Tip 1: Complex Machines.

Your feet are complicated devices, and a wonder of engineering. There are 26 bones, 33 joints, and over 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments in each foot. The bottom of each foot has roughly 15 square inches of area to contact the ground, and this small area balances your entire weight. During a normal day, an average adult will take 6,000 to 9,000 steps, which will equate to walking about four times around the Earth in a lifetime.

Tip 2: Potential for Problems.
When walking normally, the pressure on your feet exceeds your body weight; when running, the pressure can be 3-4 times your weight. Under heavy loads or extreme athletic activity, the feet can withstand 12 times your body weight. However, like any machine, parts can break, wear out, or develop other problems. More than 80% of people will have a foot problem requiring treatment in their lifetime. Problems can be internal (bone spurs, broken bones, gout, tendinitis) or external (ingrown toenails, fungus, blisters, corns). Foot problems can make a hunt, and daily living, miserable.

Tip 3: The Nose Knows.
Feet have as many as 250,000 sweat glands – a higher concentration than any other part of your body – and regardless of the weather, they keep pumping out moisture. In hot weather or with extreme exertion, they can produce up to eight ounces of sweat in a day; enough to leave salt rings on the outside of leather boots. This constant output of moisture leads to the common problem of bromodosis – the technical term for smelly feet. Millions of bacteria thrive in the damp conditions in your boots and make your feet smell. Fungus can also thrive inside your footwear.

Tip 4: Check on Them.
Everyone – not just older people – should check their feet every day. Your feet mirror your general health, and foot problems can show early symptoms of a number of conditions. Gout, diabetes, nerve and circulatory problems, and arthritis can all produce foot problems early on, and any problems like blisters, cuts, or sore spots need to be treated right away. There are some 8,000 nerve endings in a foot and they communicate pain very efficiently. You should always have a kit with bandages, tape, antibiotic ointment, and other first aid supplies with you, along with clean socks. At the first indication of a problem, get your boot off and take care of it.

Tip 5: Your Boots are Tools.
Good boots are not cheap – take care of them! A boot designer told me that people most want boots that are durable, lightweight, and inexpensive; but it’s impossible to get all three things in one design. Determine what you need, and then start looking – there are a dizzying array of models available. Your feet tend to swell a little during the day, so shop for boots in the afternoon or evening. Most people have one foot that is a little larger than the other, so fit for the larger foot. Try on both boots, lace them completely, and walk around. If you are going to be hauling a lot of gear, take a loaded backpack with you, because under a load your feet stretch in both length and width, and the arch can compress as much as 20%.

Tip 6: One More Useless Fact.
Fingernails grow three times faster than toenails. This is just something I learned while I was looking up something else, but it explained why it took a friend nearly a year to have all his toenails regrow after they were damaged on an elk hunt. His boots were too small, and when hiking down the mountain, his toes were slamming into the front of his boots, damaging the nail beds. He said it really didn’t hurt, but in a few weeks he lost nine of his toenails.