Santa Fe

jogging

The safe way to navigate the Dale Ball Trail system is with a GPS handheld but fortunately it is well marked with a sign map at each junction obviating the need. The trail is best suited for biking with numerous switch backs and steep spurts through pinyon woods but was adequate for a jog. Luxury homes pepper the hillsides over looking Santa Fe. The outside loop is about 5 miles +/- with cut off trails to vary distances. Trail head parking is located at the junction of Hyde Park Rd and Sierra del Norte Rd.

COS – front range trail

jogging

The Pikes Peak Greenway at the northern end of Colorado Springs continues as the New Santa Fe Regional Trail. The trailhead at Woodmen Rd. leads through an USAF Academy easement as it shadows Monument Creek. The section that I ran is broad dirt road with no obstacles other than the occasional mtn bike.

Springfield, MA

jogging

The Connecticut River Walk and Bikeway Trail is a good fresh air run. Inner city boom boxes drum from near distance. Best to stay with with a group. Level hard surface with few users on this late end of summer Sunday.

Cowtown

jogging

Ghostly Old Cowtown is a nice cool down stroll on the Arkansas River Bike Trail. My 4 mile loop, like the dusty town, had few users (weekday). The trail is asphalt / concrete and flat running.

Now Reading

opinion, social

A good exploration of our 21st century food chain. The omnivore’s dilemma:

Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn’t-which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore’s dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we’re realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment…

Horace Williams Tract

jogging

These 900 acres are laced with soft trail through woods. I should have pre-run this loop on the Bolin Creek Trail. My trail buddy looked at me askance as we struggled with navigation. There are many (mountain bike) side track diversions and I was less than a masterful guide. The TrailHeads offer hand drawn maps of lost wanderings, but a GPS handheld sure would have offered assurance as our aborted track resembled thus. Great area for exploration. There’s even a preservation petition.

Chappaquiddick

jogging

The Chappy Beach (private) club is the vistor’s first landmark. There are many expensive estates, none of which are viewable from the road by common folk. This low on the tourist radar – country loop is a quiet jog / bike ride, as the island accessible by water taxi can only convey cars 3 per trip. The Litchfield Rd section is washboard packed sand (too soft for a street bike). 5 miles.

Cape Cod

jogging

There are cross road choices which necessitate a route map as the Province Lands bike trail meanders sand dunes. Despite the lands end location these mountainous drifts obscure the seascape. Paved 5 mile loop with no soft shoulders.