Mile High Mountain Biking Reaches New Heights

Jun 15

How Bryan Walsh’s desire to organize group rides created a community that supports each other — off and on the trails

By: Bryan Walsh / 8 minute read

In 2012 I was climbing the corporate ladder, fully focused on my career — and feeling less than fulfilled. I had become a Regional Sales Manager for a local data center company and, by all accounts, I was doing well, but was becoming increasingly conflicted.

That December, I was pushing hard as I had done for years, trying to get as many deals closed as possible while managing a sales team. There wasn’t time to sit back and rest. I felt like a hamster on a wheel. I’d get up, commute to work, come home, eat dinner and try to spend a little time with my wife and kids before getting a few hours of sleep and starting the cycle again.

By the end of that year, I knew something had to change.

My priorities were imbalanced, and I didn’t want to continue on this same path. The following year, I made two decisions that would turn my life around: I resigned my position and went back to being an individual contributor, and I got back into biking.

It had been 20 years since I’d been on a bike. Like a lot of kids growing up in the 80s, I rode bikes with my friends. In college, I had a neon orange Diamondback Sorrento mountain bike that got me from class to class, although mountain biking (MTBing) hadn’t really become a thing yet.

After I left my job, I started road biking with friends because I knew it would be a good way to relieve stress and stay in shape. I did a couple of century rides. Then a friend invited me to check out the trails in Highlands Ranch. “Trails? What trails?” I’d lived there for 8 years at the time and had no idea there were MTB trails just beyond my front door. I bought a cheap MTB and accepted his invitation.

On my first day riding single track, there was a torrential downpour. The trail became one big mud puddle. Then it began to hail! For an hour or so, we slugged through driving rain and hail and mud. By the time we finished our ride, we were covered in mud —and I loved it! That day, I said farewell to road biking and embraced MTBing.

For a while, that friend was my sole MTB companion. We always had a great time, but I wanted to learn more and connect with other riders who shared my interest and passion. So, I turned to the place where people connect these days: Social media.

I joined a Facebook group to meet other local riders. It was a wonderful community for sharing information on bikes and equipment and great trails to ride. But I was a bit disappointed because they weren’t setting up group rides. On occasion, someone in the group would invite others to join them on a trail, but there were no consistent means for organizing rides.

Then the idea hit me, “Why not start a new group?”

I admit a big part of my motivation was selfish. I wanted to find other people to ride with and learn from more seasoned MTBers. In my book, riding with others is the best way to improve my skills.

I also wanted to create a safe space that would encourage new riders and provide a forum where they could post questions about bike mechanics or how to prepare for rides, etc. When I was just starting out, I had to research all those things, so I hoped that my group could cut down the learning curve for newbies and hopefully keep them from getting hurt or making costly mistakes, both financially and physically!

In 2019, I started the Mile High MTB Facebook group.

I invited people from the previous group I was affiliated with, and it just started catching on. The goal wasn’t to become a huge group, but today we have approximately 1800 members and we have new riders joining every week. MHMTB has evolved into a group of like-minded people who share trail info and learning opportunities. It’s also become a hub to find out who’s riding and where. We’ve also grown to a point where we’re connecting MTB entrepreneurs with potential clients or customers.

We screen every person asking to be part of the group. The only requirement we make is they must live in Colorado. We want people who will ride together so you need to be here in order to do that. The result is a smaller group by comparison to others, and it’s a casual, positive membership. There’s no drama (i.e. no anti-e-Bike posts.) and we don’t have to delete a lot of inappropriate posts.

In 2021, we hosted 110 group rides and we’ve just started picking up the pace for 2022.

To help prospective riders know what trail and level is appropriate for their skill level, we established a group-ride designation system. This accomplishes two things. First, it informs the rider what kind of trail and who’s riding it, and second our system allows riders to gauge their own fitness and skill level and determine if they may be the caboose or mid-pack. Our ride rating system goes like this:

Level 1. Social Rider: All in. Slower pace, riding together, no drop.
Level 2. Weekend Warrior Pace: Common trail rating is blue, 1-3 hours, 10-15 miles. Slow pace, but no drop and stops at all intersections or climbs.
Level 3. Advanced Weekend Warrior: Trail ratings are blue and black. Usually close to 20 miles, bigger climbs, technical sections, no drops.
Level 4. EndurBro/XC Pace: Trails are more black than blue, bigger technical, longer climbs, bigger technical sections, no drop.
Level 5. EndurBro and XC Pace: Same as Level 4, but these are drop rides and suited to racers.

The objective of these guidelines is to try to make all our members as comfortable as possible riding together. Even after all these years, I still remember how anxious I felt on my first group ride.

Today, after hosting or participating in more than 150 group rides, I can honestly say that I’m STILL a little nervous before we get started. I never know what other riders’ expectations will be or their skill level, or where I will stack up. But I want everyone to have a positive experience and that’s the focus.

I try to ride sweep because I don’t want anyone to ride alone. When you’re last, it can make you feel self-conscious. But what I’ve learned is that everyone feels that way when they’re riding with a bunch of complete strangers. Everyone is wondering, “Where do I fit in? How do I stack up? Can I hang?”

What I’ve discovered is that nobody cares if you’re last. Our mentality on a group ride is that we’ve all been there. We’ve been the last guy, the slowest, the least technical.

There’s an appreciation for where the person is in their MTB journey. That’s one of the best things about Mile High MTB. We just care that you’re with the group. I don’t even have to remind people to wait at the climbs. Everyone just knows.

They are there to ride with the group, not to become the next King of the Mountain. That was never more evident than on our first out-of-state group ride in Moab, Utah.

We had a dozen guys between the ages of 26 and 53 who spent a long weekend together riding the Moab trail system and having a great time. On the first day, we were riding a particularly technical trail when one of the bikers had a flat tire. He didn’t have a tube, so three or four guys immediately stepped in to help him. The rest of the group patiently waited for him to get back on the trail.

No one complained or took off. We all hung out and left together after his tire was repaired. It was cool to experience because we’ve all been there — or will be there at some point —where we will all need help from another MTBer.

That group started out as strangers and left as friends.

What’s amazing to me is how MHMTB has become a way for MTBers to demonstrate their sense of community on and off the trails. Some of our posts get personal. We had a member who was injured while riding and became depressed. He felt comfortable enough to post how he was feeling, and the group wrapped their virtual arms around him. That’s a benefit I never imagined when I started this group.

Over the years, the group has become about much more than bike rides. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to provide for ourselves and our families, manage the stressors of life, and share experiences with other people. In the end, we’re all just trying to do life.

About the author:

Bryan considers himself a relatively normal suburban guy. Instead of using drugs or alcohol, he picked a much more expensive habit: MTBing. While other people play golf, he’s out trying to ride rocks, falling on his butt and overcoming the fear of going over his bars. Most of all, he wants to ride with others and see new trails and he’s dedicated to making that happen. He hopes to expand MHMTB into more programming, such as a race team or funded group rides. His main objective is to get more people out into places beyond where they’d normally ride.