Backpacking Tips From Windwalker
Here are a few ideas that my wife and I found useful during our hike (by the way, I am 57 and she is 48).
1) We used a 50/50 mix of Gold Bond Foot Powder and Blister Shield (marathon runners use it to minimize friction on their feet), on our sock liners every day. We had no blisters the entire hike.
2) We highly recommend using trekking poles and found that they helped us up hills and, when used properly, worked as brakes going downhill which saved our knees. Using them also gave us an upper-body workout while walking.
3) Each night, when our muscles were aching, we used a product called BioFreeze to counteract the stiffness.
4) Each night we also gave each other leg, feet and leg massages that worked wonders. When in town on zero days, we also scheduled massages which really helped.
5) Being staunch proponents of chiropractic care, we got adjustments in several different towns during our zero days.
6) We never got sick the entire trip, not even a sniffle or a cough, and we owe that to the fact that we put a vitamin/mineral powder in our drinks, twice a day. The product is called "Emergen C" and it worked wonders.
7) Finally, we strongly urge everyone, young or old, to each as much protein as possible. Once your have used up the excess fat on your body, you begin to burn off muscle which wears you out. We put protein powder in our pudding, in our Carnation Instant Breakfast and in our cereal. We also ate 2-3 snack bars each day that contained 20-30 grams of protein.
If you visit our website, www.rmghadventures.com, you will find numerous stories about our AT thru-hike as well as stories about many other hikes we have taken. We also have our thru-hike journals on www.trailjournals.com.
Peace,
Windtalker