Carlyle

Carlyle is one of those towns where it's a little hard to tell whether you're there or not. It's really just a cluster of homes on the highway. There are also several ranches in the vicinity, and a lot of farmland, sown with corn and soybeans.

Carlyle does have another trail head for the Prairie Spirit Trail. This was important to me because I was thinking about taking the trail north from Iola the following morning. I was scheduled to run 12 miles, and Carlyle is just about exactly 6 miles away from Iola, so our visit to the tiny town was partly a recon mission.

In the end, I decided not to take the official trail, since it is technically closed before sunrise and I planned to start my run at 4:30 a.m. to beat the heat. Instead, I settled on running up the long, lonesome dirt road that connects the two towns. But that's a story for another day!