Overnight we were treated to a pretty severe thunderstorm that we watch from the safety of our hotel room. It didn’t seem to last too long however, and by morning it was already starting to warm up. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed back towards the cities with the intention to stop at Afton State Park for some more trail running.

Pro-tip interlude…. if you leave muddy and wet shoes in a car all day and overnight when the temps are in the 80s, you will find that your car smell like something died in it the next morning. This pro-tip interlude brought to you by the smell of ass.

We arrived at Afton a good hour and a half earlier than we had attempted to run Zumbro, which gave us more time before the oppressive heat set in. After getting our gear ready and checking our maps we headed into the first valley. Afton is known for a lot of up and down hill running, and its reputation did not disappoint. Within the first 3/4 of a mile we had descended into the valley and approached our first massive climb. Over the course of a 10.2 mile run I managed close to 1000 feet of elevation change.

My wife and I split up for this run so that we could each run our own pace. As I moved on ahead I followed the various turns at the trail intersection markers to bring me to a fun little section of the park called Trout Brook Loop. This 1.5 mile spur is a lot of fun as you climb steps on the way up, and then have a really fun and easily runnable downhill on the backside of the loop. You end up with close to a 200ft climb and descent that, if you so desired, you could repeat as many times as you liked.

I only did one loop of it, and then proceeded onto what was some very nice runnable prairie. However, by this point the sun was high in the sky and the temps were approaching 80. Leaving the beauty of the tree canopy for the wide open and exposed prairie sapped a lot of energy, both mentally and physically. I made it across the prairie section and began my drop into the St. Croix river valley. At the bottom of this hill is a path that trails alongside the St. Croix River for around 2 miles, and is perfectly flat, and mostly shaded. I ran as much of this as I could, but because we had forgotten to pack any nutrition, and I only had one water bottle with me, I found myself slowing down and occasionally taking a walking break. Overall, my pace in this section was pretty solid when I was running, and it was a nice recovery after the massive hills I had just worked through.

The finale of the loop, however, is one more kick in the butt hill to bring you back up to the level of the visitor center. I hiked up this hill as best as I could, and started on the path to the car. I found the paved bike path and used that to get back to the parking lot, giving my feet and ankles a break from uneven terrain. Managed to complete the 10 mile loop in 2:15, which won’t win me any awards, but it was a great test of my abilities. I think that if I could run this same loop with much better weather conditions I could improve my time significantly.

Made it back home later in the afternoon, and got cleaned up from a great weekend of trails. Even though I would have liked another 5-10 miles in my accomplishment bucket for the weekend, given the weather and conditions of the trails, I can’t be disappointed. When you try to run on trails that are used for tough trail races, you need to be happy with what you can get. Now it’s time to relax and enjoy some to nice adult beverages.