy will help someone doing the PCT this summer! (I'm jealous!)