We’d been hiking for three miles before I started to feel a prickly sensation at the top of my foot near my big toe. It felt like something small, like a pine needle poking into my skin, so I ignored it.

After another quarter of a mile, it was only getting worse, so I stopped in the middle of the trail and pulled off my boot.

A brown stain marked my sock, right where I felt the discomfort. Puzzled and worried that I was bleeding, I removed my sock — but my foot looked normal, maybe a bit pink.

We’d been hiking for three miles before I started to feel a prickly sensation at the top of my foot near my big toe. It felt like something small, like a pine needle poking into my skin, so I ignored it.

After another quarter of a mile, it was only getting worse, so I stopped in the middle of the

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