Jefferson County's New Northfork Trail
Yawp Cyclery
The veritable Mr. Biggity and I were able to ride Jeffco's new trail, and were pleased with the experience. We started at the trailhead in Reynolds Park--which you may pass on your way to Buff Creek if you take S. Foxton Road (County Road 97)--and rode mostly downhill for 10 miles to where the trail ends at County Road 96 and the Platte River. You can download a PDF of Jeffco's trail map on their website. (Note: Jeffco kindly shuttled us from the bottom of the trail back up to the trailhead, thus cutting out a 10-mile climb back to the car).
From the Reynolds Park parking lot, you have to cross S. Foxton Road to find the trail. There are other trails that leave the same parking lot that seemed, to us, more obvious. Don't be fooled. You will know you are on the right trail if you find yourself on one of the steepest climbs you've ever ridden.
Even the bears lighten up for this climb.
You start on the valley floor. After about 1/2 mile, this is where you stop to barf.
A nice fellow from Jeffco named Dave told us they've already had several groups volunteer to build some switchbacks through this section so that you won't have to belay each other straight up the mountain.
There is a little climbing after this initial push, but the rest of the climbs are short and mellow. From the top of this hill onward, it felt like one very fast, winding descent. Once the trail is ridden down and buffed out, it's going to feel like a bobsled run. There's nothing technical here, just lots of fun. You'll also get some pretty great views of the surrounding area, of which I didn't take a single picture because I could not make myself stop riding for even one minute. When we did finally stop, I took a few quick foliage pictures before we rolled on.
It would be easy to link this trail up with the Colorado Trail, and then the trails at Buff Creek for a day as long as you would want to make it. The math here is a little rough, but if you started at Reynolds park, you'd pass the top of Nice Kitty after about 25 miles. You could then ride the (fantastic) Little Scraggy trail as an out-and-back, and by the time you made it back to the car you'd be nearing 65ish miles. This would make a great day with a few friends, but it would be a tough, uphill finish. If you're training for a hundo or otherwise punishing yourself, this might be a good option.
It's pretty awesome that we have so much good mountain biking within an hour's drive. If you have been riding bikes for awhile but have yet to pick up a shovel, please consider doing so. Hundreds of people are moving into Colorado every month, and our trails won't stay nice if we don't help keep them nice. Check out Jeffco's trailbuiding events here if you're interested. The Northfork trail took 8 years to build. The more people who help build trails, the more trails we'll have, and the more trails we have, the more handsome and intelligent we'll be.