Blisters treatment on trail

Day 81

Date: 21.07.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 1'644.6

Miles hiked: 25.2 miles / 40.3 km

Elevation: 2'028 feet ascent (618.5 m Aufstieg) / 1'093 feet descent (Abstieg 333.4 m)

Camping at: 7'461 feet / 2'275 m

We slept in till 6am this morning due to last night being quite late pitching the tent after the mosquito's attacked us. I do had a good night sleep though and am feeling much better this morning. However, the blisters are still bad and I have to take an ibu already with breakfast coffee to be able to hike. Once out of the tent, you better hurry up as the mosquito's are out again. I hike out a couple of minutes earlier than Channy to the first water source of today in 10 miles. The scenery is quite beautiful today and as it is very flat, I hiked the 10 miles in just below 3 hrs and even caught up with 'Senor Guapo'', who camped about 0.5 miles after us, but left camp 1 hour before I did. The water source is a fenced in pipe-spring (so cows can't get near it), with nice and cold water. I must say that there is less water than in New Mexico, but the water sources are better. My water filter hasn't suffered yet that much! I am quite amazed how many springs we find in the Basin. The water however is only cool of you drink it right away. The carried out water gets warm or hot-wish in no time! Ít's Margarita time again then, as long as we have cold water! 😁

As per our App there should be a water cache in 7 miles. However, the latest comments state that not much water is left anymore. So we cannot fully count on that source. Otherwise I would have only carried out 1 liter, now I carry out 2.5 liters as it would be 14 miles from here to the next water source without the cache, plus also lunch break, where I drink more water. 2.5 liters is still on the limit, but doable and if there is the cache, I can get more water. We get back on the dirt road which is a never ending road. We see where the road goes for miles and miles and miles, and again it feels like we are not making progress. We keep on leapfrogging (passing each other) with 'Senor Guapo'. It's hot, the sun is out without any cloud coverage and at times it is super windy. My feet are burning and hurting. I can feel new blisters growing. I open my shoelaces as much as possible to get more room for my feet. And stop every 5 miles to get some painless moments. In seems like it took us hours to hike the 7 miles to the water cache. And yes, there is still plenty of water here. All three of us stop for lunch under the brutal sun, there is really no shade at all here, but at least we have plenty hot-ish water here. I take off my shoes and socks and register all the new blisters. That looks bad. I camel up, take another ibu and fill 1 more liter for the next 7 miles to the 'A&M reservoir' lake. We have to 'climb' a hill, which is a little bigger and has some steeper sections (nothing compared to Colorado, but compared to the flat basin so far it is steep) and the wind picks up again. I am so thirsty, my mouth feels dry the next moment the water bottle leaves my mouth. And warm water just doesn't take the thirst away as well as clear, cold and nice tasting water! Also, I could have brought 7 liters of water for those 7 miles, but only brought 1.5 liters. I had to ration my water. We made it to the Reservoir lake early in the afternoon and planned for a skinny dip swim in the lake. However, a muggler (hiker term for a normal person🤣) was fishing there, not sure if he would have liked us to skinny dip while he is fishing. Also some clouds covered the sun and the temperature dropped, plus the water felt quite fresh! I only went in to my hips and washed my body (I know warmdusher🙈). Getting out of the water I inspected my feet. One blister popped, having the size of my whole ankle! Some others appeared, full with blister water. That doesn't look good at all. Channy looked at the blisters, then at me and said: 'Fuck, how could you eben walk 25 miles on these blisters?!' We definitely are gonna stay here tonight. It's a beautiful place next to a lake, we have water (plus the fisherman left and gave us some filtered water and gatorade), and you need to take cart of these blisters right now!.' I actually wanted to hike on 5 more miles, it is only 5 pm. But he is right I guess. My feet look terrible and this is a very nice spot. He will pitch our tents and cook dinner, while I take care of my blisters. I pierced a threaded and carefully disinfected needle (and thread!) through the blister, leaving the thread in to dry out the blister during the night. I also put some neospirin on top to disinfect the blisters and tried not to move much. Being on trail I don't really like doing it, because it is super hard to keep your feet clean. If your blisters desinfect, well needless to say that things then get much worse. Channy cooks sausage and gravy, which we eat with hawaiian bread rolls. It's super yummy! And a margarita before going to bed. As there are no mosquito's we can enjoy the evening outside. And just when we get ready to go to bed, the K2's arrive! They arrived very late and look very beaten up. I haven't seen both of them since before Leadville! We make them a margarita too and call it a day. I hope my blisters heal well during the night and look better tomorrow!

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