Rock Island Trail

I live close to the Rock Island Trail so it's pretty convenient for me to traipse on over and run, bike or walk.The Rock Island Trail is rather flat and begins to the east at Powers Blvd , runs west and ends at Weber Ave. Several streets are crossed on your journey along the trail including Academy, which is sort of crappy. I hate crossing Academy. A great idea would be to create an underpass for the trail under Academy just like the one which goes under Circle.At the point that the trail crosses Paseo St, it seems to turn into an alley for a bit, so take heed that you may need to share the thoroughfare with motorized vehicles.Overall, the path is fairly flat the entire length and is paved the entire way. From searches on the internet, the length of the trail is stated anywhere from 3 miles to 5.8 miles. There are a handful of other bike trails that break off from or are connected by the Rock Island Trail. Namely, the Pikes Peak Greenway which begins at the Air Force Academy, Shooks Run and Homestead Trail.

It's a good trail for a quick, light workout. I tried it once on a road bike but really the trail gets rougher as you go so its more for mountain biking. Not the best trail in the Springs but still convenient. Its pretty flat and safe.

Know this first of all...the trail is not connected. The part going north from the trailhead in Falcon is NOT for road bikes. The trail is not paved. It's fine for crossovers or mountain bikes. The shoulder of the Falcon to Peyton highway is the actual roadie route. The other part of the trail starting at Powers and Constitution is fine for a short recreational ride but not for a long ride...too many street crossings.

Today was my first attempt at running (or jogging, whichever you prefer) the Rock Island Trail. I started at the trail head off Nevada and ran to the trail head at Powers. WOW! It is a 5.8 mile trail that has hills closer to Powers and parts of the trail require crossing at crosswalks. This was a tough trail. It took 1 hour and 27 minutes to complete (normally I can get 5 miles in 50 minutes) but the first 3 miles were cake. It's the hills! And there isn't really anywhere to ditch the trail after Academy. The trail was paved the majority of the way and it was really smooth. I'm sure I'll do it again but not in the near future (I'd like to recover, this was hard compared to normal paved trails and loops I run). This trail definitely would be a great trail to take bicycles on or to walk the East or West halves. Since it wasn't a loop, I had my running partner pick me up at one end so I could drop off my car and she drove us to the other end. I'm really glad we did it that way. The bicyclists seemed to circle back but running it would have been to much for us.The only reason it's 4 stars and not 5 is because of the stops at the crosswalks instead of tunnels.