Review: Salomon Women's Speedcross 3 Trail Running Shoe (Amazon Link)
I like my shoes. Love
them, well no, but like them a bunch.
The pluses:
- They are cushioned.
- Once you have the laces adjusted, they are slip-ons.
- Nice assortment of colors.
- Good fit.
The minuses:
- The lace adjustment tends to malfunction.
- They wear quickly.
- They tend to be slippery on rocks.
I have worn Salomon Speedcross 3 shoes for a couple years
now. I have very high arches, and old
joints -- knees that are wearing
out. The shoes come with an Ortholite
footbed. I put an insert under the
Ortholite that helps keep foot pain away.
The cushion of the shoe makes it possible for me to hike 20+ miles a
day. Very nice.
The shoes have a sliding lace adjustment. This is both good and bad. On the good side if I get them perfectly
adjusted, I never have to mess with it again.
Just, slip my foot in and out.
Very nice. Getting them perfectly
adjusted can be a bit fiddly. To do this
I first put them on and try to get them in the neighborhood of tight enough,
but not too tight. Too loose and they
fall off. Too tight and they cause
tendentious on the tops of my feet. Once
I have them where I like them, I have to tie all the individual lace crosses in
place, to keep them from bunching up by my ankles. When it works, it is awesome. The rest of the time, not so much. The big problem is that slide adjustment will
jam and no amount of tugging will get it to move.
The color selection is amazing. Usually, 6-10 choices. I am currently hiking in what I term God
awful orange. Hey, they were half the
price of the other color choices and after hiking 20 miles, all my shoes turn
brown anyway. Around town I wear a nice
purple, blue, and lime green combo.
I can typically get about 500 hiking miles out of the shoes
before the lugs on the bottom wear. This
is a gradual thing, but one day I will suddenly think, what happened to that
amazing cushioning? Lo and behold, the
lugs on the bottom will be almost gone.
It is easy to know when to replace them.
Performance for on and off trail hiking is very good. Nice combination of cushioning, light weight,
and ruggedness. On steep granite rocks
where my husband will stand up straight and walk down, I tend to crab crawl
down. No upright posture for me as the
shoes don’t have great grip and I will start to slide. This might be the price I’m paying for good cushioning.
All in all a good shoe, but if I was allowed to improve a
few things, I would.
Review: Bridgedale Women's CoolFusion Multisport Sock (Amazon Link)
I love my socks.
Yep, you’re probably saying a review about socks, but socks
can make your feet very happy, or not so much.
I’ve worn these socks for many years, although I thought
they had been discontinued, and tried other socks for a while. More on that below.
Why do I love these socks?
- They fit
- I don’t get blisters
- I don’t break out
- Long wearing
Let’s examine these one by one.
They fit. I know,
what a concept. Socks made to fit
women’s feet. Back in the bad old days,
I would steal one of my husband’s pairs of hiking socks. They would bunch up by my toes. I would be unhappy, especially my little toes. My husband would eventually wear them, and
stretch them way out. I would be very
unhappy. He doesn’t even attempt to wear
these as they are pink. O joy.
I don’t get blisters.
Yes, that says it all.
I don’t break out.
So, this one probably needs some explaining. I tend to break out when I get hot, so high merino
wool content socks would turn my ankles into a mass of hive looking
things. Nasty. I also can’t wear just coolmax, as again I
break out. For some reason only known to
alchemists, the Bridgedale CoolFusion Multisport Socks really minimize this. For those of you who like specs the web says these
socks are made from 42% Nylon/
28% Merino Wool/ 28% Endurofil/ 2% Lycra.
These socks are long wearing. They don’t get holes in them from backpacking
wear. Yes, I’ve have several pairs with
hundreds of miles on them, and no holes.
Overtime, think years here, the “fluffiness” of these socks tends to get
less and less, but they are still completely wearable. They also hold up well over multi-day backpacking trips. By this I mean, seven
days without washing them, and they still don’t give me blisters, and they
don’t smell so bad they have to be burned.
Now, why was there a time when I was wearing other socks? Well, I have worn Bridgedale hiking socks for
many years. They were originally called
something like X-Hale Diva, or some such thing.
Then some marketing genius, decided to re-name them and they came out
with a new color. This confused me and caused
me to try many, many, many new hiking socks.
I now have a drawer full of socks I don’t like. Eventually, I contacted Bridgedale and was
able to sort out what had happened to “my” socks so that I could buy some more. They are the same socks I originally loved,
with a new name, and a new color choice.
Note: Bridgedale did
supply me with a free pair along the way.
Further note, I have purchased with my own money many more pairs.
Review: Locus Gear CP3 Trekking Poles (Manufacturer Link)
I own a couple of different sets of trekking poles, or as I
call them hiking sticks. Let me start
off with a general overview of the concept and then discuss specifics of the
two different sticks. Many years ago my
friends started using hiking sticks.
They said -- it helps me go
downhill, it helps protect my knees, it helps my balance, etc etc etc. I said I am young, big lie there, and don’t
need them. Turns out that I was always
borrowing someone’s sticks at some point every hike. I still said I didn’t need them. My husband bought me a pair for Christmas
anyway, and I have never gone hiking without them since.
All those things my friends said are true. Hiking sticks help improve your performance
and help prevent injury.
Leki metal poles, not sure what the model is – these were my
first pair of hiking sticks. Their big
disadvantage was changing the length.
They expected me with my minimal mechanical ability to be able to change
the height by unscrewing them, re-setting the length, and then screwing them
back together. Or, at least I think that
was what I was supposed to do, as I could never figure it out. If I needed the length changed, my husband
had to do it. What a pain. Give me a break. The other negative is they were relatively
heavy. On the plus side, they
worked. They were fairly
indestructible. They had nice hand grips
with solid knob tops and sturdy wrist straps making them easy to grip the tops
on steep downhills.
Then my gear loving husband found these Locus Gear CP3
hiking sticks. He bought himself a
pair. He loved them. He tried to convince me I needed them. I ignored him. He bought me a set for Christmas anyway. Did I need them? Well, no, my Leki’s worked. Do they have some big advantages over the
Leki’s, yep. The Locus Gear’s big
advantage is it is REALLY easy to change the length. Just grab the lever, open it, and re-set the
length. Just like that. No trying to remember righty tighy lefty
loosy.
The other advantage is they are really light weight. While that doesn’t matter on a short hike, it
does add up over a long day or week.
Are these the perfect hiking sticks? Well, there are a couple things that you need
to keep in mind. There is a set screw kinda thing on the flip locks, and if you don’t make sure it
is tight enough the length of the pole will magically get much shorter, usually
in the middle of a tricky bit of hiking.
I learned this the hard way. It
is easy to keep adjusted correctly but you need to check it every day. You also need to check the straps on the hand
grips every day. If you don’t keep them
adjusted properly the strap pulls through.
Yes, I learned this the hard way too.
Also, my husband has managed to break a carbide tip on one of his (possible on all hiking poles with carbide tips). He was able to replace it at home, but in the
backcountry that would be a pain.
One last thing, if I was going to make these the perfect
sticks, I would make a more substantial place to put your hand on steep
downhills, but then this would make them weight more.
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