The almost annual spring trip to Fruita

...there's really nothing that can start off the cycling season like springtime in the desert. Next
year Pilots, we are having a reunion here during Fat Tire Festival, like old times.

I'm here with Timmy and Heyride and some other Ned locs. It's threatening lots of rain but luckily we haven't been caught in any storms while riding. Several hours of riding singletrack on the singlespeeds today ending with the traditional sunset ride on Horsethief Bench with beers at the cliffs midway through overlooking the Colorado River.

While riding the rim trail i had one of those "lost" moments. In a trance almost.

Simple.

The only sound you hear is that of your tires on the different soils, the slickrock, rolling along with hardly a sound, no swooshing of suspension, no chainslap. Your shoulder brushes lightly against a juniper, the breeze cooling you off. The desert flowers blooming everywhere. The steep grunts up short hills, the rolling singletrack that seems to go on forever, the single simple pleasure of riding a singlespeed in the desert, that although hard always ends in effortless spinning.