The Muir Project Behind the Scenes; Weekend Shopping Spree

Before getting to the subject at hand, a few items of interest for your shopping pleasure.  For some reason, I’ve been bombarded this week with announcements of sales of all varieties – and some of them seemed good enough to pass along.

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The first one features kigo, a small, environmentally responsible company whose shoes I prefer more for general walking around than for dedicated running.  My kids happen to love kigos as well, and we’ve purchased a few pairs for them when we could grab certain models on sale.

Beginning Friday, the company is kicking off what their promotional e-mail calls “the most killer kigo footwear sale ever.”  They’re discounting every shoe on the website to 50% off for a short time (perhaps a week or so according to the e-mail).  In some cases, you can grab kigo’s eco-friendly minimalist shoes for as little as $25.  Check out the sale here.

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If you want a little more rugged outdoor gear, Backcountry.com is discounting Spring 2012 products from The North Face up to 40% off, and they’re offering free shipping on purchases over $50.  Backcountry carries a very impressive inventory of TNF apparel and gear, so instead of me describing it to you, you should probably just go look for yourself.

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One more: remember my post about GoLite’s daring new business model?  Well, they’ve been putting some crazy deals online recently, and this weekend they’ve got a handful of items on sale for up to 60% off normal retail price.  I really hope this model works for GoLite, because the savings they’re able to pass on to customers is extremely cool.  Be sure to check this one out as well.

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As for today’s topic: it’s also a solicitation of sorts, but one that speaks more directly to my heart than a bunch of shoes or gear; it has to do with an upcoming documentary that I’ve promoted a few times in the past.

The Muir Project is a multi-media collective that set out to hike 219 miles of the John Muir Trail last summer.  They’re compiled enough footage and music to put together a couple of mouthwatering trailers, and they’re now making the final push to make the finishing touches on a full-length documentary.

Or as the e-mail I received this week states:

As we approach the first anniversary of our departure on the John Muir Trail, we look back on our adventure both on and off the trail. 

We're working hard to get our documentary, MILE … MILE & A HALF ready for festival submissions starting this July.  The picture edit is close to complete, sound editorial has begun and our amazing trail musicians have started composing their musical score. 

So much of this has been a labor of love for us.  We've had some generous sponsorship offers, but are still looking to help offset the cost of this endeavor.  Our hope is that there will be enough awareness of The Muir Project by the time we submit to festivals, that we can make a big splash and find distribution in one form or another.  Please help us spread the word and keep the good news coming. 

Consider it done.  If you’re interested in contributing to the Muir Project documentary, go here to help them knock this one out.  And if you need some more convincing about the coolness of the project, here’s another clip to give you the general vibe.

“The Muir Project – Behind the Scenes Featurette” (click to play):

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One final note as we head in to the weekend, which promises to be an exciting one for me, as my son and I are headed here:

Clouds Rest in Yosemite National Park, which will be a continuation of the adventure we embarked on with a memorable day on Half Dome last year.  If this trip ends up half as spectacular or rewarding as that one, it will definitely be worth writing about – which is a report I hope to deliver sometime upon our return.

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Merrell Barefoot Gear Giveaway; The North Face Winter Sale; Random Shots of Beauty

Two brief items of interest before our regularly scheduled Random Shot of Beauty …

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I’m a little bit late with this announcement, but to help celebrate their new spring Barefoot line, Merrell is having a month’s worth of free giveaways throughout February. All you need to do is register a name and e-mail address and you’re entered in each day’s drawing of a barefoot gear gift pack, valued at $170. Head over to this Merrell page to enter, and good luck!

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I haven’t reviewed much apparel from The North Face, but their Apex ClimateBlock Jacket that I tested last year is still one of my favorite winter running garments. If you happen to be a big North Face fan and want to grab some discounted cold-weather items, Backcountry.com currently has their entire inventory of The North Face 2011 winter apparel on sale, in some cases up to 40% off. Check out the sale here or by clicking the banner below:

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On to this weekend’s Random Shot of Beauty, from another beautiful winter’s day in Monterey:

(click to enlarge)

Sailboats on the bay, as seen from Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove during an outing this afternoon with the kids on the coastal recreation trail. There was a fair amount of exercise involved for me, but it wasn’t running, hiking, biking, or even geocaching; I’ll explain more in an upcoming review post sometime.

Until then, whether you prefer powdery slopes or sunny seascapes, may your groundhog-mandated six more weeks of winter be enjoyable.



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Gear of the Year 2010; Surprise Holiday Giveaway

If you’re new to these parts because you’ve recently subscribed to get in on all the great giveaways, I’d like to point out a couple of things …

1) Welcome! It’s great to have you on board. It will be even greater if you decide to stick around after the contest frenzy dies down in January - but that’s a bridge to cross when we get there, I suppose. I do periodic giveaways throughout the year, but they’re just another part of the ultrarunning / minimalist / outdoor adventure / family life collage that makes up this website. Please stick around for a while, and maybe you’ll find something you like. Also …

2) I do a lot of product reviews. Most are for this website, others are for FeedTheHabit.com, and the vast majority are focused on trail running gear. Yes, it’s a great gig, and gives me opportunities to test and try products that I wouldn’t normally think of purchasing. It also gives me a point of reference to highlight some of the items that really stand out for one reason or another, and make recommendations for your own gear decisions.

Accordingly, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite gear over the past year – products that I’ve used over and over again, long after the original review was published. On the list that follows, the first links take you to my original reviews, followed by links to purchase the product from various vendors (disclosure: some of them are affiliates), along with a brief description of why I’m so crazy about each item.

I’ve divided the list into three sections - apparel, gear, and footwear – but since this is December and we’re in the middle of a contest frenzy, I’m also including a cool little giveaway at the end to make sure you make it to the bottom of the post. Sound good? OK then. Let’s get started!


Apparel:

GoLite Manitou shirt: Their Wildwood shirt got most of the press this year, but the slightly thicker, super-comfortable Manitou was my shirt of choice for foggy morning runs and day-long hikes. Retails for $29 from Amazon.com.

GoLite Mesa Trail 7” shorts: Comfortable, lightweight, durable … everything you want in a trail short. Retails for $40 from the Golite website.

The North Face Apex ClimateBlock jacket: A perfect combination of style, comfort, safety, and protection from the elements, I use this for early mornings trail runs and after-work neighborhood runs. A bit pricey at $159 from Gear.com, but this may be the only jacket you need for cold-weather running.

Mountain Hardwear Geist vest: Provides enough warmth to get you through pre-dawn chill, and is small and light enough to easily stuff into your hydration pack when the morning gets warm. Retails for $90 from Gear.com.

Drymax socks: I’ve gone on and on about these, so I won’t belabor the point here. They’re simply awesome. Try either the Lite Trail model or Regular Trail model for 9 bucks from Wilderness Running Company, and thank me later.

*Note: as with all WRC purchases, remember to use my coupon code R&R10 for an additional 10% off.


Gear:

Black Diamond Sprinter headlamp: bright LED in front for visibility, blinking red LED in back for road safety, lightweight construction for comfort, and a rechargeable battery to be eco-friendly. It’s the complete package, and it's discounted to $60 at Wilderness Running Company.

Black Diamond Icon headlamp: This is an ideal headlamp for running through the night, and with the rechargeable NRG battery pack (sold separately), it’s green as well. It's also discounted to $45 at Wilderness Running Company, which is an outstanding deal, or you can wait and try your luck with a giveaway at the end of the month.

Petzl Tikka XP2 headlamp: When I need something bright enough to run trails in the dark but small enough to fit in a waist pocket after sunrise, there’s no beating this lamp. New for this year, it’s compatible with a rechargeable battery pack, which I’m currently testing and will review in January. The headlamp is currently on sale for $44 from TravelCountry.com.

Nathan HPL 020: The ultimate victor in my extensive hydration pack reviews last year, this one has proven its worth over and over again. Amazon.com sells them for a crazy discount price of $56, and this should be any new ultrarunner’s first investment.

Ultimate Direction Uno: For any run between 1 and 2.5 hours, this is mandatory equipment. I love the upright bottle position and dual pockets that are actually big enough to keep stuff in. It's currently discounted to $23 from Wilderness Running Company.


Footwear:

Soft Star RunAmoc: My favorite everyday minimalist trainer, because it captures the essence of trail running better than anything else I’ve ever worn. $87 from Soft Star, or you can enter my giveaway drawing through December 16th.

VIVOBAREFOOT Evo: Who says minimalist shoes can’t be high-performance? For race days and epic adventures, these are my first choice. $160 from Amazon.com.

Vibram FiveFingers Bikila: Awesome ground feel and amazing comfort; for pure road running, minimalist footwear doesn’t get any better than this. They are so popular that Vibram has trouble keeping up with demand, but TravelCountry.com has a great supply of them at a retail price of $100.

New Balance MT101: If you’re not quite ready to go completely minimalist, this is the next best option: lightweight, low to the ground, comfortable and durable. This would also be an ideal off-road race shoe, and sells for $75 from Endless.com.

Sanuk Boardroom sandal: OK, it’s not a running shoe … but remember how I’ve mentioned a few times that the VIVOBAREFOOT Oak is one of my favorite work shoes? The Boardroom is the other. It’s lightweight, flat, flexible and super comfortable – and stylish enough that your boss won’t look at you funny. $85 from Amazon.com.


And now for our special surprise category …

Race nutrition: The clear favorite here is GU, which I started using as my sole fuel source in my ultras last spring. I used to have fairly frequent stomach distress during ultras, but this year it hasn’t been an issue at all. I will probably supplement this with real food during a 100-miler, but for 100K or less, all I need is a steady supply of GU – especially the Roctane formulations specifically designed for high-endurance activity – along with some fluids to keep rolling right along.


GU also shows its holiday spirit this time of year, with limited-release flavors that I described in this giveaway post from last year. They’re stepping up big for my website again this winter, and this is today’s secret giveaway prize: three winners will receive one box of each of GU’s holiday flavors, vanilla gingerbread (incredibly delicious, in my opinion) and mint chocolate. This will be a straight “one comment, one entry” system, so sign in below by 5PM PST on Friday, December 17th, and I’ll announce the winner later that night. Big thanks to GU for sponsoring this giveaway, and good luck to everyone!




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Fall Running Jacket Reviews; Random Shots of Beauty

Let's start off with a quick weekend wrap-up of ongoing contests in case you missed them this week:

The Salomon III tight and WRC gift card giveaway ends on Monday, December 13th.

The Soft Star RunAmoc contest ends on Friday, December 17th.

Keep sending me pictures for the La Sportiva Crossover GTX and Wildcat GTX giveaway which will be awarded on December 22.

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In addition to laying the groundwork for most of the giveaways that are taking place this month, I spent a lot of time this fall testing some cool jackets for reviews that have been published at FeedTheHabit.com. Since I don't have the time or interest to do duplicate posts nowadays, I'm linking to all of those reviews today. If you're in the market for a cold-weather top layer, check out the following reviews ...

Patagonia Nine Trails jacket

Salomon XT Wings II jacket

The North Face Apex ClimateBlock jacket

GoLite Wind River jacket

One of those will be included in an upcoming Gear of the Year post I'm preparing for next week, but I'm not going to tell you which one yet - for that, you'll need to check back later.


In the meantime, here's this weekend's Random Shot of Beauty:


My 9-year-old daughter in the home stretch of a Jingle Bell 5K Run along Ocean View Boulevard in Pacific Grove this morning. The bad news was that we couldn't catch Skinny Santa and his kid. The good news was that it really didn't matter.

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The North Face E-Race Boa Hydration Pack Review

You may recall from my comprehensive hydration pack review that I had hoped to test a pack from The North Face, but the company told me that budget restraints prevented their participation. Honestly, I thought they were politely blowing me off – so I was very pleasantly surprised when they contacted me later on to offer a hydration pack for comparison to the others.

The timing was a bit poor, as I received the pack while tapering for Western States. I wasn’t in a place where I wanted to either 1) do high demand, multi-hour runs, or 2) fool around with trying new gear. Factor in a couple of weeks of recovery (i.e., sitting around on my butt while stuffing my pie hole), and a couple more weeks of ramping up the training again, and you have a much longer than appropriate delay in reviewing this product. So let’s file all these factors under “better late than never”, and just get on with the review …

I should probably preface this review with a disclaimer: I’m a huge fan of The North Face. Nearly all of my favorite running garments (shirts, pants, winter gear) are made by them, and I’ve used their trail running shoes from time to time over the past few years. They make high quality products across the board – from camping to backpacking to trail racing - and they’ve made a strong push into the world of ultrarunning over the past few years, most notably with a nationwide Endurance Challenge series featuring killer courses and cash prizes which draw elite and amateur trail runners alike.

As far as this specific product review goes, I could probably summarize it in one sentence: the North Face E-Race Boa is a racer’s hydration pack. It’s light and lean and employs a minimalist design for high performance trail running. But it’s also durable enough to be used as a day to day training pack – as I did during my recent week in the Sierras.

Being minimalist doesn’t mean this pack is simple – in fact, there are several technological features unique among the category of hydration packs I reviewed. First we’ll look at the features, then do an overall comparison with the packs that were reviewed before.

The Boa wiring system

One distinguishing feature of this pack is right in the name: the Boa Wiring system which crisscrosses the 50-oz hydration bladder, and can be tightened or loosened with a dial on the front vest shoulder. You click the dial clockwise to tighten the wire, which provides two benefits: it compresses the pack to keep the fluid from sloshing around, and it maintains pressure in the fluid reservoir to help push fluid through the tube without having to suck on the valve.

(This is good, because the valve doesn’t want to be sucked – it would much prefer that you bite it. Seriously … it says so right there on the end – see?:

There’s a little bit of North Face attitude for you. Doesn’t make the pack better or worse – just seemed like an interesting touch.)

Another unique design element is how the bite valve (or can we call it the Bite Me valve now?) attaches to the front of the harness: not by clips or straps, but by magnetism. A small magnet at the elbow of the valve latches onto its companion piece on the right vest strap, keeping it securely in place. The magnet sits on the opposite vest strap from the Boa dial, so if you happen to like your valve to sit on the left shoulder, you’re out of luck - but that feels like a minor complaint.

The harness attaches in front by something called an E-VAP system, which is a series of overlying Velcro attachments that all meet directly over the sternum. During my field testing, I found it to be remarkably stable: there was absolutely no movement of the harness, and it remained very comfortable throughout my longest trail runs.

The Boa dial at right, the magnet bite valve attachment at left, and the E-VAP harness system under the logo.

Below the main harness, two abdominal straps attach in front with Velcro; each strap has a small pocket that can slide forward or backward based on your preferred placement. And if you want to go completely bare bones, you can take the pockets off entirely and race with nothing but the fluid on your back.

The pockets are fairly small, and they represent the only real cargo storage of the E-Race Boa. I was able to fit my compact camera in one pocket, with a trail map and key in the other; there was probably room left over for one or two gel packs, but that’s about it.

All of these features bring me back to the summary sentence from earlier: this pack is made for racing. More specifically, it seems best suited for shorter distance (less than 50K) races where you want to carry some fluids, but as little extra weight as possible. The entire pack weighs 9.5 oz, so you won’t sacrifice speed in order to carry the bare necessities while gunning for a PR.

The minimalist aspect of the pack is something of a double-edged sword: if you’re planning to spend several hours on the trail, or if you like to pack a lot of gear with you, this pack might be on the small side. Even the hydration reservoir is scaled down in relation to other packs – which is a good jumping off point for some spec comparisons with the other models:

Hydration reservoir: 50 oz in the E-Race Boa compared to 70 oz for the others. Less fluid is lighter; lighter is faster. The twist-top opening is similar in size to the Nathan HPL 020, and somewhat smaller than the CamelBak, but can be easily opened and refilled without removing the reservoir from the harness.

Weight: 9.5 oz, which puts it on the low end of the grouping, but slightly above the 6-oz Nathan HPL 020. Remember: lighter is faster.

Cargo capacity: 95 cubic in, which is the second to smallest (behind the CamelBak). The E-Race Boa won’t carry much gear to weigh you down. Lighter is … well, you know.

Comfort: very high marks – this pack feels as stable and comfortable as any I reviewed.

Versatility: the E-Race Boa is pretty much a one-trick pony; it probably won’t serve you well for cross-purposes like hiking or cycling. Whether that’s a good thing or bad is up to you.

Price: on the high end in this category; see below.

The E-Race Boa sells for $99 at Amazon.com. The price is higher than other packs, but with The North Face products, you almost always get what you pay for.

If you’re a serious racer, or looking to carry a moderate volume of fluid on your regular training runs without sacrificing speed, the E-Race Boa is probably worth spending a few extra dollars.

See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.

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