[pct-l] Plantar Fasciitis and KT Tape

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

Exactly. And everything about hiking the PCT is like that. That's the  
beauty of the trail. It teaches you that (almost) every single  
problem is a solvable mystery. Before you go, you are full of what- 
ifs, but once you are out there, every what if actually does have a  
solution, even if the solution is something you would never think of  
in the comfort of your own home.

A couple years ago there was a guy who gave a trip report of hiking  
somewhere in Nor Cal. He had to call his hike off and bail out at  
some point because he couldn't find a water source. A thru-hiker  
eventually learns that not finding a water source is not a problem  
requiring quitting your hike to solve. You merely hike to the next  
nearest water source (even if that is behind you) and get there a  
little thirstier than you'd planned. Running out of water is not a  
quittable offense to your hike.

It's like this for everything. PF or other injuries can end a hike.  
Foot problems ended mine. But the trail had by then taught me that  
solutions can be opposite of what you think they should be (or what  
experts say they should be), to try everything and eventually you  
will solve the problem. I did that for my feet and returned to the  
trail the next year without foot problems.


On Mar 10, 2013, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> From: Tom Holz <tom.holz at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Plantar Fasciitis and KT Tape
>
>
>> I honestly think that nobody actually knows what causes or
>> cures it since people have opposite causes and solutions.
>
>
> I encourage hikers to think about overuse injuries as solvable  
> problems as opposed to fate or bad luck.  It's like a murder  
> mystery.  They can be hard to solve, but all murder mysteries start  
> with a dead body, and each case has a unique plot and a different  
> culprit.   Similarly, three different hikers may start with the  
> same diagnosis of plantar fasciitis, but one person has a weak arch  
> because they are flat-footed, another person has overactive psoas  
> and weak glutes that drive a dysfunctional gait, and the third  
> person just pushed too hard one day to meet friends in town.    
> There's no single cause or cure because each case is different, but  
> each case has a natural logic.