Where would be a good place to run East of Kansas City on Friday evenings? I usually drive to Columbia or St. Louis after work on Fridays and would like to get in a 10 mile run on trails. It is now getting dark too early to wait till Columbia to run. Does anybody have any suggestions?

-- Dan (daniel.meenehan@umb.com), September 04, 1999

Answers

Knob Noster State Park is one possibility. The advantage to Knob Noster is that it is mapped. It is probably about an hour from downtown KC. But, it is south of I-70, so running there will add to your travel distance.

Closer to downtown KC and I-70 are Burr Oak Woods and Lake Jacomo. Both offer some nice running. I'm not sure about getting in a full ten miles, but you could do a few loops. Unfortunately, I think they may have some sort of prohibition against running on the trails at Burr Oak Woods (or maybe I'm just imagining that).

-- Michael Eglinski (meglin@juno.com), September 04, 1999.

The best solution might be to get a good headlamp and keep running on the trails after dark.

-- Michael Eglinski (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), September 05, 1999.

Spike's suggestion of getting a headlamp is a good one. You could get a cheap headlamp for not a lot that is good enough to run on trails. I guess a lot of sports stores have 'em. I got an actual orienteering headlamp (a Mila) and all accessories put together for around $100-110 or something like that (last year). I ordered through Trimtex, who were very nice about answering my email questions in English and didn't seem at all put off by the fact that they would be shipping just one item. I got a sealed lead acid battery ordered from a US company and am using that. If you (Dan) or anyone else is interested, email me and I can let you know what I found out.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), September 05, 1999.