I have bunionettes, same as bunions but on the little toe side, sometimes (typically?) this is accompanied by underlapping/overlapping little toe and next-to-little toe. So it can show up as blisters there (Injinji toe socks help, as do silicon spacers).

For the bunionette problem, surgery was an option, but just getting a wide enough shoe turned out to be sufficient. I went with Golite shoes, which have a roomy toe box. I wore Golites for 2600+ miles thru-hiking the PCT this year, with no bunionette problem, whereas with typical hiking shoes I'm sure I would have been in pain early on.

I don't know if, or how any of this relates to big-toe side bunions, and I definitely do not mean to be dispensing amateur medical advice (!), but one possibility would be to try to get a shoe with a wide toe box and try out another 50 or so mile trip and see how it goes.

With a bail out option, perhaps. Trying a 200 mile shakedown hike last year in other shoes, the bunionettes started hurting badly enough I had to walk to where I had cell reception to call for a pickup!

Best of luck with your problem.


Brian Lewis
http://postholer.com/brianle