@argonautphoto

20 years ago today I was walking across the US with my dog Cosmo. No cell phone. No support crew. 3,349 miles in 154 Days. Below are excerpts from 2 days of my journals about footcare or lack thereof: “Day 36, Springerville, AZ to Red Hill, NM today: 25 miles cumulative: 701 ...I thought that at some point I would get into a rhythm and the physical pain would stop but it hasn’t and there are more than 300 miles between me and Santa Fe. Just before sunset I have to stop to deal with my blisters, they are back. And they are under other old blisters, deeper than any others that I have had, duct tape and mole skin and lets try this again. Cosmo needs duct tape too, (not for blisters) her boots have fallen apart and the rubber is worn through. Today she gets duct tape boots (lined so it doesn’t stick to her). After doing all I can my feet are not feeling much better, but there is nothing I can do about it so I keep going, hoping that there is some kind of other side to this month of pain. There has to be… Day 37, Red Hill to Quemado, NM today: 25 miles cumulative: 726 …4 miles into the day my blisters wake up and I start limping. Athletic tape and duct tape and another sock and anything to stop this ridiculous pain but nothing works and the limping continues. Today I know what it is like to walk on hot coals. Not for 25 feet, but for 25 miles. At first it is like walking on broken glass, gasping breaths, then warm feet, then hot feet, then numb feet someplace past pain. After 3 miles of serious limping with my weight on my toes, trying to adjust to protect the larger blisters on my heels, my calves begin to cramp. I have no choice but to let down my heels and go through the steps again, gasping, warm, hot, and then numb, just throbbing numbness. I am supposed to envision cool moss right now, but I am just staring at the horizon envisioning Quemado 15 miles closer than it is.” #3349miles