Flatiron Vista - Spring Brook Loop - Steady

Time: 1:06
Distance: 8.53 miles
Effort: Moderate
Body: Average
Weather: Clear and Warm


Post-work run beginning at the Flatiron Vista Trailhead off Highway 93. Great steady run across the plateau, down Dowdy Draw and then did the Spring Brook Loop counterclockwise.  Love the views of the Flatirons from the grassy vista points along the north part of the Spring Brook loop. 


I had several negative interactions with mountain bikers over the course of the hour-plus run (also had some great interactions). At one point, near the bottom of Doudy Draw, I had to literally leap off the trail to avoid getting smacked by a biker whipping around a corner. As a mountain biker that loves whipping around corners and bombing downhill, I raise these problems with trepidation. It's funny, in all my running in JeffCo, I've had maybe two bad experiences with mountain bikers. In Boulder, virtually every time I run on trails where bikes are allowed (Heil Ranch, Doudy Draw), I run into jerks. Has all the exclusions from city/county trails made bikers surly and unwilling to play nice? Something in the water?  (Or, maybe I'm the jerk!) Whatever it is, it makes me mad, not so much because of issues with my personal space or safety, but mostly because I know that poor behavior by a few bikers with the wrong set of hikers is going to set back mountain bike access efforts that good groups like the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance have been working on for years. Same goes for riding in muddy conditions, especially on the wide-open parts of this trail system. These trails do not drain well. Tons of rutting on some sections of this trail from riding in muddy conditions.  Then, people and bikes go around the rutty, muddy sections and make trails twice as wide as they were a month before, which is what's happened on parts of this trail system.  Some singletrack is now doubletrack. 


Anyway...off the soapbox.  


This was a great run. Everything clicked. After the Spring Brook loop, I returned up Doudy Draw to the Flatiron Vista loop, hung a right and ran to the southern edge of the property and picked up the Prairie View trail for the return to main road/trail out of the parking lot. Great day.


761 feet of elevation gain; average pace 7:46.