Iris Weaver, a former high school classmate of mine, is an herbalist. She graciously sent me some salves for skin care to use during the hike, and they arrived today. Here’s a shout out and thanks. You can check out her web site from the sponsors links.
Long distance backpackers are prone to a variety of unpleasant skin afflictions. Blisters or hot spots on the feet are most common. Almost as annoying are crotch rot and screamers, in hiker’s lingo. Crotch rot is chafing in the indicated area; screamers is much the same area only more internal. Chafing can occur in other areas as well, particularly where pack meets skin.
Towards the end of a long hike some flaking of the skin can occur if one’s nutrition has not been as good as it should be — with too many pop tarts and not enough vegetables. I hope to avoid this last problem this time around, being so much wiser now (that snicker in the background would be from my kids). Iris’s herbal salves will come in handy for the other afflictions I mentioned. Thanks, Iris.
I also picked up our Believe In Humanity T-shirts today from Stadium Systems. I bought them at their cost. Here’s another shout out to Mike Schopp, a colleague of mine on the board of Habitat, along with his family run business.
