The last couple of years I have been plagued with my feet fatiguing first, and I have not been able to figure it out. No blisters. No hotspots. Just an unquenchable desire to sit and take the weight off my feet to make the burning sensation in my heels go away.
My breaks became more and more frequent. Every deadfall log I crossed became an opportunity to straddle it for a while and take the pressure off my feet. Break after break after break ….. We kept losing elevation, but it was slow. The last portion in the rain, slipping all over the place and we finally reached the truck, just as our water supply had run out. Chris beat me by some 15 minutes as I think he was finally sick and tired of hearing me say
“I can’t do this anymore” every 45 seconds and powered on ahead.
The whole thing in one day, with an entire deboned buck on my back was a bit too much for me …. Almost. If Chris hadn’t pushed me to keep at it and get out of there I would have, without a doubt, made camp and just dealt with whatever dehydration issues there may have been during the night and next day. I was so done. My feet were so fatigued by this point that I could barely string 10 steps together before having to sit down! But it WAS raining .... probably could've gone around licking leaves and rehydrated enough by morning
We hopped in the truck and arrived home in the early morning hours of Sept 3
rd. It was the longest packout I’ve ever done and by far the hardest.
Sorry .... was too busy trying to get out of there in one piece to be taking any photos. Not that anyone wants to look at a bunch of deadfall and the back of Chris's pack. lol.