Feet Don't Fail Me Now

[Egads]

My feet are the first thing to give out when hiking. I've tried band aids, duct tape, liquid skin, gel pads, and changing my smart wool adrenaline socks every 10 miles. My low cut shoes fit reasonably well, but I blister on on the ball of the foot, between the toes, & on the tips of toes.

The ball of the foot is the killer.

I read that Karl tapes his feet & toes. Does anyone else do this? What product & technique do you use? Pics please.

Please help

[JAK]

That sounds really weird. I am not sure what all causes blisters to develop before calluses have a chance to develop. I know I am less likely to get blisters in cold weather even when my feet are wet, but I have fairly tough feet, and they are well adapted to being wet from years of sailing small boats.

I would try thinner socks, and try hiking with less insulative footwear. Keep 'em dry if yu can, but basically try hiking with colder feet, and try and develop thicker skin. Not too thick because you don't wan't it drying up and falling off in chunks, just thick and even. Try soaking your feet less often maybe. Try going barefoot or with sandals more often. Just try and develop a thicker skin, literally.

[JAK]

If your feet are cold you can compensate with warmer pants. You won't get frostbite above freezing.

[Homer&Marje]

Duct tape. Prevention of blisters that you know you will get is the best form of avoiding severe blisters. They might still happen, but if you have duct tape on it already it will severely reduce the size the blister gets.

I like to make a 2" x 2" square with a 1/2" x 1/2" square "Pad" in the middle. It should be place right in the center and then place the pad down first where the blister will appear, and mold the duct tape around the ball of your foot.

Mole skin is also a great product, although much more expensive. For severe blistering it is the best. But I have always just done prevention with duct tape and I usually never use my moleskin.

[_terrapin_]

Don't need much. Especially not with trail runners. When blisters happen, it's usually from wet shoes/boots. I use moleskin to deal with it.

[Egads]

JAK - No problems with cold feet even while hiking in winter or wet snow.

I generally get out 1-3 weekends per month with a big 1st day. It's hard to develop callouses while hiking like this.

[Skidsteer]

I rarely get blisters Egads, but when I do the ball of the foot is where I get them too.

The shoes I've been hiking in lately have a thin(less than 1/4") CCF insole. That seems to have cured the problem altogether.

If you can find some CCF that thin you might experiment by removing your insoles and using them as a pattern to trace out a set on the CCF. Worth trying anyway.

[Blissful]

I tried duct tape and it did okay - but then it sometimes tends to bunch and make the situation worse. I find taking the time to air out my socks, insoles and feet every few hours in the sun helps immensely. That and when I switched to trail runners, non gore tex, and shipped the gaiters home.

[dessertrat]

Have you tried two layers of socks? One thin nylon, one slightly heavier wool? Works great for me. Also, blisters on the ball of the foot and on the ends of the toes can indicate a shoe that is not quite wide enough.

[Egads]

I forgot to mention that I've used glide too. It helps but only delays the inevitable.

Here's a BPL thread on the same subject I just found.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=15983&skip_to_post=119870#119870

Now I have something else to try

Leukotape or athletic tape

[WILLIAM HAYES]

try propel on your feet you can check it out at Backpackinglight.com

[Pickleodeon]

I also get horrible blisters on my feet. Someone suggested the book Fixing Your Feet by John Vonhof. I havent read it yet, but I plan on getting it. Also, some thruhikers I met suggested wrapping the entire blister prone area (my heels) in duct tape, well I tried that, just wrapped it all the way around my heel and ankle to keep it on, it ended up rubbing my ankles open, bad plan. I have found these blister bandaids at Target, they're like super thick skin, and they worked well until the sweat made them slide off. someone else also suggested the Injinji socks with the individual toes. A lot of other people also suggested a poor boot fit, for mine anyway :(. Good luck.

[mudhead]

Fox River makes a liner sock, X-static polypro, that is navy. $11.99. Not the $8.99 "Backpacker" version. (those bite)

If you can't find them online, (I can't get their site odd) I can get you a name and model number from the stash box. I can't kill the things. ($11.99 version) They outlast 3+ pairs of Smartwool socks. No bull.

I have heard Epsom Salt, when soaking feet will toughen them, but have not used it.

Good luck.

[buff_jeff]

The first thing I do is wear two pairs of socks-one polypro wicking, and one wool. Besides that, knowing your problem areas and throwing some moleskin down on them before blisters have a chance to develop is very beneficial. I think the most important thing is just to accept them as a fact of hiking and wait for them to calluse up. I got them really bad this summer on my hike, between the toes and everything. It sucked for a week or two and then they callused up and I had over a month of blister-free hiking.

[Montana Mac]

This site link came from another thread here on Whiteblaze:

http://fixingyourfeet.com/

[Egads]

Posting my solution, I hike with 2 pairs of Wright Socks now and barely get new blisters

[freefall]

I duct tape any hot spots the second they show up. Timing is everything and any hot spots should be addressed as soon as they appear.

[chrishowe11]

mole skin does the job great, but the best way to stop blisters is prevention. make sure you have a good fitting footwear can try special insoles, let your feet air out as much as possible, dont forget to gold bondem and also your feet are the only spot on your body that you can massage yourself. if you can't prevent the blister use moleskin, cut out a hole so it will rest around the blister, if you do pop it either on purpose or on accident watch for infection and clean it regularly and just slap mole skin over the whole thing

good luck

[garlic08]

I use uncoated athletic tape before the blister forms. If you have a known hotspot, tape it up every day. I used to do that when I used leather boots. My heels would always blister, so I always taped the heel in the morning and I was able to live with it. The uncoated tape breathes so the skin stays in better shape, I think.

[bullseye]

I had the same problem until I started using Sportslick about 5 years ago. I haven't had a blister since.

[Desert Reprobate]

I've always been partial to Spenco Second Skin. Adhesive from tape seems to attract the dirt.

[Egads]

I've always been partial to Spenco Second Skin. Adhesive from tape seems to attract the dirt.

I peeled my skin off my feet the last time I used tape on my feet. It took 3 weeks to heal.

[Kathfishes]

This may sound off the wall. You get blisters no matter what you do so this can't be any worse.
Hike without socks ..insert bare naked feet into shoes/boots and "Forward HO!".
I hardly ever wear socks and rarely get a blister, put socks on and I get them. It was so bad that I had to "fake" socks on hikes with our Scout Troop. I cut off the top and taped just above my ankle so it looked like I had socks on with my boots. LOL
I don't think thick vs thin skin has anything to do with it. I run around bare foot most of the time at home. You could have an reaction to chemicals used in the process of making the thread. Some of that stuff never leaches out of the fibers. Have you thought of trying to make a fur linner like from rabbit or tree rat skins. They're fairly thin.
Brain on overload...

[Mud__Bone]

interesting info, thanks all that shared :)

[Kerosene]

A few other ideas:

To prevent toe blisters, I've successfully used gel "toe caps" that slide over the top of a toe. Much better than trying to tape them, and they protect the entire toe. You can also find foam caps, but I found that they didn't last as long.

To prevent blisters on the ball of the foot: I've had great luck with the Band-Aid Advanced Healing Blister Cushions (http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100946&navAction=jump&navCount=0&nug=VPD&skuid=sku392264&id=prod392263) or Ampoules. You warm them between your hands before you put them on, and they have amazing sticking power -- better than duct tape for my sweaty feet. I haven't had problems with these types of blisters since I started using orthotics, but I still carry them.