CAUTION This trail is Strenuous! Inov-8 Roclite 268 review

Summer of 2013 Mother/Daughter camping road trip

I spent the summer traveling & camping in a tent with my 13 year old daughter.  I feel pretty darn lucky she still likes to hang out with me so I took full advantage of it with a good old fashioned Mother/daughter road trip! We are both outdoorsy gals that love to spend the day hiking and running trails- then ending it around a campfire cooking a good burger and roasting marshmallows.

We left on our trip with no definite plan.  I handed my daughter the Garmin GPS and a few travel brochures and said "pick a State or National park, where every you want to go and we are on our way!" She would choose, type it in the Garmin, and then I drove where ever it told me to go. We traveled through Wisconsin, South Dakota, Texas, Illinois & more... We had tons of fun every where we went but my daughter had a clear favorite park. Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas. It has awesome trails with beautiful mountain overlooks! 

Inov-8 Roclite 268

This sign screams...I dare you...RUN THIS TRAIL!!!

Traveling to all these parks was exciting! I got to wear my Roclite 268's on many different kinds of terrain. 

This was a fun uphill- I suggest clicking on the picture to enlarge to see how rocky the course is

The picture above is on the Cedar Falls trail at Petit Jean Mountain. The trail head of this challenging trail has the bright read sign that says "CAUTION THIS TRAIL IS STRENUOUS- If you have health problems you are advised not to hike this trail". How can a runner read this and not think? Run me! Run me!!  It is a 2+ mile round trip. The trail goes on a steep downhill to the Cedar Fall waterfall. It's 3/4 of a mile downhill, then some flat trails that run along a river with anything from smooth dirt to big rocks. The trail ends at the waterfall. Then you get to turn around and run back up! The run back was my favorite part! Everyone was walking so they all thought I was a little crazy (can't deny it, I am), I had fun giving it my all !

I love these trails!

I wore my trusty Inov-8 Roclite 268's. These are the trail shoes that I wear for 100 mile races to 5 mile speed runs. On this day I would try them on a quick run across slick sandstone,  wet rocks, steep inclines, moss covered trail. Some pretty challenging stuff.  The Roclite's, gripped and held my feet in place perfect! They proved many times to be a great all around trail shoe.

My feet measure a 10 female, medium width. I always size up for running shoes since I am a long distance runner and my feet tend to swell. I buy the Roclite 268's in a women's size 11. They fit comfortably snug at my ankles, heels and at the top of my foot by my shoe laces. This is perfect for holding my feet and ankles in place. Then the shoe widens out in the toe box. This gives me enough room for the swelling of my feet, but they are not so loose my feet are moving around in the shoes. The toes have a flexible non bulky heavy duty piece of rubber on them that is great for protecting my toes when I inevitably catch a rock or root. The sole is lightweight, sticky, and easily bendable. They grip to everything and give me a solid "feel" of the trail while giving my feet a comfortable ride.  I run confidently knowing they are going to stick, hold my feet in place and breathe.

Inov-8 Roclite 268's are my perfect trail shoe! 

This is a smooth part of the trail 

I love this rock path!