Utarado Winter

As the temperatures drop, we had to head west to get away from the snow and to ride our bikes. The question was, could we escape it?

Just a week ago, Erik Obermeyer and myself headed west from the front range of Colorado. We headed out to Grand Junction to meet up with the Grassroots Cycles' crew. The drive out included snow, sleet, ice, and tough roads. Luckily my little Tacoma rallied through. When we got into town, we headed straight for the new Lunch Loops Bike Park (LLBP). The LLBP was recently built by James Flatten of Grassroots and a small crew. The park is awesome! It's located at the bottom of several well known trails, including some directional DH specific trails that are completely LEGAL!

Grand Junction really is stepping it up and putting themselves on the map.


While we did not encounter snow for the most part of the trip, it was COLD. Erik and I spent a few nights sleeping on the floor and couch at the shop. Devon Balet showed up Friday as our photographer for the trip. He brought out a box of new helmets for me from Kali Protectives in order to get some new shots of me in the new gear.

The trip was one of secrets, secret locations were key. While there are tons of local spots in GJ, there are a few gems off in the distance. Saturday we headed to Utarado to build, shoot, film, and ride. Devon got the bangers and as you can see in the title image, there will be some sweet shots coming out soon.

Each rider took their own approach to the trip. I had a few lines in my head I wanted to make a reality. One of those turned out to be a good sized step down hip, the rest will have to wait for another trip. Erik brought his own approach to the red dirt during his first desert trip. Erik is the front range trick king. Erik spent a lot of time building a cool technical line and playing on the hip, tricking everything in sight.

I was more interested in riding ridge lines, big jumps, and finding something unique to step up my resume for the next Rampage. James is one of most talented builders and has an extremely creative eye. He sees things as both a rider and spectator knowing what will be fun to ride and be visually impressive. After a few hours of building, James, Jeff, and I had my line. A 12x35 foot hipped stepdown. Not only was it fun to ride, it had an amazing background.

As night started to fall, we set up camp and soon realized that it was going to be cold. With the overnight low in the teens, coyotes howling in the distance, and excitement to ride the next day, sleep didn't really happen for me, we woke up to a bluebird day though. With a large crew joining us to ride for the day, the shovels were pretty much put away for the majority of the day. Erik was blasting spin combos, and guys on big bikes were burning in new lines like the Velvet Sender:



After the long day of shredding, we headed back to the shop. The plan was to head out and shoot some at the LLBP in the morning. Unfortunately we woke up to snow, effectively ending our trip. The 3 days of actual riding yielded some great images and solid video. We will definitely be heading back or even further west as Winter takes hold of the Northern Hemisphere. Stay posted for further updates.

-Nick Simcik
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