My Review of Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX Trail-Running Shoes - Men's

Originally submitted at REI

Fast-paced adventure racers and demanding trail runners will appreciate the solid support of Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX waterproof shoes.

Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra GTX Trail-Running Shoes - Men's

Great Shoes-Even for backpacking

By Trail_Hound from North Carolina on 5/9/2010

 

4out of 5

Gift: No

Sizing: Feels true to size

Width: Feels true to width

Arch Type: Average Arch

Pros: Comfortable, Durable, Lightweight, Rugged, Good Traction

Cons: Poor Cushioning

Best Uses: Trail Running

Describe Yourself: Avid Athlete

I just got back from my first real test of these shoes for backpacking. For light (less than 30 lb. loads), I would highly suggest these. I used them on arguably the roughest trails in NC. Linville Gorge trails are rocky, steep and lots of climbs/descents. These shoes worked great. I did pull out the insoles and replaced with Superfeet blue. The insoles do not have much arch support or cushion but the inserts helped. Watch the lacing as it does not give and if you pull too tightly it can rub the top of your feet slightly. Other than that.....NO COMPLAINTS. I have the 2009 Gore-Tex model but these are pretty much the same except for a color modification.

(legalese)

Training for Mount Mitchell

Back in December of 2009, I decided to repeat something I swore I would not do again. In 1995, 2002, 2003 and 2006, I did The Assault On Mount Mitchell. This is a cycling event covering over 100 miles that begins in downtown Spartanburg SC and finishes on the summit of 6500 ft Mount Mitchell NC. My reasoning for never doing this ride again was twofold: 1. The logistics getting from Spartanburg to Mitchell and back home again are really crazy. You cannot ride back down so you have to take a bus down while your bike is transported to Marion. If you drive to Spartanburg, your car is there so you have to take a bus back there. So either you require a car drop the day before or someone has to take you to Spartanburg and pick you up at Marion. Its a crazy way to do things no matter what you do. 2. this ride takes mortal men down with a vengeance. Your mind and body take a while to recover and the training it requires is long and arduous. You never really "conquer" the mountain, you merely try to not allow it to conquer you. Call it a truce if you will.

But, contrary to my thoughts of never attempting this ride again, I decided to sign up. Many of my riding club were doing it so I thought "why the hell not"? So in January, I was waiting online to sign up at the prescribed time on a Tuesday morning at 10 AM when the event opened to the public. I quickly received confirmation I was in. Now the training must begin. I maintained my general fitness through January and February even though Winter 2010 in NC was cold, wet and totally contrary to cycling and heavy training. But I felt as though heading into March and April, I was in decent form. March and April were OK for training and I accumulated miles of about 600 and 750 miles per month. I knew April was going to require some serious climbing to be prepared for the 12,000 ft of cumulative climbing this event will give me. I made a trip to Brushy mountain in early April and was pretty pleased at the way I climbed. But Brushy (although steep) is not anything like Mitchell. A second day at Brushy on April 22 was even better and I climbed it 3 times easily. Again, not Mitchell but good training nonetheless. On May 2nd, a large group of my cycling buddies made the trip up to Marion to do the section from Marion to the top. I was feeling strong but also tired since I had been out the entire week before at a trade show. I only ran on those days and did some minor spinning on a trainer at the Opryland Hotel gym. We all started out in a big pack in Marion and headed up HWY 80. this highway is the hardest part of the ride with a 3 mile section of 15-20% grade. I did OK but made sure I saved some legs for the ride up the Parkway. From the entrance to the Parkway to the summit is 16 miles. I put in the I-Pod on the Parkway and settled in for the climb. Music makes a difference in your overall mindset when climbing or suffering. I was able to ride a bit smoother and not get over heated as I always do. It also probably helped that it started raining and the temps were much cooler. As I reached the entrance to the State Park, I felt better than I normally do. I knew there was a 2 mile stretch that will hurt but also a nice "false flat" area for about 1 mile that helps you recover. The wind was blowing 30-40 MPH but it was a cross wind or tail wind most of the ride up. I finally reached the summit in 2 hours 35 minutes from the start in Marion. Not bad as it was about the same time I had when I trained in 2006. Maybe even a few minutes quicker. There were 3 others there when I reached the top and with the wind, rain and cold, we decided to not wait and head down as quick as possible. Going down was very hazardous as it was wet and cold and foggy. Some places you could not see more than 20 feet ahead of you. On the Parkway, I reached speeds of 45 MPH. When we got to Highway 80, we were bombing the switchbacks and cutting the apex of curves very fast. I had a car between me and the other 3 so I got in behind him and let it rip. Once back in the lowlands, the temps rose and it turned out very pleasant. We got back to the cars and waited about 30-45 minutes for the rest of the group. Now the question is: will I be physically and mentally ready for this?

You really never know what the day will be like when you get up. It could be a good day and you feel strong and able. or, it could be a tough day with a bad outcome. 90% of Mitchell is mental. Yes you need to have the physical climbing and endurance down, but getting the mental part checked off is the hardest part. I am looking forward to this ride again. Maybe on May 25th I make an entry saying I will never do it again. But for now, I am embracing the challenge.

Another Cycling Death

I really hate the first post of 2010 to be a sad/negative one, but a friend of mine from Miami sent me a post of a blog about a terrible incident in Miami yesterday. I stupid/drunk motorist ran over a cyclist who was riding in a bike lane on the causeway to Key Biscayne. Its a really popular causeway and one I rode a few years ago when I took my bike to Florida on a trip. This kind of think makes me sick. Some cycling accidents with cars are not always as blatantly horrible as this. All of them are sad but this one really stings the cycling community. Look at the mugshot of this person and you can see someone who just has bad attitude. God Bless this family and God help the person who hit him understand what he has done. Every cyclist who rides on the road knows the dangers. But its still sad when it happens to one of us. http://miamibikescene.blogspot.com/2010/01/cyclist-killed-on-rickenbacker-causeway.html

My New Bike

I have been contemplating a new bicycle for about 8 months. I really didn't have the money but that is secondary to the fact that I NEEDED a new bike. Well, I didn't exactly "need" one but I was going to have to put some money into my old bike. Its been a great ride and I will continue to keep it, but its 6 year old technology and with Road Bikes, that's almost like driving a 70's car. The frame is still in great shape but the components need replacing since I have put somewhere around 25000 miles on her since 2004. Everything was starting to wear out. So, after all of this justification, I felt like I needed to look some. So in September, I started looking at bikes. I rode some European bikes that I really liked. I rode Pinarello, Eddy Mercyx, and a Bianchi. I liked them all but could not find one that really stood out with ride quality. I have always loved my old Trek 5200. It was never a doubt that I wanted to stay with Carbon frames. The stiffness for power but suppleness for ride comfort is unmatched with any material. So I started looking at Trek Project One. Trek has a deal where you go online and basically customize your bike to be whatever you want it to be from color all the way down to tire color. The first time I went on the site, I built up a $10,000 bike. OK, that may have been just slightly over the top. OK, it was WAY over the top. After I came back to reality, I built a few bikes in my price range and sent the sheet up to Jeff Archer at First Flight in Statesville. Jeff really spends more of his time building great mountain bikes but he carries road stuff too. He is still a small shop with a small town feel. He and Wes spent a lot of time with me working on the set up and build up of this bike. It took a couple weeks for all the stuff to come in and get built. But it was worth the wait. She is a beauty and rides like a dream. Yeah I am not any faster than I was on the 5200, but I am more stylish......So my new ride is a 5.5 Madonne/ Fully Ultegra equipped/Bontrager Race X-Light Wheels/Look Keo Pedals. Almost all of this bike is carbon such as stem, bar etc. Very light at 16.5 pounds w/ pedals.....

Fall Camporee with the Scouts

The weekend of October 16-18, 2009 was a special weekend. Yes, it was fall Camporee for the Scouts but was also Kyle's 16th birthday on Sunday the 18th. Of course it rained the Thursday before and was starting to look like Friday would be a rainy day too. The event was held at Allison's Woods north of Statesville. Its a 200+ acre tract of land owned by a man named Tom Allison. Tom is a true son of the confederacy does 1 large reenactment of Civil War battles each summer as well as 6 skirmishes each year. he has a 3000 foot runway (airstrip) of flat grass that he forbids anyone to drive on for obvious purposes. But the woods are really nice and he has about 12-14 campsites spaced around the property. Since our troop is so large, we are very hard to place. We take up a lot of room. So we were given a pretty nice site right off the airstrip about halfway in the middle. We got there to check in at 6PM. It had started drizzling again as we arrived but not a fill on rain. We rode up to our site and the first thing I noticed was the mud was pretty bad. We couldn't get the trailer up the hill so we parked at the bottom. This meant we had to lug all of the 8 chuck boxes (food preparation) and tents, cooking gear, tables, tarps, gas bottles and personal gear about 100 yards. Not a real problem when you have 65 people doing it. But with a drizzle, it just made it aggravating. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get the site set up. Only a limited number of people really know how to set up the camp. So the ones that did set up the troop gear and the rest set up tents and personal stuff. We were blessed with about 30 Webelos who have to camp with a Mom or Dad all weekend. They (for the most part) haven't done much camping. Some of them had BIG tents, some had small tents and a few actually had "NO" tent. Either forgot to pack them or left them at the church. Finally about 9 PM we had a light cracker barrel and had the troop in bed by 10. Saturday morning I woke at 6 to start helping the cooks. It was not raining but was overcast and colder. The wind started to blow too. But as is always the case at Camporee's, once the events started, everything seemed to be peaceful at the camp. I was letting the new Scoutmaster get his feet wet so I handled things in camp while he worked with the staff on getting boys/leaders situated. The theme for this Camporee was Scouting around the world. Each event had a different country theme. It was actually pretty cool. We finally got a nice fore going and I spent much of the day pulling up old wood for us and helping the staff get wood for the Campfire. Our camp cook really fixed us up nice (Adults and Webelos that is. The Patrols cook them selves) We had dutch oven breakfast casseroles, sloppy joes for lunch and beef loins cooked in a dutch oven for dinner. The food was fantastic. Saturday night we had a great campfire and the boys performed skits and our own Ken R. did a flag retirement ceremony. It was (as always) very moving. Back to the camp for cobblers and hanging around the campfire. Sunday morning was cold but sunny finally. After a great breakfast of pancakes and sausage links, we loaded the trailers back up and headed home. It was probably one of the most fun Camporee's I have been involved in. Maybe becuase I can see my time as Scoutmaster winding down.

MS 150 (Actually 170) Ride

October 3,4 2009 was my annual MS Ride. This was the first year I went to Greenville although MS switched it there last year from Myrtle Beach. In past years, going to MB was a real blast because it was fairly flat from Charlotte to MB. A few small hills on Saturday but pancake flat and smooth from Florence in. NOT GREENVILLE!!! We dropped 3 cars in Greenville Friday Oct.2 so we would have rides back and not have to depend on a bus. We met for dinner at Hickory Tavern on Friday night at 8 and I came back early so I could get a good nights rest. I didnt feel too well Friday night (something I ate) so I didnt really get much rest. Saturday morning I wasnt feeling much better but drank a Coke and ate some bland breakfast which helped. We got to the starting line and pulled off at 7:45 AM. The first 30 miles was really fast and I hung up with the group. I felt like I could have hung in there all day but decided to head wait on the rest of the team as I wanted to ride a little easier and enjoy the company. We rode in to Greenville (102) miles about 2:30 PM. The MS people do a pretty good job with party after the ride so we all had a few beers and hung out to hear the band. Then off to The Hampton for a shower and dinner at a steak House. I fell asleep sometime around 10 PM. Up again at 6AM for another 70 miles around Greenville. Lots of climbing and hills. Both down and up. We finished around 1:30 so another long day in the saddle. Overall I was pretty pleased with how I rode the bike. We all had a great time and it was good to get Roadkill back together. Cant wait until next year!!.\

I am a Gear Freak-There, I said it....

Well, no camping or hiking for me this weekend. Looks like rain all 3 days so maybe a good time to clean up my stuff inside. A post on BP'er magazine forums got me thinking about my gear collection. I admit, I am a gear nut. It only took me 47 years to figure this out but yes, its true. I have too many of everything. Sleeping bags, Backpacks, bikes, tents, stoves, pads, bike wheels. heck I even have too many energy bars. Heck the picture above is just packs and sleeping bags only. One man only needs so much stuff. But I am constantly looking for more stuff. I don't always buy it, but I am sure looking for it. Its an addiction. I need a support group. Maybe something like GA (Gearaholics Anonymous). "Hi, I'm Kevin and I am addicted to outdoor gear". Thing is, I use almost everything I have at least once a month. Well, maybe not my mountain bike but I make up for it with 6500 miles on a road bike this year alone. Yes I could probably sell a tent or 2. Maybe even a sleeping bag (or 2). And all of those bike wheels are just in case I have a failure on my current wheels. But as soon as I sold it, I would probably go out and buy another one. Everything I have purchased has been scrutinized down to the penny. I never pay full retail on anything and I would say I am pretty thrifty on spending. I don't have the absolute best stuff on the market but its all top quality. So why oh why do I have so much stuff? Yes I take care of stuff in an almost anal way so it lasts me a long time. I have had a daypack for 20 years that has many miles on it. But I was thinking the other day I need to get another one. Is the one I have broken or worn out? NO. But I still had that sinking feeling in my mind that it was needing replaced. Would I give the old one to charity or sell it on E-Bay? NO. Just add to the ever increasing pile of pack collection. I have a 5 year old road bike that has over 25,000 miles on it. its a great bike and serves all my purposes. Its a much better bike than I am a rider. But guess what? Its starting to wear out a few components and my firing sensors in my "purchase" section of my brain have started to find 10,000 things wrong with it. I even went on Trek's Project One site last night and built up a $7000 "fix" for myself. I am sick and I know it....There seems to be very little cure for this sickness except revolving credit. Anyway, I have to go. I just realized I have a backpack trip scheduled in October and I need to look at the wings on my canister stove. Last time I was out I bent one of them just ever so slightly and I think I need to look at those new Jetboil things. And I also noticed my boots have a mark on the side that could be the start of some wear and tear....And that sleeping pad seems a little flatter...and....