Putting the Crosslite to the Test

Well, after such a big hill day on Saturday, what else could I do on a Sunday with a forecast of 45 degrees and sunny but go to early service and then take off on a ten mile jaunt through the Boise footies and put my new La Sportiva's to the test.

I expected to be quite sore and actually only really "run" a little bit, but once I took off I quickly loosened up and realized that I had the opportunity to really put in some miles and soak up the sun. So I headed up Lower Hulls Gulch, hopping boulders and skipping along with the Sporties really gripping anything I wanted to run up or down. I made the first real section of climbing in good time, so I decided to set up a photo for the ol blog and snapped this one of me heading up trail 4 from the Hulls junction.



After fetching my camera and waist pack, I headed back up the trail for the biggest sustained climb of the day, however, I was surprised at how easy it felt and the Crosslites had absolutely no problem gripping the trail; mud, sand, frozen ground, literally everything was gripped by the spikes on these shoes with no hesitation. Shortly after the last photo I was nearing the highpoint of the day and decided to look back down to show off the elevation gain for the day. The Gulch down the center of the second photo below is where I came up, and then you pretty much go straight up on Trail 4 like in this photo...

(Looking back down Hull's)

The last little bit of trail going up was still pretty steep so I was pretty much power hiking the last few vertical feet, but the hiking refreshed my legs just in time to enjoy the downhill portion of the run.

After reaching the Parking lot on N. 8th Street it was time to head down the 1000+ feet of vertical on one of my favorite riding trails known "Bob's" to its users. Unfortunately, the trail was a little muddier than I would have preferred to be on it, but the Crosslites handled absolutely everything I ran through without any slippage or packing up with mud. Needless to say, by the time I reached the really technical rocks and creek crossings I was grinning ear to ear and decided that I was officially on the La Sportiva Bandwagon.

I popped out of Bob's onto a small Cul de Sac where I met up with a woman who apparently couldn't figure out why I was so muddy and wet...

"Did you fall in the creek?"

"No..."

"Where's your bike?"

"I'm just running... it's really nice today."

"I was just up there and I hopped over on rocks to cross the creek."

"Oh, well I just ran straight through them..."

"There's more than one?"

"Yeah, I've ran about 7 miles so far... Have a nice day, see ya later..."

Bob's trail finishes with about a mile of up and down and a couple more creek crossings before running between a golf course and a large hillside full of fancy houses. The final section of trail features a pretty loose sand climb and I ran right up it again with no slipping, Wow! Finally the trail ends at the upper end of another cul de sac and then heads down to Bogus Basin road.

The last little test for the Sporties was the 2+ miles of downhill pavement and this was the only place that I felt a desire to have my Brooks Adrenalines back on. I would assume it was because of the large amount of sand packed into the shoes at this point, the back-to-back big hill days, and the fact that this was the longest week of mileage since June...

Once back at Camelsback I grabbed a dry shirt, and hiked up the "Camelsback" at the park to snap a photo and cool down. It was hard to not smile as I reflected back on the last two days of exploring my beloved footies for the first time on foot and not bike.

(Crosslites after 8 miles of singletrack, numerous creek crossings, two miles of pavement, and a hike up a big sandy hill just for kicks...)

Ridge to Rivers Trail System Map for Boise, Idaho