Local hiking and foot pain

This weekend we had glorious weather for hiking. One of the best things about our neighborhood is the easy access to wonderful hiking trails, long and short. We hardly ever get in the car and drive somewhere to hike. Its just a few minutes walk from our door to a trailhead for Mission Trails Regional Park. Mission Trails has around 50+ miles of hiking trails, so the possibilities are endless. Also, for shorter hikes, we can pick one or more of several canyon trails that weave through the neighborhood.

Last week I had some great news at a visit to my podiatrist. Xrays showed no sign of the stress fracture I had last year. That means its completely healed. The pain I've been feeling in my left foot was actually due to a hammer toe that is out of alignment and causing pressure on the metatarsal bones. My podiatrist showed me a way to wrap the hammer toe with paper tape when I hike. I tried it on Saturday and...no pain! The tape ended up causing a blister on the next toe, but that was easily patched up with moleskin.

I can now walk with no fear of re-stressing the stress fracture. What a relief! I've been so worried that the pain I was noticing was due to the old injury coming back.

I'm writing this blog on the iPad we'll be using on the Camino next month in order to get familiar with using it. It doesn't have the same options as on the computer, so I haven't figured out how to move photos around or change their size yet.

The photo below was taken at Mission Trails on Sunday, just a few minutes walk from home. Hard to believe how quickly one can get away from the hustle and bustle. Wildflowers are starting to bloom and there's more green on the trail thanks to the rains we had earlier this year.