So we rolled out the smooth white paved path to the West Buttermilk road at a brisk pace at around
1:15pm this mostly sunny and arid 78 degree -Aspen, Colorado day. Karol and myself..the lower
government trail is the most convenient trail that will also give my new spring up front a good
workout, so govie it was..
Being that I have just recently installed: Manitou Black Comp 100-120mm front suspension unit and
egg beater pedals, as well as new rear disk brake pads- I was going to ride the bike hard this day-
so I promptly gave Karol a call around 11:30am to set a plan.
Chris Karol, is a retired World Cup Alpine Snowboard legend-yet still at 38 or so he still is
extremely competitive and is still a super strong roller...
And there we were charging up Buttermilk service road up to the government trail. Hammering -trying
to outclimb each other to the next crest -the whole way up the road climb section-until we made a 90
degree right turn onto dry buff singletrack. Traversing east to west across Buttermilk SKi Area this
trail has a nice mix of gentle rolling sections and steep rooty technical "stair step" climbs
dispersed nicely to west Buttermilk and on up past the ski area boundary.
So far- I could not be more pleased with how the bike was feeling. The bike and I made short work of
all of the technical areas. I skillfully flowed as one with the knobbed machine as it chewed through
the off camber jagged rock strewn section known as "rock garden". I then blissfully negotiated
rolling forest singletrack ascending out to the 2nd wilderness gate. Karol ran out of steam on one
of the lower singletrack climbing sections. I arrived at the gate solo. While waiting for Karol I
marveled at how nicely the adjustable 100-120mm of coil goodness really made the bike seemlessly
morph from cross country rig to a long travel "trail" bike.
A few minutes passed and Karol arrived - we packed the oney a few times and snacked on some clif
bars and such. After quickly debating whether to turn around or keep going, we decided to keep
going. Good thing --the next 1.5 miles is a rocky (fast) mix of steep and gradual somewhat gnarly
downhill with amazing technical forest singletrack descending 800-1000 vertical feet. After spilling
out into the open meadow we both noted how sick the last dh section was, and decided to turn around
and head back.
The climb back up to the wilderness gate was no problem and once we tamed the rock garden -it was
on...2 miles of the lower government that simply rips..the bike was tasty sweet on the way down, and
reaffirmed the refinement up front. Darting and flowing all the way out...this was simply one of the
better rides I've done thus far this season.
It's amazing what going from a sid dual air 63mm fork to a 120mm coil can do to sweeten the
sweet spot...
Edwards