Almost 5 months ago, my long-time buddy, Phil McIntosh and I headed back to the small town in Southwestern Wyoming where we grew up. We both had a bunch of work to finish up so we didn’t begin our six hour trip until early evening. But, in our heads that was perfect. It was the first time in a LONG while we had taken a road trip together and we had been looking forward to it for quite some time.
Pointing the car north we sailed up the I25 corridor, everything synched. The music pulled memories from distant trips and adventures long past. The night sky darkened and millions of stars peeked through the fading glow of a fall sunset. Our chat circled around family, lost adventures, jobs, cars and biking. After all, cycling was the draw to head home.
When we lived in Green River Wyoming, not much was going on. It was the mid 80’s. We liked alternative music in a town that thrived on country. Things like skateboarding, snowboarding and mountain biking were not looked to highly upon. But in the 20 years since, much has changed. And that is why we came back to our old haunt. Over the last two decades, Phil’s dad Tom, and a group of his buddies have worked tirelessly to make this sleepy western town a mountain bike mecca. The cool thing is that for the most part, they have succeeded.
Over 40 miles of trails now surround the town. There are smooth rolling runs with banked corners and great rollers. And then, there are the uber technical lines that feature six foot drops and narrow ladder bridges. There is great climbing and even greater descents waiting to test your luck. All of these trails were the back drop for my camera.
My assignment was to shoot images for a feature article appearing in Mountain Flyer Magazine. In every issue, the magazine covers a certain biking destination. Many of the spots are new or developing. The March issue will spotlight the history of mountain biking in Green River. My job for the weekend was to get the images that would supplement the story.
As it turned out, we didn’t have the classic October weather I was hoping for. The high only reached 40˚ and the wind worked its hardest to be a classic Wyoming howl. Our shoot, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, was to cover five different trails and a newly built skills park. Nat and Rachel Lopes, of HilRide, created the layout for the park and the Tom and his gang of bike fanatics moved tons of dirt to create an amazing bike park. I stood in awe the first time I saw their creation. Green River now had the coolest bike park around. That’s something to be proud of.
So, for two days I followed the group of ten riders around, scoping out the best places to shoot. We all shared stories of great trails and wipe-outs and injuries and geeked out on the coolest gear and newest parts. What more could you ask? True to Wyoming style, the skies shone crystal blue with lofty clouds adding to the contrast. I shot mostly with off camera flash, but kept the light harsh so it would balance out the look of the sun. Over the weekend I took over 1,000 images. And from that, about 15 will be used for the story. In the end, the coolest shots were the ones that reminded me of my buddies and biking in Wyoming. It is a classic tale, two guys head out on a road trip to mountain bike for the weekend. This time we have pictures to prove how much fun it was. Thanks to all the folks in Green River for being such sports with the photo shoot. Nice work with the trails.