14ers.com

I'm not that familiar with some of the closer trails out I70. I'm (stupidly) running the Pikes Peak Ascent in 4 weeks and am looking for some 13ers or even smaller that might be closer to Denver and have good trails for jogging? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

Mount Audubon from the Brainard Lake trailhead is a great thirteener to run. Mount Sniktau and "Cupid" from Loveland Pass are good short ascents where you start at a high altitude. Grays and Bierstadt are both really good easy peaks to run. Running the Continental Divide Trail in either direction from Berthoud Pass is great for high altitude training.

Chris P. wrote:Mount Audubon from the Brainard Lake trailhead is a great thirteener to run.

And because it's the Audobon, you can go as fast as you want! Ha!

Anyway, the Herman Gulch Trail (I-70 exit 218) up to Pettingell and 13218 also comes to mind.

The CDT east from Berthoud, as mentioned, takes you to Flora. From there, Eva, Parry and Bancroft have no formal trail but the terrain is generally grassy and gentle.

You can also park at the Loveland ski area and take maintenance roads most of the way up to the Divide. The ridge up there is very gentle.

If you don't mind going into Summit County, you can hit a bunch of 13ers from the Montezuma area, and the ridge up there is again very runnable.

I second the suggestion of service roads of the nearby ski resorts. However many of these may be open to mountain bikers now.

Audubon is much more of a "trail run" than you'll see on the Pikes Peak ascent highway. There are roots and rocks in the forest section, lots of unpleasant gravel in the tundra, and talus on the summit dome.

for all the info, great stuff. This gives me some really good options and I'll be sure to check some of these out over the next few weekends.

Thanks again

I've been hittin the trails super hard lately!!

Here are some really great runs I have come across (some are 13ers and not all of them are near Denver):

-Red Peak via Meadow Creek in the Gore Range -> The trail is very runner friendly but once you start ascending Red's West ridge gets rocky. The approach takes you up Meadow creek and over Eccles Pass and Red Buffalo Pass, can descend Gore Range Trail towards Silverthorne and hit the Lilly Pad trail back to Meadow Creek or just reascend Eccles like I did. Also ran Bighorn Creek up to the Grand Traverse then ran Deluge Lake Trail down. Gore Range is an amazingly beautiful place to run!!

-Missori's East ridge, with Iowa, Emerald, BelOx and Waverly was great workout

-Ran Mummy Mania starting at Chapin TH, don't know it, look it up. Not the most runner friendly trail up you'll get your miles and vert in. Extra Credit: throw in the Rowes with a twist, summit something that you think is Rowe peak but its actually nothing!

-Run up Victoria Mtn outside of Frisco -> Perhaps the steepest trail I have ever tried to run (made it probably 2/3 of the way up in a “running” motion but then I had to relent to the grade, legs were not fresh at all but still). Mad props to people that can run all the way up. You can even go higher up to Peak 1 which you can see very well from Victoria.

-Bergen Peak in Elk Meadow Park is a steady good climb on a runner friendly trail (close to Denver, just before Evergreen)

-Hogback near Morrison is always a favorite of mine -> want a real workout…run it south to north with hill repeats in the middle (you’ll know the hill when you get to it)

-Enchanted Forest/Apex Trail/Lookout mountain are great runs near Golden, very enjoyable

-Run up to Lawn Lake in RMNP, buddy did the Fern Lake run and said it was great, also check out Lumpy Ridge.

-Mt Sanitas in Boulder -> yet to do this one but looks awesome

The last 5 runs I mentioned don’t get you super high, but they are great strength runs! Good luck and see you on Pikes!!

Check out the run I did on Saturday of this week. A great loop around Gray's/Torrey's/Sniktau. You could also start from Loveland Pass.

http://patrickestewart.blogspot.com/201 ... 26-41.html