Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance. Now, let's set the seat.
Speaker 1: You've spent all summer preparing for this elk hunt. Right,
Speaker 1: You've shot your gun, er bow, you got into shape,
Speaker 1: you drew a great tag. Everything is just set for
Speaker 1: the hunt of a lifetime. Day one, you hit the trailhead.
Speaker 1: You know you've got a fairly new pair of boots
Speaker 1: for this hunt. Everything feels great until about a few
Speaker 1: miles if you start to feel a little hot, maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit of rubbing on your heels, but you
Speaker 1: know you aren't gonna stop. You just keep pressing. On.
Speaker 1: That night, your feet are tore up and it hurts
Speaker 1: to walk. You've just put yourself in a bad situation
Speaker 1: because tomorrow it's time to hunt hard and it's the
Speaker 1: last thing you want to do. How did you get
Speaker 1: to this place, honestly, and what could you have done
Speaker 1: to prevent it? As a hunting guide, I've literally seen
Speaker 1: it all, especially when it comes to boots and foot
Speaker 1: care and guys not being able to hunt after having
Speaker 1: sore feet. But one story in particular really stands out
Speaker 1: because when I first started guiding in Montana, it was
Speaker 1: one of the first years that I had clients, and
Speaker 1: I liked to push my hunters. I wanted them to
Speaker 1: be successful. So in order to find success, I just
Speaker 1: hunted as hard as I normally would. Well, there was
Speaker 1: a guy in camp that was from I think it's
Speaker 1: from Pennsylvania. It was his first elk hunt, and he
Speaker 1: was an older guy and he was determined, which I
Speaker 1: gotta give him credit. The guy got after it day
Speaker 1: in and day out. Now I think it was probably
Speaker 1: the first day he started slowing down a little bit
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, man, you know I've got some
Speaker 1: mole skin, I've got some duct tape. If your feet
Speaker 1: are getting hot, let's let's take care of this. Because
Speaker 1: when I walk up to shake someone's hand first day
Speaker 1: taking him out guiding, the first thing I do is
Speaker 1: look him in the eyes, shake their hand, and check
Speaker 1: their feet, and I know what kind of week we're
Speaker 1: going to be in for because I know that in
Speaker 1: those new boots. If those boots don't look broken in properly.
Speaker 1: I know that it will slow down and impede their
Speaker 1: success because there they aren't gonna be able to hike
Speaker 1: like they could without foot problems. Blisters can just re
Speaker 1: havoc and can be painful, and it can be hard
Speaker 1: to move around for a week at a time. Very
Speaker 1: few people often get that much time out side of
Speaker 1: the season to put in. So once you're in the field, man,
Speaker 1: you gotta make every second count. So I look at
Speaker 1: his feet, new pair of boots, newish pair of boots.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I gotta keep that in mind. I
Speaker 1: can see him fig in with things, adjusting his sock,
Speaker 1: but never I said, let's sit down and take care
Speaker 1: of that before it turns. And no, no, no, I'm fine,
Speaker 1: I'm fine. Let's keep going, Okay, I suggested again later
Speaker 1: that day. No, no, no, I'm good. Okay. Well, he
Speaker 1: didn't want to seem weak or whatever. He didn't want
Speaker 1: to be the guy who had to take care of
Speaker 1: his feet. He was a tough guy. He was gonna
Speaker 1: tough it out and it was gonna be all good.
Speaker 1: The next day, he's actually kind of hobbling around. By
Speaker 1: the end of the second day, he's not looking good. No,
Speaker 1: but he's he's just he's there. He's there at l Hunt.
Speaker 1: This is his trip, and I know in his mind
Speaker 1: if he slowed down, that would be failing. So he
Speaker 1: just kept pushing on, hiking hard, like, man, let's why
Speaker 1: don't we just take care of it? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's fine, it's fine. A few aagement buy and he's
Speaker 1: he's moving like pretty bad, but he's just he's still going.
Speaker 1: He's got determination. I gotta give him credit, Like, man,
Speaker 1: are you taking care of those blisters? No? No No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm fine. I'm fine. Camp that night, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: there's this horrible smell and this dude, this is like
Speaker 1: five six days later, this dude is not looking good.
Speaker 1: So a couple of us are like talking with him, Man,
Speaker 1: how are your feet doing? Oh I'm I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling good, like just honestly, let us take
Speaker 1: a look. Well, it turns out his feet were so sore.
Speaker 1: He never wanted to take his sock off because it hurt.
Speaker 1: He takes his sock off, and it was like something
Speaker 1: was rotting. At this point, we look at I had
Speaker 1: never seen anything like this, but it looked like a
Speaker 1: foot that was about to fall off and go black,
Speaker 1: like the foot was literally rotting. So at this point,
Speaker 1: it's no longer foot care. It's something that I had
Speaker 1: never seen before, with a smell that you know, like
Speaker 1: you can never forget this. It has just made you
Speaker 1: want to throw up. We ended up having to take him,
Speaker 1: he had to essentially stop his hunt, take him to
Speaker 1: the hospital. And it turns out the guy got gang green.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that was possible. But what had
Speaker 1: happened was the blisters got so bad and he never
Speaker 1: took a sock off or took care of it, let
Speaker 1: it dry out that he kept sweating in the boots
Speaker 1: he was wearing. It was earlier season hunt. He was
Speaker 1: wearing like eight Graham insulation. His feet were just sweating
Speaker 1: all day long, and because they hurt so bad, he
Speaker 1: just kept motoring on, motoring on, and it just essentially,
Speaker 1: I guess it's foot started rotting inside of his boot.
Speaker 1: Now you do not want to be the guy that
Speaker 1: gets gang green in outcamp. You don't even want to
Speaker 1: be the guy that gets up in the next morning
Speaker 1: and says man, I do not hiked to the top
Speaker 1: of that ridge, because as soon as you start doing that,
Speaker 1: you've just shot yourself in the foot, like figuratively and literally,
Speaker 1: you are not going to be as successful. And it's
Speaker 1: so easy to prevent. And here's how I can't talk
Speaker 1: about footcare without talking about boots themselves. That's probably actually
Speaker 1: the question I could ask more than most what's a
Speaker 1: good boot? What what boot should I get for hunting?
Speaker 1: Like man, That is a very very broad question, And
Speaker 1: I wish I could just say here's the boot you need,
Speaker 1: and then you could go out and buy that boot
Speaker 1: and it'd be good for everything, because boots are expensive.
Speaker 1: But the fact of the matter is not one boot
Speaker 1: is good for all people, and not one boot is
Speaker 1: good for all situations. Now I understand, you've got to
Speaker 1: make your dollar work for you. You gotta find what's
Speaker 1: right for the most situations. So I would say wins
Speaker 1: selecting boots. The first thing is going to be comfort.
Speaker 1: Now I've got two different sized feet, and my feet
Speaker 1: are all weird shaped. A boot that fits my foot
Speaker 1: is not going to fit my best friend's foot. So
Speaker 1: when I buy boots, ibey boots that fit me, not
Speaker 1: necessarily based off of suggestion of someone else, but ones
Speaker 1: that are most comfortable for my foot, because if it's
Speaker 1: comfortable for me, I'm gonna have a less chance of
Speaker 1: it rubbing, less chance of slopping around in that boot
Speaker 1: and creating where or rubbing that's going to cause problems
Speaker 1: down the road. Another thing is picking the right boot
Speaker 1: for the type of hunting that you do. There are
Speaker 1: boots from I'll just pick two random examples, say like
Speaker 1: a Solomon trail Runner type, a trail runner type shoe
Speaker 1: at the low end, little support, lightweight, tennis shoe type comfort.
Speaker 1: They essentially are tennis shoes all the way up to
Speaker 1: Let's go with a Schnay's Granite, which is like a
Speaker 1: mountaineering type boot. It's got a shank in it, it's
Speaker 1: got a stiff sole, it's full grain, leather, goes up
Speaker 1: almost to the bottom of your calf, laces, uptight, good
Speaker 1: ankle support. You can rock that thing in the mountains.
Speaker 1: So you aren't gonna want the mountaineering boot on say
Speaker 1: a antelope hunt in the desert on flat ground, and
Speaker 1: you aren't gonna want the trail runner on a twelve
Speaker 1: day doll sheet hunt, backpack hunt in the chewcatch mountain range.
Speaker 1: Because they are built for different tasks and by wearing
Speaker 1: the wrong boot in the wrong situation. It's like the
Speaker 1: guy where he's on an elk hunt and he's early season.
Speaker 1: He's got his late winter white tail boots on rocking
Speaker 1: around the elk mountains. It's rubbing weird, it's making him sweat,
Speaker 1: and it's not the right boot for the right situation.
Speaker 1: So you really have to be honest with yourself what
Speaker 1: kind of hunting do I do, and pick something at
Speaker 1: really fits your foot and fits what you do the most.
Speaker 1: Now that you've got the right boot on your foot,
Speaker 1: it's time to break it in. Each type of boot
Speaker 1: is different. Now I wore a SHNAS boot for a
Speaker 1: long time. Some of those type of boots might take
Speaker 1: fifty miles to break in. And that's not just fifty
Speaker 1: miles rocking around the mall. That's fifty miles in mountain
Speaker 1: type terrain. That's a long breaking period. There's other boots
Speaker 1: on the lighter side that I've had, um The ones
Speaker 1: that I wore recently h like an early season under
Speaker 1: armored boot. Those boots only took a few miles to
Speaker 1: break in. They were a lighter boot made for different
Speaker 1: types of terrain. So the one thing you have to
Speaker 1: remember when breaking in your boot is each boot is different,
Speaker 1: So break it into that breaking point for that boot.
Speaker 1: But also you've got to remember when you're in the mountains,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be on inclines. If you only walk that
Speaker 1: boot on flat ground, you're not going to get the
Speaker 1: proper breaking It needs to be in the type of
Speaker 1: terrain that you're at. Now, you might not have mountains
Speaker 1: where you live, So what do you do. That's a
Speaker 1: good question. I've suggested to clients for years. Get on
Speaker 1: that treadmill as you're working out, work out in your boots,
Speaker 1: put that trademill on incline, and practice walking in that incline. Now,
Speaker 1: I can't talk about breaking in your boots without talking
Speaker 1: about toughening your feet. That to me, is the most
Speaker 1: important factor of breaking in your boots. The best prevention
Speaker 1: from getting blisters is building calluses, and the only way
Speaker 1: to do that is to get a blister. So when
Speaker 1: you're breaking in your boot, think about it like breaking
Speaker 1: in your feet simultaneously with your boot. Nowhere the hot
Speaker 1: spots occur in that particular boot, Do it early enough
Speaker 1: to where you have time to recover, not a lot
Speaker 1: of people probably do this. But when I get a
Speaker 1: new pair of boots, the first thing I do is
Speaker 1: I go for a prolonged hike in the type of
Speaker 1: terrain that I might be hunting, the exact thing that
Speaker 1: you wouldn't do on a hunt. And the reason is
Speaker 1: is because I like to create a blister and know
Speaker 1: where the hotspots are in that particular boot and allow
Speaker 1: that blister to start turning into a callous. So I'll
Speaker 1: have do that early enough where I have time to heal,
Speaker 1: and then I'll continue wearing that boot and it will
Speaker 1: continue after that initial blister period, will continue rubbing and
Speaker 1: building a callous in those hot spot areas. So when
Speaker 1: it comes time to hunt, I've got that pair of
Speaker 1: boots and my foot is broken into that boot as well,
Speaker 1: because every boot moves different. So if I do that
Speaker 1: with my primary hunting boot, especially the stiffer soul boots
Speaker 1: like the more mountaineering type boots, You're gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot more comfortable in the field and prevent having to
Speaker 1: do more footcare in the field. Now, no matter how
Speaker 1: good your boots fit, no matter how well they're broken
Speaker 1: in on long hunts, hard hunts, you're gonna get wear
Speaker 1: and tear on your feet. The key is early and
Speaker 1: often prevention. Now out what that is is when you
Speaker 1: start to feel a hot spot, take care of it now,
Speaker 1: not later. Or if you know that a particular pair
Speaker 1: of boots tends to rub a certain area wrong, take
Speaker 1: care of it before something happens. There's all kinds of
Speaker 1: products out there. I've used nearly all of them, and
Speaker 1: I'll tell you the best one. So mole skin is
Speaker 1: kind of like a sticker thing. It's got a little
Speaker 1: bit of fuzzy padding. There's padded mole skin, there's these
Speaker 1: heel gel band aids, all kinds of stuff. Honestly, the
Speaker 1: best thing you can use is duct tape. The fix all.
Speaker 1: There's been times where I've had a pair of boots,
Speaker 1: where's my heel? Before I even go, I just put
Speaker 1: duct tape on my heel, throw my sock on and go.
Speaker 1: If I start to feel a hot spot, I'll use
Speaker 1: duct tape because when you're hiking and moving and sweating
Speaker 1: in your foot, a lot of the other stuff just
Speaker 1: falls off. Now, if you already have a blister developing
Speaker 1: a little piece of that padded mole skin in combination
Speaker 1: with duct tape is great. So if I've a trekking
Speaker 1: poll or water bottle, I just wrapped a little piece
Speaker 1: of duck tape around my water bottle or trekking poll,
Speaker 1: So that way I've got it handy. It's not like
Speaker 1: I have to dig through my packet's somewhere that it's
Speaker 1: easy to get a lot of times that duck tape
Speaker 1: just right on my water bottle. I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 1: I grab a sip of water, I see that duck tape.
Speaker 1: Go yep, getting a hot spot. Let's take the two
Speaker 1: seconds to fix it right now, throw a little duct
Speaker 1: tape on it, and keep going. And just by doing
Speaker 1: those simple little things, you're gonna be able to go further,
Speaker 1: hunt longer, and you're gonna be more successful in the
Speaker 1: long run. I'll tell you what. Honestly, footcare is really
Speaker 1: a pretty easy feat. No, I just I can't end
Speaker 1: with a stupid dad joke, oh man puns. Anyways, Seriously, though,
Speaker 1: it's not that hard to do. It's October rifle seasons.
Speaker 1: A lot of places are gonna start kicking off, especially
Speaker 1: out west, so let's get into some prep for that,
Speaker 1: you know right now. Actually, I'm about out the door,
Speaker 1: headed to Kodiak for a mountain goat hunt with my
Speaker 1: brother in the bow. And you know what's in my
Speaker 1: bag right now? Duct tape from my feet seasoned veteran
Speaker 1: here hiking the mountains, a good pair of broken in boots.
Speaker 1: But I'm still got that foot care just in case. Now,
Speaker 1: how about this when I come back. When we come back,
Speaker 1: the next episode that I would like to talk about
Speaker 1: would be one of the most influential tactics in hunting, glassing.
Speaker 1: We'll cover some top secret stuff that will no longer
Speaker 1: be top secret after that, and then I'm going to
Speaker 1: teach you how to outglass your buddies in the hue spots.
Speaker 1: It stocks a game that's that's clutch. You're gonna want
Speaker 1: to listen to that one, and you're gonna want your
Speaker 1: friends not to listen to it. So until that point,
Speaker 1: you can share this podcast with everyone, because I think
Speaker 1: after that you're gonna want to keep all the secrets
Speaker 1: to yourself and that's really not cool, not cool at all.
Speaker 1: So until next week, hopefully you get some field time.
Speaker 1: If you do, let me know, let me know how
Speaker 1: it goes. I would love to hear about it and yes,
Speaker 1: still haven't found a good sign off. Audiosos audios queue
Speaker 1: the Barney song.