[at-l] Kinda trip report and hip pain is less!

[kellyswhitman at hotmail.com (Kelly Whitman)]

I did another 7 miler yesterday.  This town has something against sidewalks 
(and garages, go figure) so I walked the vast majority of it on uneven 
natural ground.  It was 100F with 80% humidity. The recent floods left 
plenty of ankle-turning debris all over the place, and I walked the last 
three miles in complete darkness (few streetlights around here, but that's 
because of the nearby astronomy research), so every step was an act of 
faith.  I was hoping for rain but there was just some rumbly thunder and a 
light dribble for a few seconds, and that was it.  Had a lovely lightning 
display in the clouds in the eastern night sky as I was headed home.

I used a slightly newer pair of NBs and my hip pain was somewhat less.  The 
other pair wasn't old, though; am I going to need a new pair of shoes every 
month on the trail?!  That's going to be hella expensive, but I suppose it's 
preferable to sucking down ibuoprfen.  I also got my first blister!  Woohoo! 
  (That'll learn me to walk that far without hiking socks.)  After a hike, I 
usually shave down callouses and punice my feet, then apply a nice oil (I 
like soft feets).  Would it be better to stop doing that, since I won't be 
doing it on the trail, and let my feet toughen up a bit?

I'll do two more 7 milers this weekend, finding a good way to deal with that 
blister, making three back-to-back, and see how my hips do with all that.

Kelly Whitman
INTP
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"There ARE no other women like me."  -- 7 of 9

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