Ep. 10: Getting Gangrene in Camp and Taking Better Care of Your Feet
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As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance. Now let's set the scene. You've spent all summer preparing for this elk hunt, right? You've shot your gun or bow. You got into shape. You drew a great tag. Everything is just set for the hunt of a lifetime.

Day one, you hit the trailhead. You know, you've got a fairly new pair of boots for this hunt. Everything feels great till about a few miles in. Feet start to feel a little hot, maybe a little bit of rubbing on your heels, but you know, you aren't going to stop. You just keep pressing on. That night, your feet are tore up and it hurts to walk.

You've just put yourself in a bad situation because tomorrow it's time to hunt hard and it's the last thing you want to do. How'd you get to this place? Honestly, and what could you have done to prevent it? As a hunting guide, I've literally seen it all, especially when it comes to boots and foot care and guys not being able to hunt after having sore feet. But one story in particular really stands out.

It was when I first started guiding in Montana. It was one of the first years that I had clients and I liked to push my hunters. I wanted them to be successful. So in order to find success, I just hunted as hard as I normally would. Well, there was a guy in camp that was from, I think it was from Pennsylvania. It was his first elk hunt and he was an older guy and he was determined, which I got to give him credit. The guy got after it day in and day out.

Now, I think it was probably the first day he started slowing down a little bit. And I said, hey, man, you know, I've got some moleskin. I've got some duct tape. If your feet are getting hot, let's let's take care of this. Because when I walk up to shake someone's hand first day, taking him out guiding, the first thing I do is look him in the eye, shake their hand and check their feet. And I know what kind of week we're going to be in for.

Because I know that in those new boots, if those boots don't look broken in properly, I know that it will slow down and impede their success because they aren't going to be able to hike like they could.

without foot problems. Blisters can just wreak havoc. It can be painful and it can be hard to move around for a week at a time. Very few people often get that much time outside of the season to put in. So once you're in the field, man, you got to make every second count. So I look at his feet, new pair of boots, newish pair of boots. I'm like, okay, I got to keep that in mind.

I can see him fidgeting with things, adjusting his sock, but never. So let's sit down and take care of that before it turns in. No, no, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. Let's keep going. Okay. I suggested again later that day. No, no, no, I'm good. Okay.

Well, he didn't want to seem weak or whatever. He didn't want to be the guy that had to take care of his feet. He was a tough guy. He was going to tough it out and it was going to be all good. The next day, he's actually kind of hobbling around by the end of the second day. He's not looking good. No, but he's just, he's there. He's there at Elkhunt. This is his trip. And I know in his mind, if he slowed down, that would be failing. So he just kept pushing on.

hiking hard. Like, man, let's, why don't we just take care of it? No, no, no. It's fine. It's fine. A few days went by and he's, he's moving like pretty bad, but he's just, he's still going. He's got determination. I got to give him credit. Like, man, are you taking care of those blisters? No, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. Well, it camped that night. Like, gosh, there's this horrible smell. And this dude, this is like five, six days later, this dude is not looking good.

So a couple of us are like talking with him, man, how are your feet doing? Oh, I'm, I don't know. I'm not feeling good. Like, just honestly, let us take a look. Well, it turns out his feet were so sore. He never wanted to take his sock off because it hurt. He takes his sock off and it was like something was rotting.

At this point, we look at, I had never seen anything like this, but it looked like a foot that was about to fall off and go black. Like the foot was literally rotting. So at this point, it's no longer foot care. It's something that I had never seen before with a smell that you can never forget. This is just made you want to throw up. We ended up having to take him

He had to essentially stop his hunt, take him to the hospital. And it turns out the guy got gangrene. I didn't even know that was possible, but what had happened was the blisters got so bad and he never took his sock off or took care of it. Let it dry out that he kept sweating in the boots he was wearing. It was an earlier season hunt. He was wearing like 800 gram insulation. His feet were just sweating all day long. And because they hurt so bad,

He just kept motoring on, motoring on, and it just essentially, I guess it's foot started rotting inside of his boot. Now you do not want to be the guy that gets gangrene in elk camp. You don't even want to be the guy that gets up in the next morning and says, man, I do not want to hike to the top of that ridge. Because as soon as you start doing that, you've just shot yourself in the foot.

like figuratively and literally, you are not going to be as successful. And it's so easy to prevent. And here's how. Can't talk about foot care without talking about boots themselves. That's probably actually the question I get asked more than most. What's a good boot? What boot should I get for hunting?

Like, man, that is a very, very broad question. And I wish I could just say, here's the boot you need. And then you could go out and buy that boot and it'd be good for everything because boots are expensive. But the fact of the matter is not one boot is good for all people and not one boot is good for all situations. Now I understand you got to make your dollar work for you. You got to find what's right for the most situations. So I would say when selecting boots, the first thing is going to be comfort.

Now I've got two different size feet and my feet are all weird shaped. A boot that fits my foot is not going to fit my best friend's foot. So when I buy boots, I buy boots that fit me, not necessarily based off of suggestion of someone else, but ones that are most comfortable for my foot. Because if it's comfortable for me,

I'm going to have a less chance of it rubbing, less chance of slopping around in that boot and creating wear or rubbing that's going to cause problems down the road. Another thing is picking the right boot for the type of hunting that you do. There are boots from, I'll just pick two random examples, say like a Solomon trail runner type, a trail runner type shoe at the low end, little support, lightweight tennis shoe type comfort. They essentially are tennis shoes.

All the way up to, let's go with a Schnee's Granite, which is like a mountaineering type boot. It's got a shank in it. It's got a stiff sole. It's full grain leather. This goes up almost to the bottom of your calf.

laces up tight, good ankle support. You can rock that thing in the mountains. So you aren't going to want the mountaineering boot on say a antelope hunt in the desert on flat ground. And you aren't going to want the trail runner on a 12 day doll sheep hunt backpack hunt in the Chugach mountain range because they are built for different tasks. And by wearing the wrong boot in the wrong situation,

It's like the guy where he's on an elk hunt and he's early season. He's got his late winter whitetail boots on rocking around the elk mountains. It's rubbing weird. It's making him sweat. And it's not the right boot for the right situation. So you really have to be honest with yourself. What kind of hunting do I do?

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Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. Now that you've got the right boot on your foot, it's time to break it in. Each type of boot is different. Now, I wore a Schnee's boot for a long time. Some of those type of boots might take 50 miles to break in. And that's not just 50 miles rocking around the mall. That's 50 miles in mountain type terrain. That's a long break-in period.

There's other boots on the lighter side that I've had, ones that I wore recently are like an early season Under Armour boot. Those boots only took a few miles to break and they were a lighter boot made for different types of terrain.

So the one thing you have to remember when breaking in your boot is each boot is different. So break it in to that break-in point for that boot. But also you got to remember when you're in the mountains, you're going to be on inclines. If you only walk that boot on flat ground, you're not going to get the proper break-in. It needs to be in the type of terrain that you're at. Now you might not have mountains where you live. So what do you do? That's a good question.

I've suggested to clients for years, get on that treadmill as you're working out, work out in your boots, put that treadmill on incline and practice walking in that incline. Now I can't talk about breaking in your boots without talking about toughening your feet. That to me is the most important factor of breaking in your boots. The best prevention from getting blisters is building calluses. And the only way to do that is to get a blister. So when you're breaking in your boot,

Think about it like breaking in your feet simultaneously with your boot. Know where the hot spots occur in that particular boot. Do it early enough to where you have time to recover. Not a lot of people probably do this, but when I get a new pair of boots, the first thing I do is I go for a prolonged hike in the type of terrain that I might be hunting. The exact thing that you wouldn't do on a hunt.

And the reason is, is because I like to create a blister and know where the hotspots are in that particular boot and allow that blister to start turning into a callus. So I'll have do that early enough where I have time to heal. And then I'll continue wearing that boot and it'll continue after that initial blister period. We'll continue rubbing and building a callus in those hotspot areas. So when it comes time to hunt,

I've got that pair of boots and my foot is broken into that boot as well because every boot moves different. So if I do that with my primary hunting boot, especially the stiffer sole boots, like the more mountaineering type boots, you're going to be a lot more comfortable in the field and prevent having to do more foot care in the field. Now, no matter how good your boots fit, no matter how well they're broken in on long hunts, hard hunts, you're going to get wear and tear on your feet.

The key is early and often prevention. Now, what that is, is when you start to feel a hotspot, take care of it now, not later. Or if you know that a particular pair of boots tends to rub a certain area wrong, take care of it before something happens.

There's all kinds of products out there. I've used nearly all of them and I'll tell you the best one. So, Moleskine is kind of like a sticker thing. It's got a little bit of fuzzy padding. There's padded Moleskine. There's these heel gel, band-aids, all kinds of stuff. Honestly, the best thing you can use is duct tape. The fix-all. There's been times where I've had a pair of boots, wears my heel. Before I even go, I just put duct tape on my heel.

throw my sock on and go. If I start to feel a hot spot, I'll use duct tape because when you're hiking and moving and sweating in your foot, a lot of the other stuff just falls off. Now, if you already have a blister developing, a little piece of that padded moleskin in combination with duct tape is great. So if I've got a trekking pole or water bottle, I just wrap a little piece of duct tape around my water bottle or trekking pole. So that way I've got it handy. It's not like I have to dig through my pack. It's somewhere that it's easy to get.

A lot of times that duct tape just right on my water bottle. I'm thinking about it. I grab a sip of water. I see that duct tape. Oh, yep. Get in a hot spot. Let's take the two seconds to fix it right now. Throw a little duct tape on it and keep going. And just by doing those simple little things, you're going to be able to go further, hunt longer, and you're going to be more successful in the long run. I'll tell you what. Honestly, foot care is really a pretty easy feat. No, I just...

I can't end with a stupid dad joke. Oh, man. Puns. Anyways, seriously, though, it's not that hard to do. It's October. Rifle season's a lot of places are going to start kicking off, especially out west. So let's get into some prep for that. You know, right now, actually, I'm about out the door headed to Kodiak for a mountain goat hunt with my brother in the bow.

And you know what's in my bag right now? Duct tape for my feet. Seasoned veteran here, hiking the mountains. I got a good pair of broken-in boots, but I'm still got that foot care just in case. Now, how about this? When I come back, when we come back, the next episode that I would like to talk about would be one of the most influential tactics in hunting, glassing.

We'll cover some top secret stuff that will no longer be top secret after that. And then I'm going to teach you how to outglass your buddies in the he who spots it, stocks it game. That's clutch. You're going to want to listen to that one. And you're going to want your friends not to listen to it. So until that point, you can share this podcast with everyone. Because I think after that, you're going to want to keep all the secrets to yourself. And that's really not cool. Not cool at all.

So until next week, hopefully you get some field time. If you do, let me know. Let me know how it goes. I would love to hear about it. And yes, still haven't found a good sign off. Adios, muchachos. Adios. Cue the Barney song.

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