In the nearly three years I’ve been blogging about Florida hiking, I think I’ve generally avoided talking about gear and other hiker products, and I hope that hasn’t been a disservice to you. As a member of the Florida Outdoor Writers Association, I’m often handed new products to check out to see what I think.

Last spring, I received samples of a sunscreen product called SmartShield. Now for years, I’ve used whatever was on sale, but knowing how important sunscreen is, decided to try out SmartShield to check its claims. I’m duly impressed. I’m fair-skinned and burn easily, especially on my face and arms. My existing tubes of Coppertone Sport and Neutrogena just weren’t doing much for me … you know how sunscreen rolls off when you’re hiking in hot weather. But SmartShield stuck. So I’ve been carrying this tube with me everywhere - even the Chihuahuan Desert - and I have it with me on the Big O Hike, where sun protection is a must. Heck, we put sunscreen on by moonlight before we start hiking in the morning!

Here’s their website, where they have a “Hiker Kit” of products for sale. I’m going to see if I can get a deal on it for my readers. Stay tuned!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 4:01 am and is filed under Hiking Tips, product review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.