[at-l] Feet

[PUDSCRAWLER at aol.com (PUDSCRAWLER@aol.com)]

Our feet are our foundation for hiking.  They were also my foundation for 
teaching once the word got around that children could not learn unless the 
teacher was standing.  By the last one-hour period of each day, I would be on the 
verge of screaming in agony.  Poor seventh period kids.  

Analyzing it, I have come to realize that any day spent on my feet, hiking or 
standing, there are certain predictable stages of pain.  All four hours of 
the morning, all is well.  I don't even think of my feet.  Fifth hour I begin to 
feel them.  By sixth hour I'm in definite pain.  Seventh, agony.  

Really, the same holds true for backpacking.  I've decided to try to see what 
happens if I quit sometime in the fifth hour instead of when I reach where I 
want to go.  Sometimes, otherwise, I'm out there putting one foot in front of 
the other in great pain for thirteen hours.  

The results that have followed have certainly been 
counterproductive--surgeries, plantar fasciitis, being couched, no exercise, can't even drive my car 
because it requires being able to put my foot on the clutch.  Yep.  I'm not on a 
big thru hike attempt.  I'm going to experiment, see how far I can go in five 
hours and be done with it for a couple of weeks.  

At least my feet will like me.

Kinnickinic