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Sixteen-year-old James Hebert and 17-year-old Kaleigh Cutler looked up at a three-word epitaph: "Rock in Peace."

Scrawled in gold spray paint, the words adorn a large wall of weathered plywood dug into a dirt hill at Sherwood, a local BMX park. The wall is a testament to their late friend's twin passions for bike riding and music with a message.

Before it became a part of the BMX park, the wall was a stage where a local band practiced in a family garage. After it had served its purpose as a makeshift stage, it was transformed into an addition to Sherwood's gauntlet of jumps.

This week, it was altered yet again - this time, to honor Chris Wilson, who had used it for both functions.

A life cut short

Chris, 17, an MCHS junior, was found dead Sunday at the base of the Sandrocks, located north of Ninth Street in Craig. Police determined later in the week his death was caused by an accidental fall from the rocky outcropping.

Hebert and Cutler remembered Chris as someone who made an effort to better the lives of people around him.

Cutler and Chris had known each other for six years.

"He was just always happy," she said. "You never saw him down."

Hebert, a Moffat County High School junior, moved to Craig three years ago and was soon befriended by Chris.

"Whenever he saw someone that wasn't happy, it was always his goal to cheer him up," Hebert said.

Chris was known for his riding skills as well as his personality.

Chris spent much of his time at Sherwood, mastering new jumps. About two years ago, he and a handful of other local youths set up the plywood wall.

Chris' friends and relatives turned his addition to the park into a memorial, painting on it his name, his birth date and the date he was found beneath the Sandrocks.

And below those dates, in gold spray paint, they added, "Rock in Peace."

Traces of their work remained Friday. Cutler pointed to a pile of stencils scattered on the ground behind the wall, barely distinguishable from the faded leaves fallen around them.

Rocker, rider friend

MCHS Senior Josh Sonntag, 17, sat on one of the dirt-packed jumps Friday afternoon and looked at the wall he'd helped Chris and his brother, Steve Wilson, put up.

"We figured, you know, we still have a part of (Chris) here every day we come in," Sonntag said.

Chris, Sonntag and Steve Wilson performed together in a Christian metal band, "Sign of Tragedy."

"Rock in Peace" seemed an apt epitaph, Sonntag said.

Steve Wilson laughed when he recalled the memorial's humble beginnings.

The band's practicing in the Wilson family's trailer house met with their father's opposition. Trying to play their instruments around the cars parked in the garage didn't work out too well, either, he said.

"So we found a bunch of plywood and built over our stuff, so we all have a stage on top of all the junk."

After the family moved to a different house, Steve and Chris decided to convert the stage into the wall that now stands in Sherwood.

The obstacle, built into a dirt hill, was designed as a wall ride. With enough momentum, bikers could ride up the hill and coast along its front.

Painting the wall in Chris' honor seemed the right thing to do, Steve said, because Chris had a noticeable passion for BMX bike riding.

Then again, Chris was that way about many things.

"He was always passionate about everything he did," Steve said.

Message carries on

Chris' memorial at the BMX park may not be the last.

At least, not if his friends and relatives can help it.

A memorial fund set up at the First National Bank of the Rockies will collect funds to be used either to update Craig's existing skate park or build a new one.

And Jair Jurado, MCHS junior, wants to put up a warning sign and possibly a fence on the Sandrocks to prevent future accidents similar to the one that killed his friend.

Chris "was really outgoing and really happy," Jurado said. "You'd expected him to have a really long life."

On Friday, Hebert looked out across a maze of dirt mounds rising beneath an overcast October sky.

Most of the trees looming around Sherwood had cast down their leaves, making the landscape monochromatic and bare.

But a large wooden wall newly painted with neon lettering broke the gloom, reminding Hebert and other visitors of a rider and musician who left an indelible mark on the park and their lives.