For years I have noticed this old abandoned wood mill in the outskirts of Salt Lake City. We had explored it once before, and knew it had a lot of potential to go back and get a few clips. Squeezing through the fence, I showed up to the spot an hour earlier than everyone to try and make a ledge rideable. It had a lot of potential, but if you fell in between the outcome would not be pretty. Years of garbage sat in a couple feet of water, but to me that made it all the better. It needed to have the runway and exit shoveled out, because of all the years of sawdust and woodchip build-up. In the middle of the ledge is where the problem lied – a pipe in the cement with a washer welded to it exactly where the end of the peg would hit. The hammer and chisel came in handy with a little elbow grease. All the while I am looking over my back because of all the shady characters lurking around. Everyone shows up a little later, and we start to film and shoot some pics of Tate Roskelly doing what he does best. He didn’t even get a TATE (flat tire). When he finished I proceeded to try a couple of grinds on the ledge. As I tell everyone that I going to try a smith, I look up and there are four bike cops in florescent yellow. “I guess not”, I said. They take down all of our information and give us all trespassing tickets. I found out later they were using binoculars from down the road to spy on us. As we were packing up the cop saw me put a hacksaw in my backpack and asked what it was for. Trying to think as quickly as possible I said that, “It’s for our bikes. When the pegs get grinded down on the ends we cut the tips off to make them grind smoother”. Very stupid I know, but I think he believed me. Overall though it was worth it. It’s all a part of what we love to do, and hopefully some day I will go back and get that smith.

- Shawn ‘Elf’ Walters

Thanks to Skier Jay for the photo !