The HotHand burn.
The first of my trail injuries, and I knew I shouldn’t do it. I slept with hand warmers right against my skin. Popped them right in my leggings. It was 19 degrees for goodness sake! Alas, now one of my thighs does have an inch-by-inch sized open burn wound. I’d never had issues with keeping them in my gloves, holding them right in my hands. I was naively thinking I’d be perfectly fine for just one night. And other hikers hadn’t had problems with them right next to their feet in their socks.
I’ve been doing bandage changes on trail every couple days and treating it with triple antibiotic ointment. It does seem to be finally healing after almost 2 weeks and some much needed exposure to fresh air.
A buttcheek welt.
I didn’t notice a rouge tree one evening while setting up my tent, and backed right up into a broken limb. So now I have good sized welt on my booty cheek (and a lil rip in my pants). It bled, turned a lovely bruised shade of yellow/purple, and after a few days of it hurting to sit down, it’s quickly on the mend.
Plantar fasciitis.
Starting the trail, I had plantar fasciitis in only one foot, and now I’m unhappy to report, I have it in both feet. I’m sporting braces on both feet these days, and it seems to be keeping the pain almost completely at bay. I also started hiking with what appeared to be tendonitis in one of my big toes, that has still not yet gone away. But I’m not done holding out hope! Each time I’ve been in town, I’ve been icing my feet (and all of my lower body in general) but I honestly can’t tell if it’s helping any of my trail injuries or not.
A yeast infection.
And I was nursing a yeast infection. Luckily I packed meds for such an occurrence in my first aid kit, and everything is happily back to normal now.
I’m still not sure if it’s from the wet/humid climate or the unavoidable fact that wearing sweaty undies is the norm on trail. But in any case, I have decided to officially be a commando hiker from here on out, to try and hopefully avoid any future occurrences.
I think that’s it? So far?
What could week three and four possibly hold???
I never thought I’d have this many trail injuries, this early on. The burn and welt happened back-to-back and was difficult to mentally overcome. But here we are, and all I can do is hope everything heals in a timely manner. I’m living and learning from all my mistakes!
Friends trail injuries:
Impressive thigh chafe, the need for new knee braces, achilles’ tendon pain, sunburns, another HotHand burn – but their’s was luckily superficial, and blisters – but very minimal!
Click here to see my full gear list, or come check out my Insta @nala_terra for more raw photos and trail highlights.
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