Your feet, your lowly feet, your humble feet, deserve your respect and most attentive care while hiking or backpacking. They do a yeoman’s job as they carry you and whatever you hang on your body over long distances and rugged trails.
- Image via Wikipedia
Here are some tips for proper foot care while hiking:
1. Learn Blister Prevention and Care: If your feet complain of an impending blister by sending your brain messages about a hot spot, fix it immediately. Cover the spot with moleskin or duct tape. The best treatment for a blister by far is prevention.
2. Purchase Properly Fitting Footwear: Spend plenty of time making sure that you have the right boots or shoes and that they fit your feet really well. Try them on with the type of socks or combination of socks that you plan to wear with them. Your toes need adequate room, at least a finger’s width between the end of the boot and your longest toe.
Test your footwear by walking around the store. Make sure your heels don’t slide up and down more than a quarter of an inch and your toes don’t bang the ends of your boots when descending a slope. You shouldn’t feel any bumps or stitching.
Remember to not buy heavy, stiff boots if you don’t plan to do heavy off-trail trekking. Lighter is better in most hiking and backpacking situations. You’re not doing your feet any favors by making them carry more weight than is necessary.
3. Do Proper Boot Break-In: Clomp around your house with your new boots for a few days. Then take short walks around town while running errands. After that you can take short, then longer and longer hikes.
If there is still rubbing or tightness, you can get a shoe repair shop to stretch the spot. Or, you can do it yourself by applying some oil-based leather treatment to the spot and rubbing it with a stick with a rounded end.
4. Wear High-Quality Socks: I learned this the hard way. I got blisters from socks that had worn thin at the wrong place. Find the best sock combination for your feet and hiking habits. It could be one pair of socks or two. Just make sure the inner pair is made of a synthetic fabric with great wicking properties. Feet damp with sweat are walking, maybe even running, down the path to blisters.
Change your socks daily or more often if needed. Wash your socks and hang them out to dry on your backpack – for all to admire.
5. Trim your Toenails: If they’re too long, they could cut into neighboring toes or add to the pain of tortured toes in grueling downhill grinds.
6. Trim Your Calluses: Use a callus file to thin them down. If you get a blister under a callus, it will be especially difficult to treat. Treat your calluses with callus creams (available at your local drug store). These creams are also useful for healing cracked skin that can be vulnerable to infection.
7. Give Your Feet a Breather: When you take a breather, give your feet a breather as well by taking your boots and socks off. Elevating them will help prevent swelling. Give them more air by wearing sandals or flip-flops around camp. Some would even say forget the boots and just wear sandals period.
8. Give Your Feet a Lube Job: Lubricate your feet with talcum powder or a commercial foot lubricant. Look for them at any drug store or wilderness outfitter like REI.
9. Boot out the Foreigners: If you detect an unwanted alien like a stone or grit, deport it immediately. And keep your socks wrinkle-free.
10. Take along a Foot-Care Kit: It should include your lubricant or powder, alcohol wipes to remove the lubricant and blister dressings like duct tape or moleskin plus a safety pin to drain blisters.
Utilize proper foot care while hiking or you just might find them on their last legs before your hike is over.
by Richard Davidian, Ph.D.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Our skin on our feet is the thickest on our body, due to daily use of our feet, we have to deal with lots of problem, such as corn, calluses and crack on heels.
Sometimes the most important is the little detail, the running socks