Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Plantar fasciitis, difficult pack hunt in 3 weeks, advice sought

^^^^good advice

I put up with this for more than a year, working on concrete in a factory. Only after my wife started getting it did I know what was wrong. I was so screwed up it took over a year to be able to painlessly walk first thing in the morning.

Lots of good advice, but start stretching right now. The calf bone connecta to da plantar fasciatis bone. Stretch your calves. Stretch with knee straight, knee bent, on stairs, any and every variation of a calf stretch possible. Not saying you won't do everything else above, but it all starts with stretching the calves.

Stretching, ice, medication are all great. I would add a couple of things.
First, get custom orthotics. Wear an hour the first day and add an additional hour every day or two afterward. You won't have them ready for your trip , but it will help for the future.
Second, stretch the calf as explained above. Also add standing (not full weight) on a dowel or rolling pin for a few seconds at a time. Let the curve fit into the arch of the foot to help stretch that area out. Make sure you get down into the heel. Follow with ice.

Glad I found this thread. Have been having issues for so long that I now have bone spurs as well to deal with. Going to go back to stretching, ice, heel inserts and see if I can get some relief. Prolotheraphy injections helped for one yr but then wore off. I suspect that calf muscles are too tight. Also going to scrape the foot bottom and calf as well. It has been an ordeal.

One more vote for no bare feet around the house.

Ten years ago or so, I suffered terribly in both feet. Doctor advised house shoes. Wearing slip-ons in the house soon had me fixed up. Also, replace your shoes or insoles when they start to wear out. Trying to stretch them out for a bit longer to save money will cost you.

I run up to 20 miles per week and have had PF twice over the last 4 years. It does suck, especially first thing in the morning.

I had the steroid shot both times, the first one worked great and the 2nd didn't eliminate the problem. I just had to cut back on my running, use an elliptical instead, and do stretching exercises occasionally. It took 6-8 weeks to go away the 2nd time, but I didn't stay off of it completely either.

I'm pretty sure both times were caused by going too many miles before swapping shoes

My wife took care of her's by wrapping it tightly but she started doing it almost immediately after the symptoms appeared. It still took over a month.

As I said before, a hard trip now will likely aggravate it and make it far harder to get rid of, not to mention being downright dangerous. It's hard to cancel a long planned trip but its just asking for trouble.

If you go, at the very least carry a SPOT or similar signaling device. Rescues are pretty expensive but SPOT does sell rescue insurance that pays for it.

Lose those soft-soled Merrells and get a boot with a proper shank. Especially if you will be backpacking. Having a whimpy sole is the worst thing you can be doing to that foot right now. It needs good support, not more stress. Some good insoles with appropriate arch support and a gel heel insert are a good idea as well. There are some semi-custom ones showing up at the big hunting and outdoor stores now. Get a pair when you get some new boots. But dang that is not a lot of time to break a pair in.

The rest of the advice is good too, but those boots may well be the cause and continuation of the problem. Don't rely on those if you are going to pack into a rugged place. They might finish crippling you for your hunt.

Jaguar, any particular insoles like described which you like?

Jaguar, agree that new boots would be a bit of a disaster. This whole thing is a bit of a disaster. The positive to new boots is I can handle "surface" pain like blisters.

I may try to modify my Asolo's. They are properly stiff.

While I am REALLY appreciative of the help, this thread has been very depressing and concerning. This is a real problem. Shït!!

Here's where I'm packing in by the way. Rugged to say the least. It's about 5 miles to where I'm going... takes about 7 hours.



It's going to be a tough crawl <grin>.....

Beautiful country. Sheep?

I actually wear custom orthotics because of very high arches and the need for metatarsal support, but I noticed those at a Sportsman's warehouse recently, then saw them at Bass Pro as well. They have some kind of pad that analyzes how your foot meets the ground, similar to what they did when I had the orthotics made, and it recommends the best insert to fit your foot. Partner had a problem like this that developed just as we were heading in to pack out a bull. Could barely walk coming down with meat. That was a bad experience. It was due to a boot with no shank, a little predisposition to the problem, and country like your photo.

If you can find a shoe repair place they may have a stretcher with a ball where they could relieve the pressure on the toe from your Asolos. Is there maybe room to put one or two of those corn doughnuts around the problem spot on the toe? That might take the pressure off the trouble spot. I hate it when a well broken in pair of boots suddenly gives problems. Had it happen though, more than once. Sometimes due to the boot breaking down over time even though not looking worn out.

You should seriously consider taking some good hiking poles or at least one good hiking staff. It might save your bacon. It does make a difference when you have a bad limb, regardless of the reason. Take it from me on that. I have plenty of experience with limping along due to bad parts. Leaning on a stick helps in several ways, but most definitely with taking a little weight and helping with balance so you don't have to make quick, and painful moves to catch your balance. Being injured makes it less fun.

I hope you find a way to get around it. (CLC carried by Ace Hardware makes some great kneepads...be slow going, though )

This will be my third hunt up there. There's sheep, but I'm hunting mule deer. The pack starts at about 9400 feet. It's gorgeous country (SE Oregon).

Couldn't agree more about a stick! I used one the other two times. The first time, my knee started glitching halfway in and was FUBAR by the time I finally got to the co-ords I was headed to. That stick saved my butt. That turned out to be my first incidence of IT band pain, though I didn't know that at the time. Isn't getting older GREAT? Anyway, a stick lets you take the load off a malfunctioning joint... mostly. I also used it a lot for balance and as an anchor point when picking my way through the cliffs (rimrocks). Invaluable.

You may be onto something there with the Asolo's.

Here's a pic from last year. This is at about 8800 feet. I got my buck in the sage, out of the frame towards the left. I packed this one down, through that aspen grove. Not fun. But SO MUCH FUN!

Im not Jaquar but...

Powerstep Orthodics are in every pair of shoes I own

Question for those who have had PF - is the recurrence rate high?

I ran all my life, done Karate since College off and on since being on the team. So all that was barefoot, been in sales on hard soles much of my career, and yes, been barefoot around the house a good bit.

When I shop for new running shoes, it seems most are all junk, the soles are seemingly cheap lightweight foam, and it does not hold up well. Also the arch support in many shoes is a simple cheap material that is ineffective IMHO.

Anyone else feel that quality of shoe materials and construction has been cheapened over the years? I feel there is a correlation for those who run. Yes, I have also tried stretching using shoes beyond the life, but the new ones seem like junk out the box......thoughts?

I had a pair of Merrel's almost ruin my feet. If the Asolos pinch, try Solomon 4D's. I am an Asolo guy, but the Salomons are just as rigid and don't pinch. They wear fast but are great otherwise.

If you don't treat it right and get it completely healed, then yes. It'll usually come back and bite you when you need it the least.

I'd guess I'm younger than most around here, and I've only been running regularly as a hobby for 4-5 years. So I don't know how good the running shoes of yesteryear were, but I've put 1000 miles on a few pairs myself. And many of those were on rough dirt roads and trails. They didn't fall apart.

So no sir I don't think running shoes of today are junk. But I will say if you're buying based on looks, or using nike, reebok etc they may not be what I'd call real running shoes. The serious runners I know wear Brooks, Saucony, Asics, new Balance etc. Most big box stores I've looked at don't carry many pairs of serious running shoes. I buy most of mine from Runningwarehouse.com.

On your question about recurrence of PF among regular runners, yes it can be a chronic problem. I realized after my 2nd time that I need to pay more attention to wear on my shoes, So I only go 500ish miles now before swapping, and try to alternate shoes also. I'm currently using 3 different pairs of New Balance. my current favorites are the Leadville 1210.

Another important issue with running shoes is picking the right pair, with the right amount of arch support for your foot and stride. Shoes vary from "barefoot feel" (almost no support) all the way to motion control shoes that look like those "shape ups" with the super thick soles. I use shoes on the very moderate support side.

I also made a conscious effort to improve my stride and try to land mid foot vs. all on my heel when running. And I run mostly on pavement now as well, which is better on the feet than rocky roads. Lastly, when my feet start hurting I back off the running for a few days and do lower impact exercise, like riding my elliptical trainer.

I'm going to try a conditioning ride today. I use clip-in pedals/shoes on my road bike and they have carbon soles that are stiff as a board. I've been putting them on every day and standing on the pedals, but was still feeling pain. Today, not so bad, so I'm going to at least give it a spin.

I'm in very good aerobic shape, mostly from cycling, so I've got a bit of buffer there, but this is a high altitude hunt and I've got to find ways to not backslide too far.

I also found a way to lace the Asolo's that keeps that [bleep] shoelace eyelet rivet from digging into my toe bone. I'm going to try wearing those exclusively the next few days and see if it helps.

I'm a big guy @ 6'4" 210 lbs and I've always had surprisingly good wheels. However I can see it's time to start really taking care of my damn feet.

Was able to ride a solid ride with a buddy... 26 mi.... so that's good in terms of keeping other parts of the carcass in good trim.

The very rigid soles of the 'spensive bike shoes kept the forces up on the balls of my feet.