Romping in Nevada's Ruby Range, NorCal Coast and New Shoes

Once again I made the 1,200 mile trek from California to Denver. I will be spending the entire month of September working with the Presbyterian St. Luke Podiatric Residency Program there. To break up the trip I decided to visit an isolated mountain range outside of Elko, NV. I have driven through Elko many times but never realized the beautiful mountain range that lies just over the hill to the south.

I ran up Right Fork of Lamoille Canyon near what I think was Wines Peak. It was a beautiful route that started on a good single track trail, morphed into some cairn (stacked rocks) hopping, and finished with some trail-less scrambling to the top. From the summit I bailed off down an unknown saddle that ended up being a huge rock field and bushwacked it down across back to the trail making it a lolly-pop type course. Despite being Labor Day weekend I only saw three other groups along the way.

Not bad for a summit self portrait. 

Nevada Stats
Distance: 10.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 3454ft.
Start/Turnaround Elevation: 7053ft/10,239ft
Elapsed Time (including a GI clearing session and a summit self portrait session): 2hrs 50min.

The day before hitting the road I decided to maximize my time with Kimber and accompanied her to a wedding that she was shooting down in Half Moon Bay. While she was being a photographer for 7 hrs I read, studied, listened to podcasts and took a nice 10 mile run along the California Coastal Trail.

I had hoped to possibly stop and do a run in Colorado and Utah as well. Having run in California the day before I left, I could have pulled a run in each state. But the clouds didn't align to my overly zealous plan (as usual). Oh well, maybe on the way back if the snow hasn't fallen yet I can get'er done.

I also finally got a new pair of running kicks, the Altra Superior Trail. So far I have only done the two above runs totaling about 20 miles but have covered paved road, trail, off-trail and pure bushwacking. Overall I don't regret my decision but here are my quick pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Light - numbers aren't that important so I won't give them but they were noticeable light. 
2. Zero Drop (heel being same height as toes) - I am not totally of the zero drop mentality but see benefits in the concept such as stretching the Achilles tendon. A tight Achilles is known as Equinus and is blamed for a whole boat load of pathologies (which I won't cover here). It was a weird transition and running up the steep terrain was working my calves a little harder than normal. 
3. Tread - They seemed to have an aggressive enough tread to work well on all surfaces, except wet smooth rock (but I am not sure if I would expect them to work well there). 
4. Wide Toe Box - They have an extremely wide toe box which allows your foot to flatten out unrestricted. In theory this should strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the foot which is good. This was ok when running straight up or down but on side hills I had a little bit to much movement and got some minor hot spots, but I was running on some abnormally steep side hills. 
5. Removable rock plate - not that I will ever take it out but if I wanted to I could.

Cons:

1. Lame 30 day manufactures warranty! - After purchasing I read reviews stating that the shoes don't last long and then also noticed that they only have a 30 day manufacturers warranty. Totally weak. 
2. Loose upper - Part way through my mountain run I had to cinch up my shoes super tight because they were allowing to much motion in my foot and this made to laces uber long. 
3. Calf Rub - These shoes seemed to rub on my inner calf more than other shoes. Probably due to them being wider. Give and take. 

This shoe isn't really a shoe that has much padding and therefore isn't the best candidate for ultra distance runs, unless that is what you like. I think ideally I would have three shoes in my quiver; a minimal shoe like this, a more padded and supportive shoe for longer runs and an uber aggressive shoe for routes that are off-trail the majority of the time.