Sunshine Canyon

I think I need to start a weekly column about my adventures riding up sunshine canyon. Something interesting always happens. One time, I saw a real live black bear. I always see deer every time I ride up it, and once was even followed/chased by a doe. Well, yesterday's ride brought even more craziness. Let me start at the beginning.

Sunshine Canyon is just west of Boulder. I frequently ride up it because I can leave from my house, get a good workout going up, see some awesome views, have a lot of fun going back down, be back home after an hour and a half, and something interesting always happens. It's a good ride because it's steep enough to make you work but not so steep that you feel like you're going to die (i.e. Flagstaff). As you begin the ascent and approach the first real switchback, there's a private tennis court on the left. In the nook of the switchback is a very distinctive house. Not too much of it is really visible from the road, but the roof sure is, and the roof is one of the most distinctive elements. If it were painted a jollier color you would think it's the kind of roof a smurf or an elf would live under. But it's just sort of a boring dark brown color. It consists of two separate roofs, really. Each one is a sort of curvy spindly thing. It really is a landmark of sunshine canyon. You can't miss it when you're going up.

Yesterday I was riding up and I passed the smurf house and didn't think much of it because I always see the smurf house. Not too much after that I saw a little yellow sign someone had planted next to the road that said "Open Studios" and had an arrow and a little open door symbol on it. Sounded interesting. I figured I'd check it out on the way down.

On the way down I killed my momentum and turned down the dirt road the sign pointed me to. I didn't realize at first that it was leading me to the smurf house. Turned out the current occupants are a retired judge and his artist wife. I pulled up and ditched my bike and was instantly greeted by the husband. He had huge bushy eyebrows. He said that he bets I've always wondered what the house was like on the inside and invited me into it. It was a 70's glam palace with orange shag carpeting and wood tile everywhere. Apparently it was designed and built by some famous architect. He showed me his wife's art that was hanging up around the house, all of it for sale, and told me about his late son, who was apparently an accomplished sculptor named Jefferson. One of the rooms was the "Jefferson Museum," with the son's original terra cotta and marble pieces spread around. Bronze reproductions of the originals were selling for $2000. I would have bought one, but unfortunately I couldn't carry it away on my bike.

The wife's work was mostly oil paintings, but there was a nice pastel of a sunflower that I liked. The two of them would have talked my ear off all day if I had let them. I think they were impressed that I had stopped at their show on my bike. There were a couple of other people there, but they seemed to be friends there to see her work. I think they were just excited to have someone new at their house. Maybe they get lonely up there in the canyon. Who knows. But now I can say that I've been to the smurf house. And it has shag.

Here's Mr. Bushy Eyebrows. I mean, The Honorable Bushy Eyebrows.