View Full Version : Most Common Backpacking Injuries
This question is to all you thru-hikers. Have you suffered any backpacking related injuries on or after the trail and what are the most common chronic injuries that people deal with from backpacking?
For me, knee injury (I.T. band). Not so much anymore, fortunately. I've been taking glucosamine and have built up the muscles in my legs quite a bit since I started doing all this hiking and things are much better now.
*Disclaimer: not a thru-hiker (yet)
SassyWindsor
02-01-2011, 22:24
From my observation along trails, Blisters are the most common, from the boot top down.
When I was very young and the urge to be someplace was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. …
In other words, I don't improve, in further words, once a bum always a bum.
I fear the disease is incurable.
— John Steinbeck, TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY
topshelf
02-01-2011, 23:29
Is addiction a chronic injury?
I've been thinking about writing an article on this subject. Here's the list I have so far (I'm not counting blisters, rashes, and other skin problems):
runner's knee (pain behind the kneecap)
IT band injuries
ankle sprains
shin splints
stress fracture (tibia or in the foot)
back pain
achilles tendonitis
muscle strains
The good news: all of these injuries are preventable with a bit of training before your hike!
Slo-go'en
02-01-2011, 23:56
Chronic as in lasting, probably knee and hip joints.
Chronic as in intensely painful - shin splints, achilles tendon, blisters and other foot related problems.
And of course, should you be so unlucky as to twist an ankle or break a bone, that could ruin your day too.
achilles tendonitis
sesamoiditis
stress fractures
The last one is gone. The other two linger.
StormBird
02-02-2011, 05:34
These were the injuries I sustained the most:
-twisted ankle
-pack rash
-heat rash
-poison ivy
-boot burn (from wearing wet boots and hiking fast & far)
bigcranky
02-02-2011, 08:50
Aside from the everyday bear maulings (which are covered up by the hiking community), the most common injuries are to the feet and knees. Blisters, tendinitis, etc.
Sickmont
02-02-2011, 09:36
I'd have guess chafing as a big one on the list as well....
LoneRidgeRunner
02-02-2011, 10:13
Aside from the everyday bear maulings (which are covered up by the hiking community), the most common injuries are to the feet and knees. Blisters, tendinitis, etc.
Dude!..You're gonna have they guy runnin out and buying bear spray!!...lol...I've only been mauled by bears a few times....lol....
fiddlehead
02-02-2011, 10:17
No one mentioned hangovers yet?
Pedaling Fool
02-02-2011, 10:49
No one mentioned hangovers yet?
...nor lyme disease.
I totally forgot to mention that I fell down a few times and scraped up my legs. Also, poison oak is a frequent occurrence. I've got two layers of it right now. I also burned my tongue on my hot chocolate a few times, and my fingers on the stove. Cut myself with my knife once. Got a splinter a couple times. And of course, blisters.
Disappointing injuries, aren't they?
Sickmont
02-02-2011, 11:32
...nor lyme disease.
And on that note, how about Giardia?
Aside from the everyday bear maulings (which are covered up by the hiking community), the most common injuries are to the feet and knees. Blisters, tendinitis, etc.
Thats not a bear thats just a lonely bigfoot! And yea we cover that up fer sure.
Trailweaver
02-02-2011, 18:23
I'm not a thru hiker, but I tore a ligament (the one connecting the hip to the knee) when a rock slid under my boot and twisted my foot sideways and downward. I had to hike out about four miles to the nearest road (I actually hiked to the nearest flat spot and spent the night first, as it was almost dark) with lots of ibuprofen and in a lot of pain.
An X-ray confirmed the diagnosis, and unfortunately there is really nothing to be done for it - no surgery is done, physical therapy doesn't really help, and it took over a year to completely heal. I still have problems with it, and it's not funny any more!
The Weasel
02-02-2011, 20:45
Achilles tendonitis, could have avoided by better stretching.
The ones that have been serious enough to take me off trail for a few days or more:
- Morton's Neuroma (a week off with a steroid shot; later had surgery and still have some "chronic" aspects of that)
- While not an "injury", I nevertheless include my bout with giardia (or something like it); it took longer to gain back my strength from this than I would have guessed (16 days off-trail in total)
- quadricep (leg) strain just as I was finishing the Whites (3 days off resting the leg in a motel room in Gorham)
Another chronic issue for me is bunionettes (little toe side bunions). Generally a shoe with a very wide toebox resolves this. I've just found (takes a lot of miles to get symptoms) that the current-year model Golite shoes are just enough (slightly) narrower than previous years that they're no longer my shoe of choice (now trying a pair of Asic Gel-Kahana's in 4E width ...). But before I had this figured out it caused me to bail from a sort of section hike (PCT training hike).
What are the most common injuries? I speculate (the all too predictable) various foot and leg related injuries, the occasional car accident, and then a host of more minor issues of the type that Piper listed.
while knees and backs, etc. can be serious - I think the most common "injury" that would get you off of the trail is a blister, an infected blister, or some toe-nail issue. Keep your toe-nails trimmed and really keep a watch on your feet until good hard callouses develop.
Blissful
02-09-2011, 12:15
Knee issues and ankle sprains are common. And for disease, Lyme is really on the increase.
Blissful
02-09-2011, 12:16
while knees and backs, etc. can be serious - I think the most common "injury" that would get you off of the trail is a blister, an infected blister, or some toe-nail issue. Keep your toe-nails trimmed and really keep a watch on your feet until good hard callouses develop.
This is a really a good observation - the blister issue. It took me off for several days.