I went out for a little stroll on my rollerblades Sunday afternoon, and ended up going much farther than I was anticipating. I put my rollerblades into a book bag, along with some water and my mp3 player, and took the D Line down to Mineral. A quick search on the Internet told me that I could get on the Platte River Trail near the Mineral stop and head north back toward where I started, the Broadway station. This route appeared to be between 8 and 9 miles, but I figured I could always get back on the light rail if it was too long.

It was my first time out in a long time. We didn’t rollerblade in KC that often because truthfully we never found any good trails. Fortunately there are tons of trails for us to explore now in Denver. Things started off great. I found the trail right away and after quickly asking someone which direction to head, I was on my way. The trail was relatively flat and very smooth, in other words perfect for rollerblading. After a few miles I retied my skates as I felt some blisters starting to develop. I’m not sure it helped though, and around 6 or 7 miles I could really feel the blisters with each stride. Just as I was considering finding the light rail and calling it a day, I hit a detour on the wrong side of the river.

As the name implies, this trail runs up and down the Platte River. Sometimes it is on both sides of the river, and sometimes it is just on one side. The detour took me further on the wrong side of the river, away from the river actually. There was a very steep ascent on the sidewalk along the detour. After a long struggle I made it to the top and just decided to keep going. I ended up just rollerblading all the way back home, a trip that clocked in at over 11 miles (route map). Besides the blisters I felt great! Overall, it was a great trip. Next time I will do more research on trail detours though, as I don’t want to do that one again.