Valerie in Nature

I currently have Xero Shoes in two styles. The first is the TerraFlex and the second is the Mesa Trail. The TerraFlex has exposed webbing that I managed to chew through while hiking cross country in New Mexico. That first pair was replaced for free based on a picture of them with torn ribbons, so that was nice. Still, they need to be in nicer environments. There's actually a bit of wear on the rest of the shoe from the harsh ground in the boot heal. The Mesa Trail is a thinner sole. Conventional wisdom is that a stiffer sole allows going further with less energy. I find I'm about done in these after 10 miles and there's just a little too much ground feel for my taste. They both suffer from being low cut, which allows more crud to get in the top and the odd rock gets kicked up to whack me in the ankle. They've come out with some more hiking oriented shoes now as well as reworking the shoes I have into version 2. So, here is a comparison of the relevant parameters. ...

Found me a new trick for editing the map, which is really nice for confirming that other people also see the paths I see. The Strava Global Heat Map . They seem to be getting quite a few to participate and, while the heat may not be strong, it often extends into backcountry routes. You can get it as a background for editing Open Street Map via Strava-iD . The background here is not as detailed as can be found on the heat map if you are logged in and may be an older data set. I'm not sure. I am sure that it is useful. For instance, I found that my path and the marked path for climbing Medicine Bow on the popular eastern side did not match up. They were very much of the same shape, which is always a warning bell that some GPS might have transposed itself sideways. Both paths seemed to be following a line that could be a trail, but frankly the pictures aren't that great for that spot. Which is correct? Mine was the only GPS trace uploaded to Open Street Map, so that layer wasn...