It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden some of the harder trails down in Fruita and Grand Junction. I remember the first time I was on Free Lunch, looking at the optional lines and thinking that I’d never be good enough to ride them. Well, a lot of Whistler trips have happened since then, and my idea of what’s hard to ride on a bike has changed dramatically.
This weekend, when Jen and I came down to join some friends in Fruita, I had two goals. I wanted to ride all the optional lines on Free Lunch, and I wanted to clean the entire entrance to Horse Thief. It turns out that all the stuff on Free Lunch is actually pretty chill compared to the stuff we’ve been doing the last few years. But, the Horse Thief entrance is one of the harder lines I’ve done from a purely technical standpoint. It’s really an exercise in break modulation to keep the back from breaking free. It’s also an exercise in patience while you wait for everyone to stop walking up and down it so you can ride.
