I’ve been reading books and watching movies about people hiking long trails, mostly the Appalachian and pacific crest.
How do these people prevent blisters? I know good shoes are a must but there has to be more to it than that.
Do they wear special socks? Cover their feet in bandages or tape each morning?
Good shoes that fit properly. The best shoes in the world will still give you blisters if they are the wrong size or wrong shape for your foot.
Use moleskin on problem areas to reduce friction. For long runs, I always put a piece of moleskin on my heel where I know my shoe rubs a little, and it works like a charm.
They don’t. Most of those people hiking for long distances will develop a few blisters at some time or another.
But it’s not that hiking the Appalachian Trail was the first time they’ve walked more than a mile in a day. In all likelihood, their feet are appropriately covered in calluses and otherwise toughened skin that keeps it protected.
They catch and treat hot spots early, rather than wait until they are full blown blisters.
sort of related, a USA husband and wife decided to ride their bikes around the world and before they started out they had no long distance bike riding experience. They got in shape along the way. And their bikes were loaded down with a lot of gear such as tent, sleeping bags, food, etc. The wife wrote a great book about the trip.
No method works for everyone. Trial and error on similar terrain before your trip helps you determine what to pack (as does availability of supplies along the way). /Reading thousands of Camino discussions
By walking dozens of miles before the multi-hundred miles, and doing so in quality socks and boots. Also by keeping your feet dry, which means if it’s wet or you’re sweaty, changing your socks.
I hike a lot of miles. In my experience:
(1) Wear trail runners, not boots. (And they don’t need breaking in if they fit you.)
(2) Don’t look first for features in a shoe, find a shoe with a last shape that fits you. Often a brand will stick to a similar shape of last for its shoes, so you will find that certain brands are usually good for the shape of your foot and others are not.
(3) Conditioning.
It’s impossible to keep your feet dry all the time, and in my experience damp or wet feet is not a problem if your shoes fit, and if you use wool blend socks (Darn Tough are by far the best) that maintain their properties when wet. It’s best to use shoes that do not have Goretex lining, since that won’t keep them dry for a stream crossing, and it just slows the drying process.
As mentioned, treat hot spots immediately, before anything worse happens. I use Omnifix tape - it’s the stuff that hospitals use to secure dressings. It’s extremely sticky but quite thin, so it will stay where you put it for a long time, but not create bulk that can add to the pressure.
Great answers so far. I can’t stress enough the fact that a person’s feet will toughen up with use. At basic training, my feet were bloody and blistered from all the long, heavy ruck marches. This was still in the days of the old leather boots that had to be broken in, as opposed to the amazing footwear issued today. Anyway, when I graduated and went to my first unit, we did much more ruck marching than I ever did at Basic. Longer distances, much faster pace, with much heavier rucks. But I never again got any more than the smallest, manageable blister on my foot. I didn’t actually grow calluses, but my feet had just become generally thicker and tougher all around.
Learn something new every day. The top of a blister is called the roof. Never knew that.
This and…
…this.
All good advice, especially “they don’t need breaking in if they fit you”.
#2 is significant because most people don’t know about shoe lasts; very important subject, folks.
Broken in shoes help too.
I’m a fan of New Skin liquid bandage (but I swear, at least by the smell that it’s clear nail polish). Paint it on & it will wear for miles on the places that I do get blisters, thereby preventing said blisters.
Practice, practice, practice.
Mrs P and I walked across England some years ago
To get in shape, we hiked long routes in our own city every day for several months, gradually increasing distance and weight in the knapsacks.
When we did the actual hike (192 miles), no blisters.
Plus Smart Wool socks.
Know any company still making combination last?
Used to be fairly common in decent quality boots/shoes. Haven’t been able to find any in, oh, probably 30 years now.
I used to use them until I discovered Darn Tough. Darn Tough are far superior, much more durable.
No, very few running shoes even have more than one basic width fitting. I think for off-the-shelf shoes the economics of carrying a wide variety of fittings are difficult. But there’s considerable variation among brands, and 20+ brands out there. It a time-consuming trial and error approach at first, but once you find a couple of brands that work for you, they are usually (but not always) fairly consistent across their range.
I’m still wearing my Smart Wools a decade after the hike, so I think they’re pretty durable… 