I have always found this forum helpful as you guys have experienced just about everything on the trail. I recently completed the High Sierra Trail. On day 3, I started having pain in my Achilles. Never had blisters before in this area, but checked for them anyway, no visible sign of them. I was wearing Montrail Namaches. I figured that that the shoes were digging into the achilles, causing inflamation and pain. On day 5, the pain was so intense upon putting on the shoes, that I cut a notch in the back. This fix seemed to help but the pain persisted to a lesser degree throughout the next 4 days. By the time I finished the trail on day 7, which included a summit of Mt. Whitney, 16 miles, and a 6500ft. drop, the pain was strong enough for me to throw the shoes in the nearest trash can. My main question is this; have you ever had achilles specific pain? Was it a result of bad shoes, or just tender, newbie feet? Did it go away upon removing the shoes, as mine did? One week after finishing the hike, I still have the knife-like pain when I press the area, but very little pain otherwise. I still have to wear open-back sandals. Thanks for your input, everyone, I appreciate your thougts. By the way, here is my trail journals address for the hike.
www.trailjournals.com/swissroll