Step 2. Go for a walk. Awesome. On a (hot) Saturday morning, I put on my wool socks, my hiking shorts and my new boots and walked about 4 miles to meet Joey for lunch. Yup 4 miles. And my feet felt fine, although I could tell there was a little area on the back of one foot that seemed a trifle irritated. But, when I pulled off the boots for flip flops, the back of my heel was just a smidge red. But it was hot and I had walked 4 miles, so I wasn't super concerned.
Step 3. Go for a hike. Um, what? A hike? I realized that I was going to need some help here. So, I logged onto REI and magic, they had a day hike in Shenandoah National Park. I had already signed up as a co-op member after realizing that I was going to buy a ton of stuff from them and paid $60 to spend a day hiking Bear Church Rock. I was practically giddy about going. I packed all the gear they said I needed to bring, laced up my boots and headed out very early on a Saturday morning to meet the group. I even packed a band aid in case my pesky heel acted up. I was proud of myself for being prepared.
I'll spare you the blow by blow, but here are the highlights:
- We hiked 8 miles on three different trails which went from easy (green), hard (blue) and difficult (black diamond).
- I learned what poison ivy looks like.
- I got a blister on my left foot and when I tried to pull out my band aid, the guide pulled out a big first aid pack and fixed it.
- The bandage on my left foot moved off during the hardest part of the trail and I didn't want to say anything to the group to make them stop.
- While the bandage was coming off my left foot, I developed a blister on my right foot. Again, during the hardest part of the climb.
- My sandwich from Panera was disappointing.
We also ran late getting back, so I had 30 minutes upon my arrival home to get showered, into a dress and out the door for dinner. I left my feet taped up, despite wearing sandals. Because they hurt. A lot.
After I gingerly pulled off the bandages (the next day) and inspected the damage, it really wasn't as bad as I thought. The skin had just been pulled off - no big bubble blisters. So, I bought sock liners and allowed the back of my heels to heal up for my next hike - the Billy Goat Trail with my friend AJ.
AJ was kind enough to offer to take me for another hike and brought walking poles for me to try. I used the sock liners, filled up my water bottles and felt excitement over another hike and this time without blisters. So, again, I'll spare you the blow by blow, but here are the highlights:
- I felt like an idiot for never exploring this trail before. The park is beautiful and there are a bunch of trails.
- Everyone who says the Billy Goat Trail is fun is lying.
- I got a blister on my left foot, same spot. This time, I had brought some good second skin stuff with a squishy square thing that went under a bandage. So, we stopped and I put that on.
- The bandage over the blister came off. We had to stop and I had to use some of AJ's duct tape to cover it.
- I got a blister on my right foot. We skipped the other stuff and just used duct tape. And they both hurt.
I was so grateful for AJ's patience with me but I was so disappointed in the blisters. I mean, I had done everything right. The REI guide even told me I had great boots. So, I reached out to my friend REI and they had a boot fitting basics class in the Tysons location that Tuesday. I immediately signed up, packed the boots and all of my socks and sock liners in a bag and became determined that my boot issues were going to get fixed one way or another.
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