Aahh, this month’s Rails to Trails magazine brought back fond memories of my time spent pedaling my bike on the Santa Fe Rail Trail in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
As I wrote about in an earlier blog, I loved the ease with which I could ride the trail in Santa Fe, then ride the rail to Albuquerque. It brought the whole rail-trail experience full circle.
I hitched a ride from Boulder, CO to Santa Fe. Well I didn’t literally hitch a ride since it was my own car and my dad drove it, but…
Anyway, I spent the night in Santa Fe, then rode the Santa Fe Rail Trail the next day. It didn’t take me long to figure out that it wasn’t a typical rail trail. First, it resembled a dirt bike trail more than a typical flat rail trail. Second, it was less of a rail to trail than a rail beside trail since it ran beside an active railroad track the entire way.
I had a great time on the trail, but the experience that stuck out the most for me was loading my bike on the Rail Runner Express and riding smack-dab through Native American reservations to Albuquerque. It was as if the whole rail/trail experience came full circle. It started with the Santa Fe Railroad, then a bike trail was built, and now the two are connected with a trail beside a rail and a railroad trip to Albuquerque. Of course, then I flew home, but airplanes have no place in this particular circle of recreation story.
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Parts of the C & O trail are rail beside trail also. Most of the trail is very isolated, so it's a nice change of pace to ride beside the tracks for a while, and it's quite a thrill when the old locomotive goes by.