[pct-l] Re: Desperately need help for "Delicate Princess Foot

[rbalcorn at gmail.com (backpack45scb)]

A lot of good suggestions, and I'll add mine. 
1. Weight does matter - on your back and on your foot. Think in terms of 
pounds per square inch on the soles of those poor Princess feet. With very 
narrow feet, you may have the foot problems of someone three times your 
weight. For that reason you really need cushioning. I've never had a boot 
which gave great cushioning, but I am getting it from trail runners. Just 
looked at the Brown's New Balance catalog - it has a page on insoles, one 
just for very high arches.
2. Back of the heel blisters are from foot movement as already stated. I get 
the impression your whole heel is sliding around a little bit. You get a 
little movement even in trail runners, but something like Spiroflex should 
prevent that. Still, the basic problem is a poor fit, I guess because of the 
high arch.
3. Toe blisters are a separate problem. Even though I now wear trail runners 
with a large toe box, I will get hot spots between the toes the 1st day out. 
I immediately wrap any suspect toe with 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch breathable 
cloth tape that you can get in most drugstores. That tape stays on for 
several weeks and solves the problem. 
4. My wife has very severe feet problems - bunions, etc, but her feet are 
wide, so different solutions. She does use custom orthotics, but still has 
some problems. Switching to trail runners has made the biggest improvement. 
We do have low pack weight. In researching her problem we found 
http://www.randymerrell.com . This is the guy who founded Merrell Boots. He 
now makes custom boots and orthotics. I talked to him on the phone, and he 
was confident that he could do custom orthotics that would work for 
backpacking and still allow my wife to use trailrunners. We haven't done 
anything yet, but he has an excellent site, and was impressive to talk to. 
You do have to go out to his place in Utah for a few days if you want his 
help.
Ralph Alcorn
http://www.backpack45.com/camino2.html