4/10 Huston, we have a shoe problem

24.3 miles hiked today, 409.3 miles N
Kincora hiker Hostle

This morning I was the last up. I got packed up and McGyver and I set off around 8:30. Last night I heard a mouse scrathing around but we seemed to be fortunate as no one complained of it molesting in the night. My shoes were still fitting poorly and as the day went on the temps got to around 60. My feet warmed and the blisteres started. The shoe rubbed a real nasty heel blister and brought me to the a stop. I cut out the back of my shoe to get pressure of off my heel but my feet were sliding out on the up hills. Still I was moving better than with the heel in. Finally, though I had enough and just took of the left shoe. My left foot is bigger so it was the only one with dire problems. I kept the socks but other than that nothing else. In the end I hiked without that shoe for 12 miles and it worked out very well until the late afternoon when I think i was just tired and started standing on things that would bruise my foot. I was surprised but the most comfortable srface to walk on was snow. Without the shoe the experiance was very differnt in that I could not look up at all and instead focused completely on the trail. I still made good speed, over 3mph. One thing I did see was Jones Falls which was stunning with icicles and sheets of ice still hanging on at spots. Later we ran into "Invisable Man" in a shelter who was cooking dinner. We elected to make miles and headed on. It was 6.3 miles to Kincora and we had almost 2 hours of light to do it in.
Next we came across a grassy gap where Bacon was streached out reading the Hobbit. There was a blue blazed trail off to the left and my guide said that it was Coon Den Falls which ment we were two miles to the road. Two miles later I come across a trail to the right signed as Coon Den Falls. It was getting dark and I was annoyed the guide was wrong before. I put on my headlight and tried to make the most of the 10 minutes of sun light I had left. It was almost completely downhill so it was very fast hiking for me. On the way I saw the tail of a White Tail Deer fleeing from the clank of trecking poles on rocks. Finally about 20 minutes after twilight I reached the road. The only problem was that there were no blazes so I must had diverted from the trail at some point to get there. I walked up the road a ways and found the trail about 50 yards away and started back up to the junction I had missed. Then I sat down and worked on my email as I waited to for McGyver who was having!
shin pains that slowed him down. I hoped I could prevent him from missing the junction in the dark. He caught up abut 15 minutes later and we headed down to the road along the trail this time. Kincora was .2 miles from the trail and McGyver had a resupply box waiting. When we got there we ran into Many Name and Renaissance Man. We were both starving and ordered two large pizza which we devored when they arrived.
I did a foot assment and here is the damage report. On the right foot I have one toe blister but one that is very common for me and causes no serious discomfot. On the left I have the same plus a small blister on the ball of my foot that was annoying but not disabling. A nasty big blister on my heel which is an issues. I going to lose my left ring toe nail as well. Finally there is tenderness and bruising on the bottom of the left foot from stepping on one too many sticks.
I am think I am going to take a zero tomorrow and let thing heal up a bit before pushing for Damascus. Also I will pick my old shoes from the post office which I had bounced forward in case this happened. That is proably one of the wisest things I have done all trip!