Thursday 4/1

     Started the day again with a run, this time on the Santa Fe Rail Trail which starts near our apartment and runs south 20+ miles out of town. The beginning is a really cool rebuild of an old rail yard now turned into a plaza/park stretching a half mile or so and dotted by breweries, boutiques, and an REI. This is also the northern terminus of the New Mexico Rail Runner; a commuter train that runs between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Kind of cool that it dumps you right downtown within a quick walk to the center square.

      The Rail Trail was a large improvement over the river trail. It's paved and had at least some underpasses to cross busy roads. I did speed work, which was decent enough, but always tough at elevation in the mountains. The way out seemed more rolling up and downs and I felt pretty good, like I was already acclimated and such. Then I turned around an immediately started to feel like garbage. I'd been consistently losing elevation the entire time, something like 400 feet. I always gauge elevation changes in comparison to the largest hill we run up in MPLS on West River Road beneath I-94. That gain is nearing 100 feet and definitely takes the wind out of your sails. The return was basically doing that 4 times in a row and also at 7,000 ft.

     Finished up a decent day and saw Kate out on the trail too. She had dropped off Dash at a doggie day care she had found and was also about to find out the gain/pain of elevation on the trail (she reported it later).

     Showered up, picked up some bagels from a local bagelry in the neighborhood and met Katie and Greg to carpool out to Bandelier National Monument. It's a ruins site with a lot of dwellings built into the side of cliffs of a canyon. Too many people on the initial trail. You can actually walk right up to the ruins and even take ladders up to poke inside. But at only .5 miles and a paved trail, you don't exactly cut out the masses so it was a lot of waiting in line with many types of people I'd prefer not to be waiting in line with. 

     Then next section was another .5 miles and included much more intensive ladder climbing. I think there was something like 140 feet of ladders that you needed to crest to get to the top. This was still busy, but much better and really cool to scamper up and see the views/ruins. 

     Ate lunch at a picnic table in the canyon and soaked up another sunny and 60s degree day. There's evidently 70 miles of trails here and backpacking opportunities. It would be cool to make a return trip some day.

     We'd had grand plans of continuing on to a hot springs after lunch, but the best on was still snowed in and we were waffling on driving another hour to get to a warm one (only 95 degrees or so). We had also considered hiking through the Valles Caldera, but that was another ~1 hr out of the way as well so we opted to simply return home again.

     Recharged for a bit, and then Kate and I headed down to Santa Fe Brewing for HH. They didn't have as crazy of beers as Chili Line, but did a great job with what they brewed. Ended up talked to a couple from San Diego also out road tripping for a while which was great. Always interesting to meet people from across the country.

     Early dinner at the Shake Foundation for their famed "chili burger" with Katie and Greg again. Then an after dinner cocktail at The Dragon Room. Another great day in New Mexico.