Cross-Training Wheels

Alderfer Ranch House and Rainbow

Weekend Ride

Ranchers and miners originally settled the mountains west of Denver. These hardy families built roads, cleared pastures, blasted tunnels, and constructed homes despite the long cold winters, and dry conditions. One such family,the Alderfers maintained a ranch outside of Evergreen where they raised cattle for the meat markets and silver fox for the burgeoning fur trade after World War II. Eventually they donated much of the ranch property to Jefferson County and it has been converted into a mountain park, the Alderfer/Three-Sisters Park. My college friend, Teal and I tossed our mountain bikes on top of the car and met on a rainy afternoon to sample the trails in the park. The afternoon storm moved east as we headed west and we reached the trailhead under partly cloudy, but rain-free skies. The first half of the ride climbed the flanks of Evergreen mountain and we got a sound cardio workout cranking up the trail to a scenic view overlooking Evergreen, Bear Creek, and the plains beyond. The payoff for our hard work during the climb was a fast, smooth descent, zooming through the trees and careening over rocks to the ranch meadow below. A rain cloud drifted over us; one last evening sprinkle. With the low sun still shining we speculated that we might spot a rainbow. Not a minute later we found it to the southeast arcing into the Cub Creek Valley. The trail here changed from a wide swooping single track to a tight winding one as we climbed the Three Sisters formation, a ridge of three squat granite outcroppings. The tight steep switchbacks off the other side of the ridge required us to dismount for sections of the trail. One last stretch with a shallow climbing grade along the Hidden Fawn Trail returned us to the car. We both agreed that the loop gave us just what we needed. Many other trails explore the Park leaving more to do for our next visit.