Salida's Running Problem (and Where to Find It)

If you hang out in Salida for more than fifteen minutes, chances are you’ll notice people

running. While the Ark Valley is primarily known for rafting and, to a lesser extent, biking and skiing, Salida has a serious running problem. On a blazing hot Thursday after a bike ride on S Mountain, I sit down at Tres Litros with taproom manager and buddy Sam McClay to pick her brain about some good local runs and muse about pounding trail after she just completed her first 100 mile ultra-marathon, the High Lonesome 2026. Sam hails from Illinois and has lived in Salida for five years after ditching her job as an ad campaign executive in Colorado Springs in

search of connecting to something deeper. When I ask her what her favorite thing about living in Salida is she doesn’t hesitate:

“Community!”

While there is no right or wrong answer she is 100 percent correct that one of Salida’s many

draws is the tight knit, laidback and open community. I met Sam when she was pouring beers at Tres Litros and I had stopped in for a couple after skiing up at Monarch. I lamented how I had yet to find any touring partners since moving from Breckenridge to Buena Vista and quitting ski patrol after eight years and she immediately said “we should go sometime, I’m always looking for people to get out with!” And go we did.

As with most of us, Sam is passionate about multiple outdoor endeavors such as long

distance/ultra running, rock climbing and split-boarding. She runs year round but cross trains in the backcountry in Colorado, Idaho and Canada on her board when the snow is flying. She also goes to the gym because unlike yours truly she is a real bona-fide athlete. You wouldn’t know it to talk to her that she is an absolute badass because behind the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life, there is nothing but humility. She doesn’t laugh at me when I excitedly tell her I ran three or five miles, she is just stoked as hell that I’m out there pushing my own limits at a distance that’s about a quarter of a mellow run for her.

When I ask for recommendations for folks like me who are just getting into, or in my case, back into running and are doing 1 -5 miles she suggests segments of the lower Colorado Trail by the Angel of Shavano because it tends to be less crowded and it’s easy to run with her favorite pacer, her dog Sylvie. For those of us who hope to graduate or are already comfortable in the 5 - 15 mile range, she loves the trails on S Mountain, particularly in the winter when it’s sun blasted surfaces offer just right running conditions even the air temp is hovering in the 20s or the 30s. "Maybe," an intermediate bike trail that has some of the best views of town and the mountains is a favorite of Sam’s and the bonus of running rather than biking it is that you can actually take in the views without going over the bars and, you know, breaking your leg or some silly thing I’ve never done before in my life. For long runs - and when this gal says long, she means looooong - she enjoys Little Brown’s and Brown’s Loop, accessed from Nathrop (this loop is roughly 17 miles).

Beginner: Lower Colorado Trail, Angel of Shavano (1-5 miles) — view on map Sam points to the lower Colorado Trail near the Angel of Shavano. It's less crowded and easy to run with her favorite pacer, her dog Sylvie.

Intermediate: S Mountain Trail System (5-15 miles) — view on map S Mountain is her go-to, especially in winter. The sun-blasted surfaces give solid footing even when the air temp is stuck in the 20s or 30s, and the views of town and the mountains are some of the best around.

Advanced: Little Brown's and Brown's Creek Loop, Nathrop (15+ miles) — view on map For the big days, Sam heads to Little Brown's and Brown's Loop out of Nathrop, a roughly 17 mile route.

Next and not unselfishly I ask her for some tips for people looking to get into running to to up their game and start pushing longer distances and more vert. I am particularly interested because, after crippling myself for four days thanks to a hike/run that gains and loses 3000 feet of vert in just under 6.5 miles that I ran the entire way down. I figured to get good at running you should be pushing yourself as hard as you can whenever you run and suck it up if it hurts. No pain, no gain, right? Turns out: nope. “Consistency” Sam offers, is the key to progressing. “Don’t go to big and then have to rest for three days, do small, slower runs often and slowly add a mile and more up and downhills.”

“So slow is steady and steady is fast”, I quote my favorite ski patrol adage. She nods vigorously. As with many things in my life, it turns out I have been doing it wrong. I am also relieved that instead of thinking “I ran 3 miles last week so now it’s time to do 6” I can actually be satisfied with runs where I don’t nearly maim myself as legitimate efforts.

When we delve into her experience running 100 miles she says the high point of the run was not when she hit some number of miles or a particular elevation or point on the course, but seeing so many of her friends who weren’t part of her crew during the grueling thirty-some-odd hours of being in the pain cave. “They were littler Easter eggs along the run, “ she says, “little pockets of joy.” When I ask her what the worst part was, the low of the High Lonesome she replies “Fooses. That’s it.” She fuels longer runs with gels and gummies but said if she could she would have mashed potatoes with bacon and broth which is, not coincidentally, what I ended up making with dinner that evening after running exactly zero miles (I have recently discovered broth makes everything taste better, but I digress).