Barefoot from the Santa Barbara Campground - August 9-13, 2023

 I started off on a five day backpacking trip from the Santa Barbara Campground with an old friend of mine, Randy, and my wife, Laura.  Randy's original itinerary seemed ambitious to me, and we did end up modifying it.

I completed about half the trip barefooted, unless you count the length of the second day - in that case, it was a little less than half, but I'm not counting that way.  It is my blog after all. I have hiked some of the wilderness in the Santa Barbara area before barefoot, when it was raining and my feet were sloshing around too much in my sandals.  I remembered it as being fairly barefoot friendly, but the gravel gets under your skin after a while, so to speak.

My trip did not leave me with feet looking like an advertising for barefoot hiking, but most of the injuries were superficial, and it was enjoyable.

I made the entire first day, which we estimate at being six miles, barefooted.

Here I am on a typically rocky section on that initial hike in.  (Laura did not quite get my feet into the photo). It was sometimes this rocky, sometimes like long stretches of driveway gravel, and sometimes deliciously soft mud.  Unfortunately, sometime after this photo, I stubbed the little toe on my left foot against a rock hidden in the shadows, quite badly, and got to watch blood smushing around between it and the toe next to it for a while until it coagulated and got covered with dirt.  I also found that I tend to step long with the right foot, and then sweep my foot forward, and I had a tendency to drag the top of my second toe on that foot over whichever rocks were handy, so that toe just behind the nail got fairly bloody.  I worked on that gait throughout the trip.

By the time I got to camp, I was going "ow" just under my breath over the gravel stretches.  When I washed the little toe off in the stream, it was cherry red, and I was worried that it was either infected or broken, but I could move it around without pain.  (I also cut the flap of skin off with my Swiss Army knife scissors.) Laura made a poltice from some medicinal plants and put them on the injured spots.

At the beginning of the hike, I thought of trying to do the whole thing barefooted, but I clearly needed to give my feet a rest.  Also, the first day, Randy was often so far ahead that he was out of sight.  I don't know if he was a little impatient with my barefoot experiment, but I was definitely moving slower.

The only footwear I brought with me was a brand new pair of Earthrunner Circadian sandals.  I usually hike in Luna sandals, but my Lunas had developed a tear in the rubber beside one of the "ears".  I thought I had thrown them out, but discovered them under the bed, and glued the rubber with super glue.  So far, they seem to be holding, but by that time I had already ordered the other sandals.  I picked them out in my usual impulsive way, based on one review that said they were the person's favorite sandal, and that they were long lasting.  I was looking for long lasting after the torn rubber, although to be fair, the Luna's had made it through two twelve day trips through the Grand Canyon.

We were also heading up to the top of the ridge and climbing some mountains.  There has been a massive die-off of the fir trees in the Pecos Wilderness, so there is quite a tangle of deadfall in places, so some stretches are more like gymnastic events than hikes.  Even with the sandals on, I kept stabbing the tops of my feet on broken off branches as I climbed over the tree trunks.  Once on top of the ridge, we encountered the wind, which blew strong enough to make one stumble occasionally all day long.  Some of the trail, and yes, this is the trail, looked like this:

I'll admit that at those places, and on that size rock, I wished I had my actual hiking boots, which I rarely take on trips, because I just don't like boots.  I think I could have done that barefooted, but I would have had to move slowly.  Other parts of the ridge simply looked like this:

That's Laura on the next day.  We dropped down into the headwaters of the eastern fork of the Santa Barbara River to camp, and popped back out the next morning to traverse over to the Middle Fork.  That second day, I wore the Earthrunners again, but I didn't put enough sunscreen on, and the tops of my feet got badly burned.  Also, the Earthrunners did rub off all the skin on the side of my second toes where the strap cut across.  I think that is more my fault for mountaineering in a brand new pair of sandals, though there are other people who complain about the design.

By that time, my feet were looking pretty beat up, but the little toe's color had returned to normal.

After we got below treeline that day, I spent the second half of the day hiking barefoot to give those second toes a break.  We had to bushwhack up a drainage to get to the lake we were camping at - more gymnastics over the fallen trees, and a lot of tramping through marshy areas.  There were a lot of thistles, and it was easy to avoid the living ones, but occasionally I would step on a dead one lying hidden in the marsh plants.  I also made one step and my leg disappeared into a hole up to my knee.  I think it was a spot in the marsh where a tree trunk had rotted out, because the hole was almost exactly spherical.

The next day I wore toe socks with the sandals to keep my feet out of the sun.  There was a lot of deadfall over the Middle Fork trail.  At the end of the day, we ended up back at the same campsite we were in the first night.

The next day, I decided to make the hike out barefoot, to see if it was any easier than the hike in.  I also wanted to see if it was "mostly gravel" as I had decided after the hike in, or if that was just the soreness of the first day talking. It seemed to me, as well, that my soles felt thicker, but it could have been that my feet were swollen, for all I know.

It started off very nicely, but yes, there were long sections that were mostly gravel.  I tried to focus on shortening my stride, not stubbing my toes, and not scraping that second toe on my right foot.  I found if I kept my knees a little more bent, and my stride shorter, I did a better job.  

Here I am on a nicer stretch of the trail on the way out:

I have to admit my feet are a little sore this morning.  I took the dog on my usual barefoot walk around the neighborhood this morning and was stepping very gingerly (and wondering if I might have worn my sandals).  I also think I picked up two splinters, which isn't bad considering - that reminds me - the bare foot does not offer any traction on the smooth wood of a split tree.  There was a slanted section that looked like a nice piece of wooden flooring, and I was thinking how nice it would feel on my foot. When I stepped on it, I went sliding sideways, banged into the cracked off portion of the trunk, and stabbed a little hole in my hand where I grabbed to stop myself.

I think I got one splinter out of the middle of my foot, but there may be one in my heel that I cannot see, or it could even be that my heel is a little bruised.  I do remember coming down hard on a pointy rock at one point.  I'll give it a few days to see if it starts feeling less sore of its own accord.

I may add more, but I don't have much time to write now before I head to work.  I'm often busy, and blog rarely.  Don't be surprised if years pass before another Barefoot Southwest blog post.