Marshall Mesa - Part Two
Coal Seam to Community Ditch to Marshall Valley
Location
5258 Eldorado Springs Dr, Boulder, CO 80303
Trail Map
Chosen Trail
Trail Experience
We started out to the right, taking the Coal-seam trail that ascends to the top of the ridge.
Right away you get to cross a bridge.
And go up a moderately rocky climb.
At the top there is a connecting trail to the right that will take you to the Doughty Draw trailhead or the Flatirons Vista trailhead. You do need to go under hwy 93 and I would be careful with your timing to make sure you don't go under when a big tuck passes by.
As you join the Community Ditch Trail to the right is a bridge that goes to the Greenbelt Plateau trail. There are quite a few rocks to step over that are directly on this trail. We continued to the left on Community Ditch.
The next fork to the left will be the Marshall Mesa Trail. No bikes are allowed. This trail ends at the steps at the bottom and is pretty steep and rocky so we continued straight on the Community Ditch Trail. We did get a little trot in but Sam was very distracted by some single alfalfa on the side of the trail causing frequent stops for a snack.
The signage was pretty good and we continued on the Community Ditch Trail to meet up with Marshall Valley Trail. And we got a chance to tackle the wood bridge Sam wasn't sure about the first time. He was a champ and went right over. There was a gate we had to go through but it didn't have a spring so I was able to hold it open without dismounting.
Pace
We mostly walked. There was some trotting on the top of Community Ditch but Sam had alfalfa on his brain and wanted to stop and snack.
Rating
Moderately Difficult
I would still call this trail moderately difficult due to the rocks, incline, bridges, and bikers. For some reason I remembered this trail being more difficult. It really wasn't too bad. We had tackled most of the challenging obstacles like the bridges and the rocks before in our previous trail ride down Marshall Valley to Cowdrey Draw. It was a good, fast morning walk of about 3 miles that took us about 50 minutes with lots of grazing stops.
I would still call this trail moderately difficult due to the rocks, incline, bridges, and bikers. For some reason I remembered this trail being more difficult. It really wasn't too bad. We had tackled most of the challenging obstacles like the bridges and the rocks before in our previous trail ride down Marshall Valley to Cowdrey Draw. It was a good, fast morning walk of about 3 miles that took us about 50 minutes with lots of grazing stops.
Coal Seam to Community Ditch
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Community Ditch to Marshall Valley
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