FOOT WARS

6 Oct

Apparently it takes 2 months for your feet to recover from the trail…

I finally felt that my feet weren’t too gross to take to a nail salon this week.

Before we left for the JMT, one of my colleagues said, “This will be such a great adventure for you… and your feet.” And God bless them, they made it.

My 3-year-old painted them before we left, and on day 2 they were already needing the First Aid Kit…

[WARNING: don’t eat while reading.]
First, it was a sixth toe – a big blister on the outside of my left big toe. Then a blister on the outside of my right pinkie, then the inside, then the 2nd toe on the right foot nail looked like it might go (but thankfully stayed on until after the trail was over,) then the right instep, the left heel, left pinkie toe with skin peeling completely off the tip and then new blisters appearing where the skin came off. Right in-sole blister, and a blood blister. Then of course the left ankle started giving real trouble, but that was only 3 days from the end. (You can handle anything for three days apparently.)

I used every trail remedy I could get a hold of: blister pads, regular band-aids, TP, medical tape, and the trail favorite: duct tape. I tried them alone, in combination with various layering techniques, but when it came down to it, the 1st two weeks hurt, and the 2nd two weeks, your tolerance has increased to new levels. (I even recall thinking my boots felt loose coming down from a pass, and then realized at the bottom that they were untied the entire time and just tucked up in my pant leg.)

We put a lot of pressure on those feet. With heavy packs, scrambling over so many different surfaces and just the mileage strain leads to the recommendation that you buy boots 1/2 size bigger for the swelling on the trail. Day 18, I started the pedometer, and recorded 34,112 steps.

So, bravo feet. You went through a lot and finally made it out again.