Adventures Of Sherman: High Line Canal Trail Adventure

Activity type: ChiRunning
Date of activity: 6/13/2015
Distance traveled: 11.09 miles
Location: Highlands Ranch, CO, USA

This morning I got up at sunrise (about 5:30am MST) and decided to punch out a rather lengthy run down the High Line Canal Trail. My purpose for this run was to explore the trail a bit and see how far I could go if I were to follow it out west in the direction of Waterton Canyon (i.e. the location where the Colorado Trail begins). Based on the mileage signs that I passed along the way, a full run to Waterton Canyon would have turned my morning jog into a half marathon effort with the length of the run being somewhere in the range of 14 to 15 mile range. After mulling over the idea for a few miles, I decided that I was going to proceed forward and run the rest of the trail. Of course, if I'd actually made it to Waterton Canyon, I would have had to call my wife, ask her to load up the kids, and come pick me up. Since I have a pretty long track record of "seeing where the trail goes", this wouldn't have been entirely unexpected; however, also, based on past history, this would have likely resulted in me running a full marathon much sooner than expected.

Since I hadn't really planned this particular run well, I was a bit shocked when I suddenly came upon a dead-end that I'm still scratching my head over. Somewhere around where the 9 or 10 mile marker would have been, the beautiful trail suddenly runs into an overgrown jeep trail with a rickety bridge leading to Highway 85 on your left and, on your right, what I soon discovered was a private road when I came up to a gate with a half dozen "NO TRESPASSING" signs on full display. After looking at the GPS, it appeared that the "correct" path would have been to cross the bridge, head south on Hwy 85, hang a right on Titan Road, hang another right on Roxborough Park Road, and look for the High Line Canal Trail somewhere on the left side of the road. Rather than run alongside a noisy highway (I do that enough while road biking), I decided to back-track and locate the Plum Creek Trail that runs through Chatfield State Park. Just so you know, the Plum Creek Trail entrance is rather obscure; however, you can find it when you see a sign on the other side of the railroad tracks that reads "Notice - Public Use Restricted to Top of Dam". At that point, you can scramble across the railroad tracks and then head down the hill towards your left toward the nice sign that informs you that you're about to enter Chatfield State Park.

The Plum Creek Trail was definitely a great find since it soon turned from gravel at the very entrance into a nice, paved bike tail. Also, my GPS informed me that I would soon be able to re-discover the High Line Canal Trail by running along this path until I ran into the Roxborough Park Road. From there, I could head south and re-intersect the trail. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that my adventure was not meant to be as the trail submerged under several feet of water. I'm pretty sure that this type of flooding isn't typical for this particular trail and was a direct result of all those serious rains that we'd had over the past couple of days. At that point, I cut my losses and turned my trip into the out-and-back that I'd originally planned.

The good news is that my exploratory trip was a success and, now, I have quite a few new trails to explore. Also, I could actually plan the trip so that my wife and kids could meet up with me at Waterton Canyon. That way I don't get forced to cover a marathon distance when I'm not entirely ready for it. Well, at least not just yet...