[pct-l] footwear, blisters

[Melanie Clarke]

Dear Kimberly,

I am so sorry for your loss.  Bless you for sharing the wisdom of his legacy
to help his fellow hikers.  I found this information to be very
informative.  I decided that I am going to walk my dog barefoot as I know
how hard, pounding out the miles can be, on the feet.  Many have suggested
the powder.  Thank you,

Melanie

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 1:43 PM, Kimberly Sorbello <ksorbello at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> 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 ins
>  tead, 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!)
>
>
>
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