Day 8, 6.62 miles

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I maaaaaaaay have figured this whole foot thing out! All I can say is Hooray for band-wagoning! Last time simply switching to Altras and upsizing saved our feet from sure doom. This time upsizing and switching socks will hopefully save mine! But, first let’s back up a bit.

Last night I decided to not get a super early start and just see how everything looks in the morning. Today I sure did sleep in! I woke up naturally at around 6:00am (I was tired!) and laid in “bed” until about 7:30. The pain on my left ball of my foot had subsided way down. It’s still a little sensitive to touch. 

The infection on my right pinky toe went down DRASTICALLY, and I feel like I jabbed it early enough to not be too major! This first picture was my toe last night:

And this next picture were my feet this morning:

Much better! Even the other toes in the top picture are waaaaay fatter, and that’s from hiking the 15 miles into Warner Springs and then walking around the rest of the day. At the end of this post I’ll put what my pinky looked like just two days before on Tuesday. But it’s a pretty gross picture.. be warned.

Anyway, on with today. I didn’t send myself a resupply here even though there isn’t much for groceries here. I recalled from last year hikers opening their resupply boxes and dumping a bunch of food in the hiker boxes because their hiker hunger hadn’t kicked in yet. Well, it was the same this year. Check out my score!

Not included in the picture are about 4 more bars some other hikers gave me later. Besides taking all this food forward with me, I had a nice oatmeal breakfast with all the fixings: chocolate chips, coconut shreds, chia seeds, and dried banana chips. Everyone is already sick of oatmeal but I don’t have a stove so when there’s a microwave and clean water available I’m game! 

I ended up taking all the chocolate that would inevitably melt out on trail and put it in my peanut butter jar. Brilliant idea I overheard from another hiker.

The morning quickly became hot, and I decided I would rest another half day and take off in the afternoon with my brand new kicks and socks:

Injinji!!!

While walking towards the restroom today, I nearly stepped on the second snake I’ve seen out here!! 3 1/2 ft long! It scared the bejeebus out of me because I was in the fenced in grass area and had my guard down!  My startle and yelp attracted some other hikers including Trout. It wasn’t a rattlesnake, but it had kind of trapped itself between the wall of the restroom and the sidewalk. As to not have it scare anyone else or anyone else scare it, Trout tried to pick it up carefully to move it away.

As soon as he grabbed it, it went straight for a tiny crack in the side of the building. It might’ve come from there and that’s it’s home, but I decided then I wasn’t going to use that toilet anymore!

Today, when I was checking the weather for Idyllwild, where I’m planning to arrive on Tuesday, I got a surprise!

Looks like I’ll be just in time to arrive and then hunker down for some snow. This is super super funny because last time Claire and I got to Idyllwild there was a rain/snow storm and we had to wait it out. This time I was like, “At least I won’t get stuck in Idyllwild for a few days this time”, haha. Nah, I got to say I’m pretty excited to see what I’ll do when the time comes. In 2016 my mom was praying that I’d have a memorable birthday, and it ended up hailing on us on an 80° day! 

I rested and elevated my feet some more, and at around 3pm I wrapped up my pinky toe LIGHTLY with gauze and tape, threw on my new kicks and was out the door. 

The shoes and socks feel GREAT!! There’s more space for my toes to move around in the wider toebox, and now they can’t blister by touching each other. The sock is thinner than the darn tough, but the shoe itself has a few millimeters more of cushioning and sole which makes a HUGE difference! I took it pretty slow on purpose this afternoon, but I had no pain in the ball of my foot area, which was a CONSTANT struggle in the other ones. I think this setup will work wonders :)

The trail was open and flat and straight for about a mile, and then it gradually climbed and there was much foliage, (First picture of post). The bushes were taller and the trees were very nice. The Agua Caliente Creek runs along the trail a handful of times, and it was a beautiful place to get some afternoon miles in.

How lovely!

I filled up four liters at the last crossing of the creek, and decided to go a little further until I camped for the night.

I climbed up a few switchbacks and went maybe just a mile more, when I saw a nice looking spot on the dirt. A small spur trail caught my eye, and I followed it down about 30 feet around a corner to find this sweet spot:

What a cool spot! It’s small but fits my tent perfectly, AND it’s on nice soft sand! Another bonus: the spur trail continues about 20 ft down to the same creek. Also, it leaves the larger lag dirt spot just off trail available for anyone coming up the hill later tonight looking for a spot to camp.

Nearby creek = more cereal for dinner :)

I’m laying here typing out the blog and the area has come alive with the sounds of so many different creatures! The frogs are going crazy, there are little chirping birds, and every now and then I hear something small rustle in the nearby brush. Everyone loves the water!

I plan on getting an early start tomorow and making it 12 miles to Mike Herrera’s place before it gets too hot out. He is a trail angel that lives 3/10ths mile of trail. He has a large water tank just for us hikers, and without him we’d be facing over 20+ miles with no water on a very exposed part of the trail.

Thanks for reading! 

(Bonus content below)

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Ok guys, here it comes, I thought I’d post the picture of my pinky toe on Tuesday. It’s pretty graphic, even in the blister world, so if you don’t think you can handle, stop here, but for those curious cats, keep scrolling! 

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It’s ALIVE!!!!

This is the result of socks that are too small and a shoe size that can’t accommodate my swelling feet, then ad luekotape wrapped too right into the mixture. Basically, I popped a small toe blister, wrapped it in tape, and a new one grew under the tape, forcing my pinky toe under my fourth toe when I was walking. That’s the result!

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