I cut out work a little early, well relative to when I usually leave, which is late by most everyone's standards at Specialized, and checked out the trails at Harvey Bear. My co-worker, Brent, showed me a really fast and fun hour-long loop. We climbed up a series of short fire roads connected by cow trails and a series of gates, passing by cows and deer along the way. Once we reached the backside we blasted through a flowy section of single track that felt like it went on and on.
The land scape was mostly exposed and expansive like the photo above, save for the more wooded single track sections out back. Once we reached the south portion of the loop we rode more tight single track that ran along the face of rolling hills with epic views of the valley below. My kind of trails. It only took us an hour, but it was the most fun I've had on my mountain bike in a while, granted it was on new dirt and the fact that it was only 15 minutes away from work. We made it back just in time for the park to close, which is just after sunset.
I rode the Epic and opened the Brain(s) to full squish. It was perfect for the semi smooth terrain. Smooth is fast, and fast is smooth. I definitely have this bike dialed in. I love that it's straight out of the box, and completely stock, save for a couple swaps like tires, grip/rotor sizes.