Science & The Foot - Thursday, May 22

Scientific Theories, simply put, are the best explanation for how the universe works based on what we know at the time. We understand that theories will change as new information is acquired. Scientific theories are fluid, dynamic, ever evolving ideas built by the collaboration of people all over the globe who share their work and results openly so the advancement of human understanding of the world we live in improves. When a theory is altered due to new information it is not that the old theory was wrong, after all it was the best we could do at the time, rather the new theory is just a better explanation now that we have more information.

There are legions of examples of improvements in theories. Take the theory that the earth is stationary and the sun and stars revolve around us. It makes sense. Simple observation allows us to see the sun and stars move. The earth must be stationary. Any experience we have with riding on something that moves tells us we can detect its movement, such as when we ride in a car, on a horse, in a train or bus or airplane. The earth must be stationary because we cannot feel any movement.

Not until the invention of the telescope and the observation of moons orbiting Jupiter did we have any observational data of something orbiting a body other than the earth. And the strange motion of the planets in the sky over years of observations finally made us realize that our earth was moving round the sun and not visa versa.

It is the collection of data over time and the application of rational thought that let's us understand the universe we live in.

Enter the problem of Sally's sore foot.

For weeks we have been theorizing as to why it got injured and why it would not heal. At first we thought it was just a repetitive use injury. Obviously! She walks on it day to day, of course it will eventually hurt. Yet, why only one foot? Bad luck? After treatment with cortisone the pain in one location subsided but a pain hiding behind the first and initially undetected emerged. It, too, was treated with a steroid shot.

The observation of the location of the pain prompted a new theory as to the origin of the injury. The affected area was exactly where her newly acquired orthodic ended. Could the stiff plastic insert have concentrated all the pressure created by a bending foot in that one location causing the aggravation to the bones and tendons? Removing the orthodics seemed to help, but did not provide the sought after cure.

Our theory was evolving.

Over the past three days Sally has quit wearing her ill fitting boots, shunning them for light weight trail shoes, a hybrid of a running shoe. The "boots", low top Keen hikers, a glorified tennis shoe with a bit stiffer sole, never fit properly. We alternately have stuffed blue foam sleeping pad material in the heels and tongue in an attempt to get a fit. These inserts halted blister formation, but to keep her foot firmly in the shoe I was required to lace them because Sally could not exert enough tension in the laces to squeeze her foot in tightly to hold it in place.

With the constant wearing of her light weight trail shoes her foot has slowly improved, even though she has hiked 15 miles a day on it! This new data suggested a new hypothesis. Could it be we applied so much compression to her foot when lacing her boots tightly around her foot that we literally pushed the bones and tendons of her foot together, causing them to rub and irritate one another? To grow this hypothesis into a theory would require a control foot and additional testing. But, we are so elated that her foot has improved to the point she is nearly pain free that we will forego inflicting further pain through testing and just live with our theory untested. Not a very good application of the scientific method, but we are happy with our current outcome as it lets us continue our hike, so we live with the shame of an untested theory.

We awoke a little late this morning at our campsite in the picnic area, tired from yesterday's hike. Breakfast of oatmeal, application of tape and blister pads to Sally's heals, filling of water bottles from the faucet for today's waterless 14 miles and we were off about 7:00am. Our first four miles saw us climb 1000' through chaparral with beautiful views back down the valley to the lake we had camped next to the night before. We were passed by many hikers, probably 10 in all, each excitedly commenting on the McDonalds we would all encounter at mile 14 where the trail intersected Interstate 15 at Cajon (Ka-hone) pass. I have never seen adults so excited about going to McDonalds! 8 yr olds, yes, but supposedly health conscious adults? Never. It is amazing what calorie deprivation does to the mind and body.

Sally's foot was a non-issue today. She reported a pain level of one-the lowest in a month- as we advanced across ridge traverses, descents and ascents. The toll of the previous two 15 mile days had us fatigued and slowed our pace, but not foot pain!! Yahoo!!

About 2:30, with three miles to go the cloudy skies began to pelt us with rain. We extracted our umbrellas from my pack and donned rain coat and poncho and continued our descent into Cajon Pass. As is usual for California, it did not rain enough to wet the ground and although the skies stayed darkly overcast we experienced only a little more rain as we reached the Interstate. The clouds were welcomed by us. Last week this pass saw daytime temperatures of 96°. Today, the overcast kept the temperature well below 70°, very comfortable hiking conditions.

The last mile to the pass the trail wound down a delightful narrow canyon, clinging to the right hand wall, the remnants of an old highway now mostly eroded away. The canyon rounded a sharp bend and suddenly our view was filled with speeding cars and truck on the 8 lane highway.

We took a right turn on the frontage road and 0.4 miles later we were seated at McDonalds drinking milkshakes and munching disgusting food while chatting with about half a dozen other thru hikers doing the same.

Satiated, we continued up the frontage road, crossed the interstate on an overpass, it also a major highway, 138, and played "dodge the high speed cars" crossing it to arrive at the Best Western for the night.

The hot tub was crammed with 10 or more thru hikers laughing and sharing trail and home stories as we passed. We shared greetings, then entered the lobby and registered for our room.

Showers, phone calls, laying on the bed followed. A quick trip across 138 to a Subway scored dinner which we ate next to the hot tub where we could converse with others. We made arrangements for a ride to Wrightwood in the morning to extract our food resupply from the Post Office before it closes for the three day weekend, leaving us stranded in Wrightwood until it reopens on Tuesday. We will leave it at the hiker friendly Mountain Hardware Store until we pick it up Sunday afternoon when we hike into town.

After our meal and social time we went back up to our room and our day was done.

A word about Sally. This is one tough and stubborn lady! She has hiked 82 miles since leaving her sister's and 40 miles before on a hurting foot. She reports the pain level when I ask, which has never been less than a three and as high as a teary eyed nine as she has doggedly pushed forward. Often she has been tempted to throw in the towel due to the intolerable pain with each step, but when the exit path presents themselves she has been unwilling to take them so deep is her love of the trail and the culture of its inhabitants.

We have experimented everyday with padding, insoles, shoes, taping, blister pads, walking techniques and more in an attempt to correct the injury and pain all the while walking on it. She has endured it and experimented. We think we have found the solution in her trail shoes, heel blister pads, tape on her left big toe and Dr. Scholl's padded insoles. Of course, the unyielding trail will inform us over the next few days if we have it right, but today we are hopeful our theory is correct and the injury is behind us.