The insole trick that saved my trip

I was halfway up a climb on day two of an eight day off-track trip when I finally admitted my heel was killing me. I ripped my boots off right there in the middle of the scrub and found a blister sitting on the back of my heel.

The thing is, I'd had warnings for a day and a half.

Just before lunch on day one I noticed a small rub. I did nothing about it. Tightened the boots, kept walking, told myself ‘she'll be right’. We knocked over close to thirty kilometres that day with a couple of mountains in there. That night it was a little sore and I still did nothing. Day two was another big one, and about halfway up that climb in the last half of the day it stopped being a niggle and became a real problem.

I knew better. As a guide I'd tell clients on day one: the moment you feel a hot spot, you stop. Not at the top of the climb, not at lunch. Right then. A blister can form in the ten minutes you wait, and once it's there you're not preventing anything anymore, you're just managing damage.

We got lucky. Some mates were walking in to join us halfway through the trip, so I got a satellite message out to Crawf. He swung past my house, grabbed my old boots and carried them in. I still can't believe he did that.

But the thing that actually saved me on day two came before he'd even set off. One line in his reply: take the insole out and see if that helps. I'd never heard that tip in my life. I pulled them out, found instant relief, and I walked another five days on that blister without much drama.

Most people don't get a mate walking in with a spare pair of boots. Everyone gets the option to pull the insole out though. The fix wasn't a different boot, it was making room for the foot I actually had by day two.

Here's the part most hikers miss. Your boots didn't change, your feet did. Swelling, days of wet, and a pack that's still heavy turn a boot that fitted at the car into a boot that punishes you by day four. The instinct when it starts feeling wrong is to loosen the whole thing off, and that's exactly when the sliding starts and the damage really begins. You want it locked down, not loosened off. A surgeon's knot partway up the lacing locks the ankle in and stops the foot shifting around inside the boot. Worth ten minutes on the lounge room floor before you go.

And when you're buying boots, buy for the foot you'll have on day six, not the foot you walked into the shop with. Pull the insole out and stand on it. If there isn't about a thumb's width of room past your longest toe, that boot will punish you on every descent from day four onwards and there's no lacing trick that fixes it.

THAT’S ALL FOR THIS WEEK

Thanks for reading Mowser’s Musings. I hope this helps you hike further and happier.

Until next week, keep exploring.

Mowser

Discover more. Hike further.

P.S. I'm looking at hosting a small guided hiking trip overseas next year through a company called Trova Trip, and I need 100 survey responses to get it off the ground. It takes less than a minute and tells me whether there's enough interest to make it happen. If you've ever wanted to hike with a small group in a foreign country, I'd really appreciate your input. It will help shape the journey.