Two feet and a heartbeat

I totally ripped the title of this post off a Youtube video about some guys that hiked the PCT, so please don't give me any creative credit for it. It does, however, describe this post accurately. There's SO much that goes into a successful PCT Thru Hike, an incredible amount of time and energy has already gone into it, but at the end the day, what gets us from A to B to C to D to Manning Park, is our two feet and a heartbeat (ok and maybe a few other things). Because of this, your feet must be taken care of like they're your first born child (or second in the case of our parents). You'd be hard pressed to find a PCT hiker that didn't experience a rash of blisters in the first few hundred miles of the PCT. The combination of the dry heat in the Southern California desert, your ever expanding feet and the fact that just like the rest of you, they haven't become hearty and weathered enough to withstand the daily abuse you're putting them through is THE recipe for blister proliferation. The best treatment for blisters is PREVENTION! Or at least to the best of your ability. I mean, at the end of the day, you just can't always prevent the inevitable. Julia and I think we may just have THE perfect recipe for blister prevention. Check it out.


The first line of defense will be daily (and probably multiple times a day) application of BodyGlide to the areas of the feet most likely to be affected by blisters. We've both used a ton of this stuff in the past, training for and racing triathlons and running events, so we can definitely already attest to its efficacy. You could probably use any non-greasy "lubricant", but we know and trust BodyGlide, so it's going to be our go to solution.

 After our feet are sufficiently lubed up, we'll slip on these little treats from heaven. We found the Incredisocks this year and have absolutely loved them from day one. They are incredibly comfortable, NEVER tend to smell (though I'm sure they will after a number of days on the PCT) and they have seemingly lasted forever. We'll expect to go through a half dozen or so of these. We got a couple of the other style that we can wear to sleep or in town, or even hiking. They've all be awesome in testing.


The Brooks Cascadias are the most popular trail runner on the PCT. They have a very generous, roomy toe-box that will accommodate your swelling feet, VERY important in blister prevention. They're also some of the most durable, breathable and generally comfortable shoes you can find for anything done on a trail, running, walking or hiking. We're planning to go through about 6 pairs each of these (1 per 500 miles).


Sounds pretty full proof to me! I guess we won't know though until we're out there in the desert heat, pounding the dirt for a couple weeks! If you're following along in July or August, I'll throw up a YouTube video review of how the plan went. Fingers crossed.