Santa Fe Trail part one
I have been wanting to try the Santa Fe Trail for several days now, but I haven't been able to because of school work or a ride to get to the trail head. While finishing my school work and studying for finals are integral to my success, especially at this point in the semester, I decided that getting a ride to the trail wasn't. This was a serious mistake because I completely misjudged the distance to the trail from my dorm. Most of my friends know this is definitely a weakness. It was actually three miles which wouldn't be that bad if I wasn't trekking over the mountainous terrain on the way. I was expecting to run for 30 maybe 40 minutes but this gross underestimate prolonged my run to 50 minutes, approximately seven miles. Again, seven miles is fine without the rolling mountains of the academy.
The Santa Fe trail runs along the Santa Fe Railroad which runs all the way from Pueblo to Denver. I'm not sure how far the actual running trail stretches, but I know it goes from the south gate of the Air Force Academy to Lake Palmer. I guess I'll have to run it twice in a row to figure it out.
Despite the torturous hills I talked about earlier, the mile or so of running on the Santa Fe Trail was well worth it. It is very flat compared to Garden of the Gods and especially the Academy. It is pretty secluded from my perspective which was just in the general area of the Academy with the exception of the random sixty car train. I'm not sure if I liked the train or not because it was so loud, I guess it added character or whatever. The path is made of packed dirt which is good to run on unless you are wearing white shoes like I did. I look forward to running the trail again, but I hope to drive to the lake Palmer area of the trail so I can take some pictures and try running there. So far I have been impressed.
To be continued...
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