Back to basics - playing on the rocks in Palmer Park

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With Nick racing the 24 Hours of Colorado Springs in a few weeks, it's time to head back to Palmer Park and get to know the trails a little better. I'm not racing, but I am supporting, so knowing where he's riding is a good thing. We were supposed to do a course recon on Wednesday, but did not have a map printed out yet. So we just rode around with Kristi, showing off some of the fun trails the park has to offer. We did ride sections of the course, but for the most part, just had a good time on the bikes. The trails were pretty quiet so we were able to keep the tempo high. Up the hill, along the mesa's edge, down one of the rocky trails, then back up and around. Nick took us on one of the social trails on the south east corner of the park that I had had difficulty with the last time. No issues on the this ride, and even better was that I was able to stay on my bike on the next "goat" trail we chose!

We meandered our way to little Moab, where it was time to session the rock drop. I didn't want to do it at first - the erosion crack in the rock scares me. So I walked down at first. Then Kristi decided that she wanted to try it. Nick spotted her and talked her through the line and she cleaned it on her second attempt. That meant I had to bow to peer pressure - time for me to try the rock face again... Nick showed me the line, walked me down the drop. Then I wheeled my bike back a ways to give it a try. And with a rather loud squeak as I approached the rock, I got my weight back and rolled down the rocks. Not as hard as it looked, but scary as anything to look at! It was also the first time I'd even really attempted the rock face so I was pretty stoked about that!

After the adventures at little Moab, it was back to riding around. We swung by the cars, then decided to do another lap of the south mesa and take the fun descent off the mesa. More just fun, fast riding on the rocks. We spent a little time working on one particular rock on the top of the mesa, then started heading for the parking lot. Sunset was coming and none of us had lights. While we didn't achieve the original goal for the ride, we all had a really good time. Kristi hadn't ridden in the park before and was really surprised by the variety of terrain available and the number of trails jammed into such a small spot. We'll make another trip this weekend to scope the course, but I'll be on foot for that adventure!

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