One of those super charged magic moments in the Gunnison Valley, the opening of Hartman’s Rocks. Jim Lovelace of the BLM came into Rock N Roll to deliver the news, even though we were working on other folks bikes, still it made us giddy for the rest of the day.

I made it out for my first ride with BDills, aka Bryan Dillion, 9:am Saturday morning. The air still held a chill, the humidity was high, thus the world had not seized the chance to get in some early miles and we hardly saw another rider. Riding much of my favorite trails, Jacks, Talipipe, Ridgeline, Top O the World, Gateway, Josies, Skyline, Rocky Ridge, Becks, Collerbone puts a silly smile on your face.The sort of smile that only comes from carving turns through the sage and hoping up and off the bits of rock, it just feels so good.

My body, on the other hand, didn’t like being thrown into powering through singletrack and all the short burst climbs that dot the trails at Hartmans. While I had been riding the road a bit, even doing a few intervals on the trainer, I had not done enough not to feel the lead in my legs and the tight grip of out of balanced muscles in my back. Plus I was riding with Bryan who is young, fast and had been riding a bunch more than me, he was looking casual while I was breathing hard. I got a lot of work to do….