And yes, Virginia, there are bad trails.....

[WolfVanZandt]

My masochistic hiker spirit rejoiced. My pain soared to the heights. My dramamongering was piqued.

Honestly, though, be warned....

The High Plains Trail in Superior, Colorado might be a fun biking trail but it ain't for hiking. Calling it a trail is a stretch - it's a rut. It destroyed a new pair of walking shoes. The same model of WalMart shoes lasted me five years of serious hiking and one hike on the High Plains wrecked them. Then there was what it did to my feet!.

I didn't feel like so much of a wimp when I decided to rest a while at the Coalton Trailhead and I was talking to a lady who was training for a Ironman Triathlon and overheard her talking to her partner on the phone. She called the trail "brutal". If "brutal" was good enough for Ironman Woman, it's quite good enough for me.

The hike was great though. The first leg, the Coalton Trail begins at the western edge of Superior and cuts across the high plains between Boulder and Broomfield. It's a nice, broad dirt track. The only demanding part is the rise up Davidson Mesa:

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The draw is the views of the Flatirons:

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The trail ends at highway 128 right across from the Boulder Alternative Energy Research unit at Rocky Flats (I carried a dosimeter, by the way. It didn't wiggle.) A short roadwalk brought me down to the Flatirons Vista trailhead, which ended with this spectacular view:

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I hear that this trail is great in the spring for wildflowers.

When I started back, I decided on trying something different, and thereby was my downfall. I decided to take the High Plains trail which wound crazily through cow pastures, which was not a trail but was a rut, which went through areas that resembled a glacier terminal moraine, which was referred to by the Ironwoman as "brutal", and which destroyed a pair of shoes (I honestly didn't believe that to be a possibility. I've never had a trail eat my shoes before.)

About half way back to the Coalton Trail I decided to get off that tortuous trail and get back on some nice, ankle pounding asphalt, so I took the first farm road I found. A friendly runner gave me a ride back to the other end of the Coalton Trail. I think he thought I wouldn't make it all the way back up Coalton.

Anyway, I spent the next couple of hours recuperating - I wasn't supposed to hook up with my ride until he got off work - and then I took the city trail (Rock Creek Trail) back up to WalMart where my ride was just getting off shift.

All in all, a great hike but that one High Plains leg was a serious miscalculation.

Even though, if you do have a masochistic bent and you're ever in the neighborhood.....

[hunter63]

Hey thanks for taking us along....How far did you end up hiking?

[DSJohnson]

Great review...Thank you so much. I admire your determination in getting "outside"

[WolfVanZandt]

Grph...I dunno. This was just a prep hike so I didn't keep up with the distances. I think Coalton is around 3 miles and the Flatirons Vista trail is 3.3 mile. I have no idea how far I walked on the High Plains Trail. I guess the whole thing was around 12 to 15 miles.

I'm almost solely a pedestrian now so my mode of personal transportation is walking. I chauffeur other people around and that keeps my driving in tone but I'm about to walk to the shopping center down the hill. I regularly haul 20 or 30 pounds of groceries back up that 74 foot rise to the house and have carried as much as 60 pounds, so I keep in shape.

I'm waiting for a couple of snows, then I'm going to follow the trail up the South Platte River to Waterton Canyon. That'll be about 24 miles, there and back, and add any side trails. I plan to make it a 24 hour hike. Since I can't carry a 45 pound pack all day, my backpacking days are pretty much over, so one or two days is pretty much my walking limit.

Once I finish the endurance hike, I'll let you know how it went. Maybe I'll have some photos of a mountain goat. (No, I'm not talking about myself.)

[Rick]

Yeah, we have one of those here in Indiana if you can believe it. The Knobstone Trail. Has kicked my butt three times. When it grows up it will be north Georgia. It's 49 miles of up and down and sparse water. 58 miles if you take the loops. Yeah, right, I'll get right on those loops.

[hunter63]

Y'all talking 4 wheel trails....Right?

[Rick]

Not me. Hiking.

[M118LR]

Y'all talking 4 wheel trails....Right?

I think I can still paddle the canoe loaded with a 45 lbs pack 12 or 15 miles in a day? At least downstream anyway.

[WolfVanZandt]

I was talking about hiking/biking trail. The High Plains trail doesn't get much wider than a foot for long stretches. I saw a bunch of bikers on it (bikers=bicyclers). I don't even know how they can take those rocks but, then again, I'm not a biker. I suspect I would have done much better with my boots.

[hunter63]

Just kidding.....sorta
I look for the ignition switch on the stationary bike at the gym.

[WolfVanZandt]

Those are great because the trails don't need to be very wide...