Spur Trail Out and Back - Santa Fe

Santa Fe Spur Trail
Terrain:  Hardpack dirt and sand
Elevation:  6800' at trailhead, 200 ft of net climbing
Distance:  6 miles round trip

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Ran the Spur Trail on Saturday with Herman.  A beautiful afternoon but a little windy.  Herman was coming from a professional conference, on a weekend.  The guy is dedicated. I had spent most of my morning in the yard, moving firewood under the portal and emptying the rain barrels for the winter.

Herman with Tetilla Peak on the horizon

Naturally our conversation turned to football, notably, how Oregon has risen through the ranks to be the number one college football team in the country.  It's one thing that their running program has the backing of Nike and Phil Knight, but now their football program does too. A real spectacle. Oregon was Stanford's only loss of the year which is upsetting to Herman.  Stanford destroyed Notre Dame in South Bend last month which is upsetting to myself.  Oregon even stole coach Vin Lananna from Stanford's storied cross-country programs.  Unseemly.

Looking west from the Rail Trail

This brought us around to a brighter subject, both UNM Lobos teams ran to Mountain West Regional Championships that morning, beating powerhouse Colorado, BYU, and Northern Arizona teams.  The wins follow one week after sweeping both Conference team titles. This we determined, was freaking amazing.  Santa Fean Shawna Winnegar ran on the women's squad as their seventh runner Sat.  There are several area runners on the men's side, none of whom suited up Saturday (Pecos' Victor Ortiz, the Pittman bros from Los Alamos, and Santa Fe's Luis Chavez who was battling injury this fall in a walk-on attempt).  Both teams are currently ranked fifth nationally going into Monday's (11/22) NCAA Championship race. 

After discussing the finer points of collegiate racing we ran on across some truly beautiful early winter landscapes.  The Spur Trail is built like a giant one lane road of glorious singletrack, one can just cruise along for long periods taking it all in.  Views stretch unbroken from the Sangre de Cristos to the Cerrillos mtns to the Sandias.

Starting from Richards Ave., the trail is just over 3mi to the Rail Trail, or just over 6mi for the round trip. For longer routes it's less than 2mi north to the Rabbit Rd trailhead from the Rail Trail junction or about 2mi south to the Nine Mile Rd. trailhead. A beautiful trail I think I'll need to ski a few times this winter.


Related Posts:
  - The Santa Fe Rail Trail
  - Arroyo Hondo Open Space
  - La Tierra Trails



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