By Katy Nesbitt
For
someone who truly believes proper footwear is the key to success I
seem to find myself with the wrong shoes at the wrong times.
I
carry my hiking boots in my car year-round just in case I get stuck
in a snowstorm and I have to hike somewhere. Caught on the Zumwalt
Prairie and Forest Service field trips with street shoes I was happy
to have them.
However.
It was another decade when I last wore those boots on an extended
hike. I now bear thescars of having the wrong footwear.
I
was unused to, but not unfamiliar with, having blisters that had
blisters when I ran long distances. At the time, I was always in the
process of losing about four toe nails. I never wore sandals.
As
for running shoes, I tinkered around to find ones that didn’t
blister the bottoms of my feet; I canhandle the smaller ones on my
toes.
And
heel blisters have been from heavy boots.
You
see, there is a Katy Mountain and a Nesbit Butte in Wallowa County,
but there is also a roadnamed for my Indian name; Tenderfoot Valley.
I
can walk across a parking lot in sandals and tear up my feet. Even
the friction between flip flops and sand leaves scars.
I
hiked 25 miles in four days wearing boots that refused yield. During
the agony of getting used toinjured feet AND a backpack, a million
stray thoughts fluttered through my mind like - didn’t Oedipus have
a foot injury? And Achilles had that tricky heel…
I
also heard songs in my head, thought up recipes I want to make, and
stories I want to write. Ithought about the boots I want to buy when
these become geranium planters; I want something really light. The
lighter, the better.
Every
so often my scout would stop for a view and I would take a picture.
For a while I forgot aboutmy bleeding feet.
Like other trips with their
mosquito infestations or bitter chill, photos are the treasures we
get to keep from our travels.
A
king’s ransom will pay for the bandages and Neosporin.
|
Opinion 
