This video has been out there for a couple of years but it just recently popped up on my radar.  It’s an inspiring look at mountain biking in Chaffee County as described by four residents and local riders.  

What’s interesting to me personally is that after riding here now for four years I know the trails are good, but I think I’m in danger of becoming a bit jaded.  When you can experience this quality of riding and scenery on any given day, you start to take it for granted.  Oh look, another mountain…  The human brain is funny that way.  So seeing the trails I ride all the time presented by a professional cinematographer with sweet drone shots and skilled edits sort of snapped me out of my complacency.  And I realize, oh yeah, this place where I’m lucky enough to live really is that good.

The other thing is, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a couple of the people in the video.  It’s a small town, you can’t help but meet people.  Lane Wilson is the affable owner of Oveja Negra, purveyor of quality bike bags for everyone from casual riders to hard-core multi-day bikepackers.  Good stuff.

The other is Jason Shelman, who describes himself in the video as the owner and head janitor of Subculture Cyclery, Salida’s “other” bike shop.  Although he didn’t mention it, but because I’ve witnessed it first hand, I would add, “bad-ass single-speed mountain biker”.  Yeah, single speed.  Around here, where pretty much everything goes straight up. 

Thanks to the good folks at Salsa Cycles for featuring our little valley in their video series.  

Enjoy!