Colleges with the Best Trail Running Oppurtunities

Places with good trails within running distance of campus:

CU Boulder - somewhat overrated trails. NCAR is pretty good; you usually have to drive to the Mesa Trail. Buffalo Ranch is nothing special.

Oregon - also somewhat overrated. Been a long long time for this runner, but Amazon and Pre's are nice.

Wisconsin - the arboretum rocks, it takes a few miles to get there. Also along the lake there is a trail that goes from main campus for 6 or 7 miles.

Cornell - mentioned several times already. Good trails on the Monkey Run and around the gorges. Also numerous state forest trails close by.

NAU - Just ran there once and it looked promising.

Humbolt State - also just ran there once

Carleton - nice campus arboretum and lots of gravel roads around Northfield.

U-Mass - on par with Cornell. Mt Toby is only 6 miles away, great trails there.

Alaska Anchorage/APU - okay the trails are covered by snow for 5 months, but then you can ski on them.

Alaska Fairbanks - likewise, snow for 6 months of the year. Cold as all get out for 3 of those months.

Other places without such great trails: Iowa City (some okay but limited distance); Grinnell; North Dakota; Colorado State (used to have great trails, but now everything is paved and open space access is limited).

Santa Clara University

In response to Salukirunner, I have contacted many coaches but they take forever to get back to you (some don't even bother) and they usually are not honest about how often they run on trails/what is even available for trails. For example, a friend of mine went to a college claiming they did 80% of their runs on trails and that they do 15 mile runs without even touching roads. He now attends this college and he tells me they run trails about once a week at most, and when they do its usually about an 8 mile run with trails on and off the whole time. Have heard the same types of stories from many other friends who run at other colleges as well. Letsrun is also an easy way to get many opinions of people who have experienced places I've never been.

In response to the other suggestions, I would love to run for NAU or CU-Boulder and those types of schools, but I am certainly not fast enough, nor would my body hold up while doing their training. As for Duke, my cousin goes there and I have been on the campus and it is my dream school, but I simply could not get in there. I am a 9:36 two-miler and a 4:26 miler, and 15:53 5k XC. My SATs are about 1850. So any schools that I might actually have a shot at getting into AND running for would be nice. Anymore suggestions?

Colorado College - Colorado Springs, CO

Seriously check out Western Washington University. They won't recruit you but you'd get on the team and there are few better running areas in the country.

Ithaca College, man. Great trails (admittedly not so much when they're under snow, but that's the case anywhere it snows) and decent school (but not mad hard, admissions-wise) + proximity to Cornell means good school opportunities because the universities do allow people to use classes/resources at both, no matter which they attend. Also you'd be a top-notch recruit there.

You might as well have asked, "what school did you run for".

Here is my unbiased opinion and I have been to pretty much all of the major campuses from Colorado west.

University of Portland/Portland State/every other small school in portland- has Forest Park which is superb. Portland is actually a much better place than Eugene as far as trails go.

NAU, Flagstaff is just sick, just sick.

Can't remember which one was better, but either Montana State of University of Montana had a fantastic trail system.

Western State College of Colorado - Gunnison has a ton of trails with Hartmans Rock, but the town right next to them (Crested Butte) is by far the coolest place I have ever run. Far better than Flagstaff, redwoods, mammoth..all of them.

CU- Boulder is pretty damn good, but definitely a step down from those that I have mentioned, IMO.

UCCS- Garden of the Gods, nough' said.

I was a freshman there in 1967. I still run on those trails—University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Maybe I am still running because of those trails...

Tom

Gonna plug my school here. Not the best in the US for trails, but probably the best in Los Angeles.

University of La Verne. It's in La Verne, which has Marshall Canyon. Any given Saturday morning, you can find anyone from current University of Oregon runners there (seriously--about 5-6 were in training in La Verne for a week in December of 2010), to UC Riverside, Azusa Pacific, Long Beach State, CSU Fullerton, UCLA etc. I've seen everyone out there. There's also Bonelli Park, which is within warm-up distance from campus. Most local schools drive there, we go out the back door.

Here's a secret:

The University of Minnesota Duluth

Hundreds of miles of pristine trails along the shores of Lake Superior, on the Superior Hiking Trail, accessible directly from campus.

thats a thought wrote:

I'm currently thinking about Duke for grad school. Which trails do you mean? I saw the Eno Park but that's 5 or 6 miles from campus. Are there any trails closer by? Thanks a lot.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Duke Forest

Duke Forest is ok, and American Tobacco Trail is nearby, which is great for flat workouts with good footing, plenty of it soft.

But it's not even in the same ballpark as some of the western schools that kiss up to the Rockies. I can't speak about the whole east coast, but the little experience I have sure seems to make it clear that there's just so much more space for running, and ultimately better trails, out west.

There are elite college programs like NAU and Colorado, but you could also scale down competitively and still get fantastic (unlimited) trails at places like Wyoming and Boise State.

I ran for Berry and I agree 70 miles of unpaved glory! On campus!

You should check out the University of Montana:

http://www.theactivetimes.com/content/best-college-campuses-trail-running/slide-2

BurgerFriesAndShake wrote:

CU is overrated - if you like steep rocky trails then CU is great, even Wetmore has commented on how crappy the trails really are and has mentioned that he would prefer flatter, dirt trails.

James Carbone wrote:

CU they have far and away the best trails...no one can compare

Isn't this the principal reason Ritz moved from Boulder to Portland? Softer surfaces = his injury frequency went down.

Ferris State University

envewi wrote:

MSU in Bozeman. Of course you have winter also...but I really do have to laugh at some of this list.

Sorry. Montana is full. I hear North Dakota is nice.

Mtn Dew wrote:

Brevard anyone?

Very good answer.

lol. The OP has likely graduated by now XD

Second vote for Utah State.

UC Santa Cruz cannot be beaten, for trails....It's built in the middle of the woods.

Humboldt State is great for trails as well, but they are all pretty hilly (I guess that can be said for UCSC.