I am looking for a trail not as rocky as Starr Pass that one can hold a good (better) pace on. Please if anyone knows a few, let me know.
Chris
I am looking for a trail not as rocky as Starr Pass that one can hold a good (better) pace on. Please if anyone knows a few, let me know.
Chris
Try the powerline/phoneline trail at sabino canyon. its a pretty nice single track that goes to the end of the tour road.
East monument at the end of Broadway Rd. - very nice dirt trails (not rocky like Starr Pass or Phoneline).
As a "west-sider" I tend to run the Yeatman Trail (off of Camino Del Oeste) for easy runs, can't go too fast, but better footing than Starr Pass. For faster runs I like running the Baja Loop (dirt road) - I do multiple loops for long runs, you can add on the Golden Gate part to Picture Rocks/Wade road to add on an out-and-back that would be about 11 miles. Another route I have been running of late are the series of trails near the Gilbert Ray campground ... I get 14 miles by running the outer trail loop there and then adding on some of the inner trails. You can find these trails by looking at a map of Tucson Mountain Park, look for the Prospector Trail, Golden Gate Trail and Gilbert Ray Campground.
I would not recommend the powerline trail at Sabino canyon. It is a single track and runs along the edge of a cliff, pretty dangerous for a place to do regular runs.
One of the adjacent trails like bear canyon may be a bit better.
I've run both and found the bear loop to be a bit rocky (boulders) and the powerline trail to be fairly treacherous. 2 steps off the trail and you fall a thousand feet in some places.
The Wagon
Trails in Tucson are hard. If you want to run fast, don't run on a trail. Star Pass is about as easy as it gets, really.
I'm only using my mountain bike knowledge here, but Sweetwater and 50 Year Trail are both less rocky (or in the case of the Catalina SP portion of 50Y, a different type of rocky) than Starr Pass. Also, the west side of TMP is a little smoother than the east side.
The trails at Catalina SP are pretty awesome. Some of the longer ones are rocky and some have steps in them, but if you can deal with that its a great place to run.