The Beauty of Southwest Utah

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My first visit to southwest Utah came in April of 2016. I was on a road trip that included stops in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. I came specifically to hike Angels Landing at Zion National Park. That remains to this day my favorite hike ever, and the view from the top was incredible!

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I even returned later that year in July for a trip that was focused solely on southern Utah. But that was all before I was into mountain biking. I continued to hear so many great things about the trails in this area near Zion. So with another delay in the start date of my new job, I decided to make the trip!

Problems Along the Way!

Things didn’t go exactly as planned, however! I had just passed through Salt Lake City when my car started acting strange. It felt like it was lunging. Could it be the road? No, it definitely wasn’t the road. I turned off cruise control, and when I pushed on the gas pedal, the engine just revved, and the car did not speed up! My transmission was finished!

I got a second Honda Accord primarily for reliability, so I never expected to have the transmission fail at only 65,000 miles! Well luckily, this was a Certified used car, which extends the warranty from 60,000 up to 100,000 miles. So I did not have to pay for the new transmission! But after doing some research, I learned that the CVT transmission they use in the Accord now is not very reliable. In fact, one transmission shop’s website said they rarely see them last more than 100,000 miles! Needless to say, it won’t be long before I trade this car in and get something that doesn’t have the piece of junk CVT transmission in it!

So while that ordeal didn’t cost me thousands of dollars to fix, it did mean that I had to push my trip back a week. But that was okay, because I still had time. So once it was fixed, I picked my car back up, and went on to Hurricane, UT from there.

How I Made This Trip Really Cheap!

Traveling can get expensive, especially if you want to do it often. Transportation and lodging are the two most expensive things, so how can you cut down on these? Driving is typically less expensive than flying, especially if you’re going somewhere that isn’t too far away. It’s just a little over 7 hours for me to get to Hurricane. Flying would not make sense. Gas costs less than $100 for the entire round trip.

To save on lodging, I camped in my car for free on public lands! In the western US, there is a lot of public land, and on most of it you can camp for free. Of course, there are no services like showers or bathrooms, but if you’re willing to rough it a bit, it’s a great option for free lodging!

Sleeping in your car doesn’t sound comfortable, does it? To be honest, it wasn’t that bad! I got a backseat air mattress, which is far more comfortable than just sleeping in the backseat, or laying the front seat down all the way! Obviously I cannot lie flat on my back completely stretched out, however, I often sleep on my side with my legs curled up anyway, and there is plenty of room for that. To try to keep some heat in, as well as give myself some privacy, I covered my windows with Reflectix insulation. It doesn’t keep the car warm all night, but I do feel that it keeps the warmth quite a bit longer than if it were not there!

Gooseberry Mesa

I spent my first night on top of Gooseberry Mesa surrounded by an incredibly beautiful landscape! I woke up to this:

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That day I rode the trails on Gooseberry Mesa, though I ended up cutting the ride fairly short due to the powerful winds! I was on the North Rim trail, and the winds just about blew me over on the exposed parts of the rim! The wind was out of the north, so it was at least not trying to blow me off the cliff, but I considered the risk of any fall there to not be worth it!

The trail was definitely unique, riding over rolling slickrock, similar to Moab, but with a different color. It’s like riding on the moon!

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Overall, however, it’s pretty slow going and requires a lot of pedaling. It’s not the style of trail that I find to be the most fun, but it’s a unique experience, and worth a visit. I know a lot of people really love it! The views from the north rim were spectacular, too!

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Guacamole Doesn’t Cost Extra

That night I drove up to the Whole Guacamole trailhead, where there are campsites in the immediate vicinity. I took a super cold shower outside in about mid-40’s temperatures with strong winds and cold water! Certainly not the hot shower I’m used to, but it was worth it to get cleaned up after the ride!

As the night wore on, the wind finally died down, and actually completely stopped. I remember waking up at one point when nature called, and noticing how completely silent it was outside! This is something I really love to experience, because our day-to-day lives in the city are filled with noise. We don’t always realize it, because we’re used to it. Which is what makes it even more amazing when you are in the middle of nowhere and experience true silence!

The ride on the Whole Guacamole was more fun than Gooseberry Mesa. Lots of technical challenges, more riding on the moon, as well as a little bit of flowy and faster downhill sections. This is also the closest trail to Zion National Park, so you’ve got great views on the entire ride! I would definitely recommend this one!

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Hurricane Rim

My final night was spent closer to the town of Hurricane, and right next to the Hurricane Rim trail. I rode straight from my campsite to the JEM trail, which then connected to Hurricane Rim.

This was easily my favorite ride of the trip! The climbs are tough & technical, the descents are fast & rowdy! I did not ride the entire trail since I had a 7+ hour drive back home immediately following, and I did not want to be driving late into the night. I only skipped about 2 miles on the west end of the trail, however, this is part of the trail that overlooks the town, and has the most elevation change. So I do want to get back down there sometime and ride that section!

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The Highlights

Below is the video that I put together highlighting this trip! In the coming weeks I’ll be putting out the regular POV style videos of each ride, so stay tuned for those if you want to see more riding footage on these trails!

FINALLY Back at Brown County!

I first rode Brown County State Park in Nashville, IN (not a typo, it’s INDIANA!) when I was still a new rider in the summer of 2017. It is still to this day my longest ride ever at 32 miles! Shortly after that ride, they opened a new flow trail, Hobbs Hollow. Now there’s yet another new trail open, Weed Patch.

I was back in Indiana in the spring of 2018 for a friend’s wedding, but that was shortly after I had broken my wrist in Moab, so I was unable to ride. In the spring of this year I was back for another friend’s wedding, but this time excessive amounts of rain had all of the trails closed!

Thankfully, luck would be ON my side for this trip! I was back home for Thanksgiving, and Mother Nature blessed me with a 57° day! While it had rained a couple days prior, the trails had enough time to dry up and be just fine for riding (minus some mud puddles here and there).

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The new trails were absolutely fantastic! I rode Weed Patch in both directions in order to sample both downhills, and it’s great in either direction. Reminded me so much of the trails in Arkansas! They didn’t just build the downhill sections to go straight downhill. There were a lot of little rollers that allow you to keep momentum going back up a little bit so that all the elevation isn’t used up in a quarter mile! And that’s exactly how they’ve been building trails in Arkansas.

The terrain is pretty similar, too. They aren’t big mountains with a lot of elevation change, but they are rolling hills with a few hundred feet of elevation to work with.

Hobbs Hollow did not disappoint either! There are a lot more jumps on Hobbs Hollow, but unfortunately the lips on these jumps were not very well-defined. They were rounded off a bit, but that’s to be expected this late in the year. I’m sure that come springtime the trail crew will be out there re-working those lips, and I can’t even imagine how great it’ll be then!

Of course, I’m also not that great at jumping anyway, so even if the lips had been freshly packed, I’m not sure I would have been clearing those table tops. They seemed pretty long given the speed… okay, maybe I’m too slow, too!

All in all, it was a fantastic day in the woods! Glad that I finally had the opportunity! Check out the video below!

My Intro to Quanah Hill

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I finally made it out to Quanah Hill after several suggestions from my subscribers on YouTube! I would say it did not disappoint!

The overall elevation after a full lap is still well under 1,000 feet, but the elevation changes are far more drastic than most North Texas trails. Steep climbs, followed by steep descents. At least in some sections. There are a couple of longer, more gradual downhill runs that still benefit from a few pedal strokes if you want to do more than just cruise down the trail.

It’s about an hour drive for me to get out there, which isn’t too bad. I’ll definitely go back! Check out the video!

Breaking Stuff in Sedona!

Back in the spring of 2016, I took a road trip through Arizona, from Tuscon all the way up to Page. That included a one day stop in Sedona. I didn’t even stay one night there, but in that single morning & afternoon, I packed quite a bit in! I hiked around Bell Rock, out to Devil’s Bridge, visited the Airport Vortex, and found the Secret Slickrock for a view of Cathedral Rock just before sunset. Oh yeah, and I saw a pretty good sunset out there!

I absolutely loved Sedona, and I knew I’d be back. That was before I was even into mountain biking. After gaining this new passion, I learned that Sedona was one of the premier destinations in the country for mountain biking! Fast forward to now, and I made my return to Sedona to ride one of the world famous trails.

It would only be for one day, once again, unfortunately. Time is money, and I don’t have a ton to spend! Thanks to my YouTube channel, I had a whole group of guys to ride Hiline with, as it’s not really a trail I think I’d want to take on by myself. Well, okay, I could have done it alone, but I probably would’ve walked even more sections than I did.

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The trail begins with a tough, technical climb up. Having been off the bike for so long, my technical climbing skills have definitely regressed. Nonetheless, I gave it a good effort! Next up is the exposure. This section of the trail is on the edge of a cliff, although it’s not nearly the death-defying experience that is Portal Trail in Moab! The cliff isn’t as high up & isn’t so straight down, the trail is wider, and there’s a lot more brush that would likely (hopefully) catch you before you tumbled all the way down the hill. Still, I wouldn’t want to fall to the right and test any of that out!

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There are great views along the way, but most of your focus has to remain on the trail. Some parts get a bit techy, but it’s all doable. Get to the top and you’re rewarded with a great view in every direction before dropping into the descent.

The descent starts with some janky rocks that also give some exposure, then smooths out into a fast & flowy section through the junipers. You come out onto the slickrock, and are greeted by some steep rollers, some of which are optional lines, and a steep & rocky chute, that would end up ejecting me from my bike!

It’s my own fault. I should have first taken the time to look more carefully at the line at the bottom of this chute, as well as slowed down some. But most of all, I shouldn’t have had my weight so far back. Yes, you can have your weight too far back. As I went frame-by-frame through my video (3rd person shot by Chris, thanks man!), I realized I had too much weight on the back wheel, which caused it to buck me off the bike. In fact, at one point I may have even “sat down” on the rear wheel, which led to the buck off.

No worries for me, as I came up with nary a scratch, but my gimbal didn’t take it so well. Both of the arms were bent, causing the gimbal to lose its range of motion by contacting itself, throwing everything off. I found a different mounting position that eliminated this issue, however, the arm of the gimbal partially obstructed the view of the GoPro with this orientation. Rats! The rest of my video would feature the juncture of the two gimbal arms in the upper-right portion of the frame! Luckily I found a better solution for the following day… just flip it the other way around.

Anyway, the trail had some more steep technical sections after that. I really wanted to try these, but after that crash I decided not to push my luck. Video can never do these sections justice, as the camera tends to flatten things out and make them look smaller than they really are. This stuff was steep, and looked like an OTB waiting to happen! Next time I’ll try it, I swear!

I would end up with one more crash on a slickrock section, where I simply slid out. Wasn’t even that bad of a crash, but I slammed my left hand onto the rock, and it was bruised pretty good. I initially hoped I hadn’t broken it, as it hurt in the same spot as my right hand did when I broke my trapezium last April in Moab. However, the pain just felt different, and luckily by the following morning it was already feeling better.

At some point along the way, I also bent my derailleur hanger, though this may have even happened on the day before on National Trail. I suspect that, as I was having problems prior to either crash with shifting. The chain was coming off the large cog and getting lodged between the cassette & spokes on several occasions. Prior to this trip, everything had been dialed on this bike, so I knew something was up! I already had a spare, so I’ve now replaced that, and it’s flawless again!

Check out the video below! #LiveTheAdventure

Riding Cat Mountain in Austin, TX

It wasn’t just another day of riding last Saturday. It also wasn’t the first time I woke up at 4:30 am to go do something fun.

I’d be making the 3.5 hour drive down south to Austin to ride a trail on private property. You won’t find this trail on MTB Project or Trail Forks. You’ll need to be a member of Freeride 512, or be with a member in order to ride it. In my case, I’d not only be riding with a member, but the main builder of these trails. Oh, and I’d also be riding with a YouTuber named BKXC. You may have heard of him before.

He wasn’t the only YouTuber, and I wasn’t the only other one. Also there was the man of Austin, Eric from No Front Brakes, Tony from MTB Drop In, and my friends Chris CXK & Cobra Kyle. We had a crew!

Brian (BKXC) and the local guys were pretty fast. They all jumped out ahead of the rest of us YouTubers. We struggled to breathe as we mainly walked up the steep climbs, and just tried not to slide off the hill on the descents! Seriously though, these trails are tough, but boy are they sweet! Seth, who is the main trail builder I spoke of earlier, has also added many wood features, like drops & jumps. Most of them were well beyond my pay grade.

This really is one of the best ways to improve as a rider, though. Ride trails that have features just a step above your current skill level. Try one new feature, or a more difficult line on a feature each time you ride, and your progress will be exponential. In my case, I did a little bit of this, but looking back on it now, there were some things that I skipped that I now wish I would have gone for!

After the ride, Brian, Eric, Chris, his wife, Kyle, his girlfriend, and myself all went to Hopdoddy to chow down on some burgers and hang out! It was cool to actually meet Brian, but after watching his videos for so long it was as if I had met him already. Kind of a weird thing! All in all it was a great time, and we were also blessed with great weather! Doesn’t look like we’ll be so lucky on that front this coming weekend!

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Check out the video!

#LiveTheAdventure

Checking Out More NEW Trails in Hot Springs, AR – Northwoods Trails

9.5 hours round-trip is a lot of driving just to ride one trail! But there’s been so much rain & flooding here in Dallas that mountain biking has been tough to come by lately. And Arkansas continues to build incredible trails! This time it’s not Northwest Arkansas, it’s Hot Springs!

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This is yet another trail system funded by the Walton Family Foundation. When it is complete, it will feature 44.6 miles of trail. The first phase, that opened up on Saturday November 17th, is 14 miles worth of green, blue, and black trails. There’s a mix of more traditional singletrack and flow trails that mimic trails you’d find at a bike park. Sculpted berms, table top jumps, gap jumps, drops, rocks… this trail system has everything!

I spent most of my time on the blue flow trail. It reminded me a lot of some of the trails I’ve ridden at bike parks this year. I still need work on my jumping, as I wasn’t able to clear many of the table tops. But they were very well designed, and they are all roll-able if jumping isn’t your thing.

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I never made it over to the black downhill trail. According to the shuttle driver at the event, this trail is pretty rowdy, and has some big gap jumps. I do wish I would’ve checked it out, but I’m not sure if there were bypasses for the gaps.

Either way, I’m pretty stoked to have another killer trail system less than 5 hours away from home! It makes for a long day trip, but it’s certainly possible, and that’s what I did for opening day!

For more info, check out the Northwoods Trails Facebook Page!

Check out the video below!

The Iconic Trail 401 in Crested Butte

I could not ride for 6 days in Crested Butte and not hit Trail 401! It always comes up whenever I read an article about mountain biking in Crested Butte. I considered it a must for this trip!

Trail 401 is a bit longer in distance than Teocalli Ridge, but the elevation gain is about the same. The difference is that it’s split into two climbs on Trail 401. I knew it’d be another tough climb, regardless. I live in flat lands 500 or so feet above sea level, so being over 11,000 feet at the peak of these trails after climbing roughly 2,000 feet was going to be difficult no matter what!

It’s a little over 6.5 miles from the parking area to the start of the downhill, and most of it is on the road. This road climb wasn’t too bad. I was actually able to pedal the majority of it. At one point I passed a couple who were driving up the road and stopping to take in views along the way. The guy asked me, “is that fun?” I replied, “Not yet!”

Even if it was just a workout at this point, the views were spectacular. I think that’s really the case no matter what trail you ride in Crested Butte!

Once you enter the singletrack, it really starts to go up. I had to walk a lot on this section. After venturing into the forest, with the wind picking up, and my body drenched in sweat from all the exertion, I started to get quite chilly! I’d take my jacket off to try to dry up some of the sweat, but I really needed the jacket on to cut that chilly breeze. I was also a little paranoid. It was very quiet. I was all alone. There are bears and mountain lions in this area. My head was on a swivel. Suddenly, my heart skipped a few beats as I heard a loud cracking & crashing, ending with a low-pitched thud! A tree had fallen nearby! I didn’t see it, but it couldn’t have been too far away. As if I wasn’t paranoid enough about animals that could eat me, now I had to worry about trees falling on me!

Needless to say, despite my gasping for oxygen-depleted air, and rubber-like thighs, I continued to pedal as much of this singletrack as I could. At this point I was getting mad at the fact this climb wasn’t over yet! But a little anger is always a good thing when you need to push yourself physically!

There was no rain in the forecast on this day, but as I approached the top, there was clearly rain off to my west. I better hurry up, I thought. I wasn’t too worried about it once I got going downhill, as I’d be going fast, and I’d be moving away from the dark clouds. Luckily I was soon starting the descent, and I never looked back.

The descent starts on a lot of straight trail, but it’s fast, and has some great views of the valley! In the summer, this part of the trail is lined with wildflowers, but in the autumn they have all turned brown and lost their will to stand up straight.

After kindly asking a couple cows to remove themselves from the trail, I got into a bit more flowy section with loamy hero dirt! I was really working on my cornering all week, focusing on leaning the bike, while keeping my torso upright and fighting the urge to squeeze the brake levers. I felt really good out there on Trail 401! The primo dirt conditions certainly didn’t hurt matters.

I made it down the initial downhill in a hurry! As a matter of fact, close to the top 10% on Strava! Well, I’m sure most people stop a million times to take in the views and snap a few photos, so take that with a grain of salt. Though I do think at this point in the week I had already gotten faster than I was on day 1.

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On the second climb I came across one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve seen looking over toward Gothic Mountain. Goodness! Just look at it!

Do you smell that? Oh wait, I can’t send smell through blogs. Dang it! I really wish I could. The wonderful aroma of the pine forest is one of my favorite scents! You won’t hear this from many people, but… I must say, Trail 401 smells great!

The rest of the downhill was more great cornering practice, with a few more rocks thrown in for good measure. It was over a little too fast, and then it was back to the car park, as the Brits would say. My bike had enough mud splattered on the frame to certify this as a legit mountain bike ride!

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I had that runners high feeling after completing that trail! Yeah, I mountain biked it, I didn’t run, but I never hear people talking about a mountain bikers high. Why is that? Actually, a mountain bikers high is much higher than a runners high. At least for me. Screw running.

Anyway, check out the video, if you will:

#LiveTheAdventure

New Favorite Trail!

What can I say about Teocalli Ridge? It’s downright awesome! Okay, let’s start from the bottom.

After a brief steep climb, it levels out for quite a while. It remains pretty mellow the whole time you’re on the road. If you’ve got a couple of 4×4’s, you could shuttle this road section, but it’s not that bad to pedal. The best part is that you’ve got killer views the whole way, especially in the fall! It is so pretty out there!

Once you get on the singletrack, however, the grade instantly gets steeper! I was walking a lot, but I had no qualms about doing so. I had already decided on this trip that I’d be taking my sweet time on the climbs, since I had all day anyway! I wanted to save my energy for the downhill!

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There wasn’t any rain in the forecast, but at one point on ominous cloud was coming over the mountains, and I thought I might be in trouble! I got a few sprinkles up near the top, but that was it.

When you think you’re at the top, you’re not. There’s a short downhill section, then it’s back to climbing again. It isn’t until you’ve arrived at the overlook that the real downhill begins.

And my, oh my, how great is the downhill?! 6 miles and about 2,000 feet of descending through rooty, rocky bits at the top, flowy forest in the middle, and switchback city through the aspens near the bottom, finishing it off with more flow through a sagebrush-filled meadow at the end. With perfect temperatures and beautiful bright yellow aspen leaves everywhere, seriously, what more could you ask for?!

The combination of all of that makes this my new favorite trail. Outstanding scenery, and probably the most fun descent I’ve ever ridden. It took me a total of nearly 3.5 hours to complete this ride, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat! If you’re in Crested Butte to ride your bike, this trail is a MUST!

#LiveTheAdventure

Perfect Start to the Perfect Week!

It was just after sunset in Crested Butte. I had left a muggy Dallas morning 13 hours prior, and just arrived in the high altitude chill of the Colorado rockies. After getting the car unloaded, I got in a bit of social media time before hitting the sack. I had planned on taking it easy tomorrow, giving my body a chance to acclimate to the elevation before doing any big mountain bike rides.

However, my social media time would reveal that one of my favorite YouTubers, Alex aka The Singletrack Sampler, was going to be riding at Evolution Bike Park in Crested Butte tomorrow! Well, there is a chair lift. I wouldn’t have to climb. So while the elevation would still affect me from muscling the bike on the downhill, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity! I’d been wanting to meet & ride with Alex since I discovered his channel, and the chances of him visiting north Texas to ride our flat XC trails are slim to none!

As far as how that day went, I’ll let the video do most of the talking! I had a blast, and felt as though I learned a few things from Alex, as well as local shredder Dakoda (Taggalong MTB), who has a few KOM’s at the bike park, so needless to say he’s a hell of a rider!

For the second day, I was still figuring I’d take it easy and continue adjusting to the elevation. It takes a good 2-3 days to acclimate, so I wasn’t trying to do any epic rides on day 2! I learned from my mistakes a month ago in Angel Fire!

Strand Hill was the perfect trail. 7.5 miles long, less than 1,000 feet of climbing, and it was only a short drive down a dirt road from where I was staying. I read that it had a fun, flowy descent. I’m in!

I started my morning early with a drive down Kebler Pass. I drove through here two years ago, and it was one of the most beautiful drives ever! I got some drone flying in, but as I got to the spot that had the most color a couple years ago, it appeared it was still too early. There was still a lot of green left. I was still able to find some good shots, though!

No doubt, the highlight of the early morning was getting to see a bull moose! It was on Kebler Pass that I saw one two years ago, but it was a long way down a steep bank on the edge of a creek, and before I could put my telephoto lens on, he had slipped back into the woods.

This time, he was right off the side of the road! I was frantically trying to adjust the settings on my camera to allow a fast shutter speed, while maintaining adequate exposure. The moose was in the woods, so it was only through small openings that I had opportunities for shots. But as luck would have it, there was a gravel road coming up! I repeated, “come out on the road, come out on the road!” The moose obliged!

At one point he was rummaging through the brush next to the creek very close to the road. I could hear twigs snapping, the moose grunting, and I could smell his B.O. It was not much different from that of your common cow. And not that it was a pleasant smell, but it added to the experience! Up close & personal with the King of the Forest!

My goodness, what an amazing creature! So huge, so powerful, and yet so beautiful.

Okay, so onto the bike ride! The climb up to Strand Hill wasn’t too bad, but I still had to dismount and walk several sections. The descent was as good as advertised! Flowy, fast, and fun! A lot of it went through thick aspen groves as well, and up here the leaves were at their peak! It was so beautiful! This, to me, is as good as mountain biking gets!

#LiveTheAdventure

The Railyard & Lake Atalanta

On the 2nd day in Bentonville… we actually went to the neighboring town of Rogers, AR to check out the Railyard & Lake Atalanta. The Railyard is a skills/jump park, and right next to it is natural singletrack on the Lake Atalanta Trail system.

Unfortunately some of the lines at the Railyard were closed as a result of all the rain they’d had the previous week. The rain had left ruts in some of the jumps. Our only options were the novice line, and the intermediate line. Both of those were still fun, although the jumps on the intermediate line had extremely steep lips, almost vertical. This is better built for a bmx or dirt jumper bike than a mountain bike. It was difficult to even come close to clearing these jumps, because they send you straight up. Not to say that my jumping skills are top notch or anything!

All was good here until Kyle decided he wanted to try the wall ride on the intermediate line. I had skipped it myself. It takes a lot of speed, and the right angle of the bike. It didn’t go well for Kyle, who ended up rolling his ankle. He didn’t really crash that bad, he stayed upright, but when he put his foot down his ankle gave out. So his day was done. Chris also had to take off and head back down to San Antonio, so it was just myself, Andrew & Mike left to ride the trails.

I was actually surprised at how good those little segments were on this trail system, given that it doesn’t get a ton of fanfare. There were some fun downhill runs, and a little bit of chunk. We also took the scenic paved boardwalk around the lake. This whole area is just super nice! I really wish there was something similar close to me! I guess Arbor Hills is the closest thing to it, but around here we simply lack the elevation.

I wasn’t sure how the video would turn it, without a whole lot of footage to work with, and a lot of it being the same runs at the Railyard, but I ended up loving how I was able to put this together! It became a really fun video! Hope you enjoy it!

#LiveTheAdventure