Foot Care

A lot has been said and written about blisters and backpacking — too much, really. Blisters are caused by friction and moisture. Under normal conditions, the conversation about blisters should be short:

• Keep your feet dry
• wear two pairs of socks (1 nylon men's dress sock, 1 wool sock)
• wear gaiters
• make sure your boots/shoes are comfortable and fit properly
• break in your boots/shoes before your hike.

Simple, right? If an Appalachian Trail thru-hiker did these things, they might hike for six months without a single blister.

It's a different story on the Florida Trail

As always, the complicating factors are water, humidity, and heat. While on the FT there will be days upon days of hiking through swampy conditions and flooded trail. Mud gets down into your boots. Even when the trail is dry, high humidity prevents footwear from drying quickly and then as your feet sweat, the moisture cannot escape. Keeping your feet dry and clean will be extremely difficult, so special preventative measures are needed to prevent blisters — and we strongly believe in prevention over treatment.

2. Choose Properly Fitting Shoes and Break Them in Before Your Trek

Shoes should not be too snug or too loose — so bring the two pairs of socks you will wear when hiking to the store when trying on shoes. Ensure that there is ½ inch of space between your longest toe and the end of your shoe. Be sure that you have enough room to wiggle your toes inside the toe box, and your heel does not slip when you walk. Choose shoes that breathe well and dry quickly. In other words, shoes with lots of mesh and little leather as possible.

3. Wear Two Pairs of Socks

The oldest trick in the book still works when your foot is submerged in water. Wear a pair of 100% nylon men's dress socks under a pair of thin merino wool socks. Paired together, this sock combination makes friction take place between the two socks and not between your foot and the sock, preventing blisters. Also, never bring untested socks on a long hike. Try out your sock combination at home first to make sure it's comfortable.

The two-sock trick does not  work with two pairs of nylon socks or two pairs of wool socks, or if the nylon sock is worn on the outside. It only works if a nylon sock is worn against the foot with a wool sock over it.

4. Wear Gaiters

Gaiters still provide benefits while walking through standing water. Without gaiters, mud, leaves, twigs, et cetera get into your shoes and cause friction against your feet. They also prevent your shoe laces from getting coated in mud, making them easier to untie at the end of the day.

We have tried everything and say confidently that the usual tricks that work on the AT or PCT just don't cut it on the Florida Trail.

1. Waterproof shoes should be avoided completely, whether they have Gore-Tex liners, durable waterproof repellent (DWR) finishes, or another form of waterproofing. This may be counter-intuitive. After all, you’re walking through water, right? Yes, but this is deep water. Up to your knees at least. It will go over the tops of your shoes and fill up the shoe. Waterproofing traps that water inside the shoe and prevents it from drying.

2. Waterproof socks like SealSkinz seem like a great idea — they're tall and can be paired with a nylon dress sock to wick moisture away. This might work well if the problem was continuous drizzle, like on the AT, or snow like on the PCT but on the FT waterproof socks create the same problems as waterproof shoes. Water goes over the tops of the socks and fills them. The waterproof liner then traps that water and prevents it from drying.

3. Foot powders like Gold Bond or Dr. Scholls are popular on the AT and PCT, but they only help with moisture from sweat. On the Florida Trail, standing water turns the foot powder into goo.

You followed all the preventative measures and yet still got a blister. Here's what to do:

Small blister with little fluid - treat like a hot spot

• clean the blister with water and dry
• cover the blister with Leukotape
• if the blister is between your toes you can wrap the entire toe with self-adhesive elastic bandage

Larger blister with fluid

• wash your hands
• clean/disinfect the blister
• sterilize the tip of a needle with a disinfectant solution, denatured alcohol, or by heating it with your camp stove
• puncture the base of the blister but otherwise leave it intact — do not peal the blister off
• gently push out the fluid
• apply antibiotic ointment to a piece of gauze and cover the wound
• tape the gauze and surrounding area with Leukotape
• when you reach camp each night, check for signs of infection: heat, pain, and swelling on or around the blister, pus, or red streaks radiating from the blister
• if infection takes hold, see a doctor

Large, broken blister

We have seen a blister covering half of someone's foot that ripped open. When blisters become really big, it's hard to prevent them from tearing. When this happens, on-trail treatment is insufficient.

• get into town, check into a motel, and find some Epson salt
• if motels aren't available, find a place with clean running water and a bucket
• wash your hands first, then rinse your foot clean in the tub or sink
• fill the bathtub or sink with water and add Epson salt
• use your Sawyer's syringe to irrigate the wound with saltwater, cleaning out all the dirt and puss
• • do not wipe the broken skin with a towelette or anything else
  • do not cut or remove any of the broken skin
• soak your foot in the saltwater bath to disinfect it
• apply antibiotic ointment to gauze and cover the wound
• wrap your foot in Leukotape
• take a few zero days to let the skin reattach and heal
• check for signs of infection: heat, pain, and swelling on or around the blister, pus, or red streaks radiating from the blister
• if infection takes hold, see a doctor

Athlete's foot (tinea pedis) is a rash caused by a fungus. It usually appears first between the toes, where affected skin may be itchy, red, cracked, and flaky.

Mild cases are not a big deal but should be treated so that the fungus does not spread to the toe nails or other parts of the body like your groin. If allowed to persist, the cracked skin damaged by athlete's foot provides an entryway for bacteria, which leads to a serious problem called cellulitis requiring medical care.

Treatment for Athlete's Foot

Athlete's foot does not get better on its own. It must be treated using over-the-counter antifungal products containing miconazole, clotrimazole, terbinafine or tolnaftate that kill the fungus. (None works better than another.)