Sore toe

I have been hiking and backpacking for a while but a short while compared to most other people I went on my first backpack when I was 14 and have been hooked ever since. I am now 17 and I have gone on at lest one backpacking trip every year and several hiking trips. Anyway enough of that I have always gotten sore toes when hiking but never bad enough to stop I have checked and my toes are not hitting the front of my boots. I was just wondering if anyone could give me some insight in to why my big toes are always sore o btw the balls of my feet also get sore toe

I know when I get these symptoms when distance running, it is from shoes that are too small and/or toe nails need clipped.

Feet do change size as one ages.

Ed I have checked and my boots are not to small I can be standing on a rock with a slope that is almost 90 degrees and my toes don’t touch the front or I can kick a rock and my toes don’t hit the front of my boot could it be from just using my feet more than usual??? Yesterday it did not show up till I was about 5 miles in to my hike o one more thing it is not the tips of my toes but underneath the big toes and the balls of my feet

your feet will swell and gain length when hiking. Do you have about a thumb's width between the end of your big toe and the end of the boot.

I once walked into a shoe store and asked the clerk, how come all my favorite running shoes are now running smaller than usual. I went from a size 8.5 to a 10 without realizing it. I'm now up to size 10.5 with thin socks.

Your boots might be long enough for your feet, but the volume of the boot might not be correct for the volume of your feet. I find that Superfeet inserts help greatly with this problem. Good luck.

I checked the length of my boots after hiking 10 miles my tow still didn’t hit the front I guess it could be the volume but I have had the same problem with all the boots that I have owned could it just be that my feet are getting bruised from the simple act of walking a lot more than normal???

O almost for got thanks Dave or whoever fixed the spelling in the subject for me

Dave:
What kind of socks are you wearing? Cotton socks create friction when they get wet from the perspiration from your feet. You may want to try a combination of liner sock of silk or synthetic and outer sock of materials like merino wool or cool max. A sock combo reduces friction. Good Luck
Doug

i have the same prob. for me it comes because my boots are just slightly to narrow. i'm going to check if they can be "blocked-out" a little by a regular old-time shoemaker. what has helped me up untill now, is to use smartwool liner, a coolmax outersock (this way the coolmax don't start stinking so easy) and plaster the sore spots w grey gaffer-tape (don't know what it's called in the states...duct tape?)
imho

yup, duct tape is the generic name and some of us DO call it gaffers tape :).

When I worked in a Connecticut shipyard, we had stuff that was affectionitely called "EB Green". You could tape a Volkswagen to a wall with that stuff.

Qurious - anyone out there know the EB I'm referring to?

sorry to get off the trail there.
Happy Fourth to all!

e

Actually gaffers tape and duct tape are slightly different. A gaffer is an electrician in the movie and video industries (the head electrician is the "best boy" - look at the movie credits sometime). Gaffers tape can be used to fasten wiring for lighting temporarily to painted plaster wall, floors, carpet, etc, and removed without leaving a mark or pulling the paint off. Duct tape was originally a waterproof tape that was used for HVAC ducting (hence the confusing alternate terms - "duck tape" for the waterproof qualities, like water off a duck's back, and "duct tape" for the use in HVAC ducting). Real gaffer's tape is not as waterproof and is not intended for long-term applications, and tends to work better for longer term. Duct tape's adhesive tends to leave marks and residue on painted and plaster walls, carpets, etc, but works extremely well on ducting and places where the waterproofing is important.

Duct tape is the best for the "baling wire and duct tape" repairs (like putting on your heel in the boot to prevent blisters or as a temporary first aid repair). But if you put it on an already developed blister, it sometimes will unroof the blister when you remove it. If you use it to cover your toe before the hike, it will probably do well to prevent the blisters.

Still, I would suspect boot fit. On the other hand, I sometimes find that a long downhill hike (say, the 15 miles from the 17k camp on Denali to the 7k airstrip) in my plastic double climbing boots will produce sore big toes, although there is actually plenty of room and I use thermofit liners.

It could be that you boots are either too small or too big. If you boots are too big your foot will move around and naturally your toes will squeeze to compensate and to provide grip. This will also sometimes cause your arch to cramp. Also, if you walk on wet ground or downhill your toes will naturally squeeze and create this problem. Adding some arch support or an insert may help.

Strange as it may sound you can train/strangthen your toes by wearing berkenstocks without backstraps or flip flops. These sandals will cause your toes to sqeeze and strengthen your feet.

I used to get sore toes and balls of my feet years ago in a pair of leather Pivetta boots. The insole was thin hard leather over a steel shank. I have not had this problem in years of hiking in modern boots (Vasque, Asolo) having plastic/foam insoles. Try a Spenco or Superfeet insole, or a different brand of boots.

What type of soreness? Is it external or internal to the toe? Internal could mean lack of circulation and something as simple as tying your laces to tight. External (blisters and suck) might be a simple as your socks.
Also what type of foot you have may affect your toes comfort. Look here for some ideas.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200507/ai_n14823182

that was blister and such.....not suck. Sorry

Oh. And I was sure you meant "blisters suck", which they do, especially the 3rd day out.

You are very young to endure such pain. I had dreadful problems with my big toes area and my legs up to my knees. I was diagnosed as having fallen arches.Extensive physio and orthotic insoles plus Sorbitane rubber heel pads and special exercises helped enormously. Well worth the expense and trouble.However, I am sixty this year and I've osteoporosis and osteoartheritis (diagnosed as a result of all the trouble with my legs/toes) and I have dreadful pain in my little toes now. I hiked four a half hours yesterday on the hills and I'm in agony, just my little toes. I use THERAPAIN PLUS spray for topical relief.(I'm taking other medicine for the ostp. and osta.) but this spray helps for a while, after I've iced the toes. I bought it on the internet from www.therapain-plus.com. Its expensive but helps. I rub in Aulin gel as well. Its hard to face out hiking again but at your age you just must get the problem sorted and not let it stop you. Good luck! Jean

What do you do when toes were outstretched in exercising and are painful when walking more than when running. Outside of running which deadens the pain what can be done with regular walking?

sorry for the long time to respond i have been in Alaska for the past month and haven't seen a computer during that time as for the type of pain it was like a bruise and the arch of my foot was a little tight while i was in Alaska i had the same problem for the first couple days of the first backpack by the second backpack my feet were a little sore but not to the same extent and by the end of the last backpack my feet were not sore at all think the problem was just from using my feet a lot more than normal

The "EB" Is Electric Boat/General Dyanmics. What do I win?

I have a wider than normal forefoot and recently, the situation got worse as my toe joints start to become swollen such that my normal size boots cannot fit well without hurting my toes. I get sore toes and blister with my broken in pair because the toe box is no longer as roomy as it used to be.

I am on a look out for new wider boots but my heels and ankles are pretty average to slightly narrow. Almost like a duck webb kinda syndrome. I am looking to order an off-the-shelf pair of wide size limmer boots but have been told that their boots are designed with narrow toe boxes. I can't afford to wait for a custom pair for fear my feet size may change again.

Any recommendations on boots for my sad situation would be great as I will order them online due to a lack of physical shops in my area carrying quality boots.

This is exactly the situation that calls for a really good bootfitter. Given the troubles you describe, I would say this is definitely a case where travelling to a shop where you can deal with a good bootfitter is well worth the extra time, effort, and cost. If you continue to suffer with ill-fitting boots, you will do permanent damage to your feet and end up with serious medical bills.

Custom boots are one solution, but I understand your worry about your feet continuing to change. They shouldn't change all that rapidly, though, unless there is some underlying health problem (some examples that probably don't apply in your case - developing diabetes, gout, serious foot injury that didn't heal properly in the first place, women often have foot width changes after childbirth and after menopause, lots of others). Feet do change with age (either mine are growing or the shoe manufacturers are changing the meaning of their size numbers).

A good bootfitter can make some changes, such as expanding the toe box, both in leather boots and in plastic climbing and ski boots. My son had a problem while growing up with weirdly shaped feet, so that he could not get off-the-shelf ski boots. We eventually discovered that Dave, at the Alta ski shop up at the main building for Alta Ski Resort, could do wonders with plastic ski boots, and climbing and hiking boots as well. Here in the SFBay Area, there are a couple guys at Marmot in Berkeley and a couple over at Sunrise Mountaineering in Livermore. Gary Neptune's shop in Boulder has good bootfitters, as well. I mention these, because I have had experience with them.

Sometimes, if you have an oldfashioned shoe and boot shop locally, they can do a lot with making boots fit properly. One of the things is stretching and reshaping the toe box area, while another is use of orthotics. You can get a wider boot, for example, and put a heel cup in to take care of the narrow heel web front problem. This is stuff a good bootfitter wil spot immediately.

I also have a odd shaped foot. Like you I have a wide toe and a narrow heel. My foot is not shaped so oddly that i have to get custom made boots but I do wear all leather boots so they can mold to my foot a little. It can take me a very long time to find a pair of boots that fit me well

sorry I forgot the important part of my post. I have a pair of Asolo tps 520 boots just don't go out and buy these but it's an Idea of something to try.

Try as suggested lacing your boots a bit more loosely; making sure you have ample space to wiggle your toes. Can also try thinner socks.

Try a more supportive insert such as superfeet. A lot of ball of the foot pain can be attributed to unsupported arches. Steve

Where you're describing the pain it's likely that your feet just aren't used to doing the work - you might get good results by stretching your toes and working on the muscles along the sole of the foot. Oddly enough, the problem could be that your boots are just to danged stiff - in my youth (when I equated "big boots" with "good boots") I talked myself into a pair of heavy, leather Lowa mountaineering boots for backpacking - what a mistake! I ended up trading them in for a pair of Sears work boots with vibram soles attached by a local shop ....then I bought a pair of Danners ....
and I'm a Danner fan - my first pair of mountain lites gave up the ghost (after being resoled a number of times and patched as well) five or six years ago - and were replaced with mountain lite 2's - which have been resoled once (but haven't needed any patches - yet) - I've never had sore feet wearing them - even when carrying a real heavy pack ('family' backpacking often involves one member playing pack-mule for smaller members) - the soles on the ML's aren't real stiff - but the footbeds seem very protective -
The only downside is if you've got weak ankles - the ML's aren't really high enough to provide much support -