Appalachian Trail Stories - Fact or Fiction #6

I can remember as a child going to the roller skating rink, renting those ill fitting wheeled demon shoes, and after three hours of falling down and doing the hokey "ow my tailbone" pokey taking them off only to find a massive liquid filled balloon on my heels.

The most exciting part of the whole trip was getting home putting a pin in a flame and poking the blister, watching with joy as the clear liquid spouted in an arc across the room.

The next day however not as exciting in fact it was down right excruciating to even put on socks let alone walk around.

Another memory I have from child hood is slamming a finger in a sliding glass door and watching my finger nail turn black and fall off over the next few days. Cool to show your friends during recess but really freaking painful.

They say during the course of a thru hike a person will probably lose two or three toenails, and most will have blisters in one form or another the entire way.  I can say from doing the 7 mile shoe break in walks that I am in trouble. already have a black toenail and despite stopping and putting moleskin on my "Hotspots" along the way ended up with blisters I never felt coming. 

so here is the fact or fiction part..

Advice I have seen:

Soak your feet in a strong tea bath every night

Rub your feet with rubbing alcohol every night

wear a plastic bag between your sock and shoes (This just begs for Atheletes foot)

wrap your feet in duct tape

But the inevitable conclusion of everybody that I have talked to or read from has been get used to your feet looking like something from a decomposing corpse and feeling like somebody lit them on fire.  Hopefully I can minimize the impact but I guess we will find out.