Trail Kids Mountain Bike Programs are part of the Loppet Foundation’s Trail Kids year-round programming. Trail Kids offers six-week mountain bike sessions for novice to advanced riders. Participants ages 7-13 will explore single-track trails while gaining skills they can use for a lifetime (for options for 13 and older, check out LCW Juniors programs)! The focus of the mountain bike program is to have fun, meet new friends, and build confidence riding the single track trails.
Female-identifying, trans, and nonbinary youth seeking to ride only with others identifying as female, trans, or nonbinary can sign up for our Girls Rock Mountain Bike Program. *Nonbinary and trans participants are welcome to join any offering in which they feel most comfortable. (for options for 13 and older, check out LCW Juniors programs)!
Those who have no experience mountain biking on singletrack trails should take one of our Beginner Mountain Bike Clinics before taking one of the six-week evening sessions.
Ability Level Guide: When registering your child make sure to indicate their ability level as described in the Trail Kids MTB Ability Level Guide. During practice sessions, participants will be coached by trained Loppet coaches on a variety of mountain bike skills so they can become safe and confident riders.
Ages: Ages 7–13, beginner to advanced abilities welcome; we split into different coaching groups based on ability, pacing, and age (for programming for 13 and older, check out LCW Juniors programs). We do not have programs for kids 6 years of age and under, so please do not register them until they turn 7 years old.
Equipment Needed: Participants will need their own mountain bike, helmet, and water bottle carrier to participate. Bikes need to have front and back wheel brakes on the handle bars (no peddle brakes or kickstands allowed). Tires must have tread and be wide enough to ride safely on mountain bike trails. For more on mountain bike equipment, view the Trail Kids MTB Equipment Guide. **We do not have a rental bike option for our six week session offerings**
Swag: Trail Kids T-shirt and water bottle for all participants available at no additional cost. In an effort to reduce waste, TK Swag is now listed as an optional “add-on” during your registration. If you’d like your participant to receive this swag please ensure it is selected.
Friend Requests: For safety and equity reasons, Trail Kids does not offer friend requests as part of registration. The mass quantity of friend requests made it impossible to accommodate them all and greatly impacted safety and group dynamics. We would love to allow everyone to practice with their friends, but if we cannot accommodate all friend requests, we cannot offer them to everyone. We encourage riders to embrace the opportunity to form new friendships through our programs!
Adventure MTB Race: Participants will get a chance to partake in one race that is offered as part of our Trail Kids program. There will be one race scheduled for each of the sessions during a normally scheduled practice. Participants will race with their teams at different start times throughout the evening, and continue practicing with their team before and after their race wave.
Weather Cancellations: While Trail Kids embraces the belief that the outdoors can be enjoyed in any weather, there are some weather circumstances, including high temperatures, thunderstorms, etc. that can create unsafe or wildly unpleasant experiences for our coaches and participants. We will occasionally cancel or shorten practices due to extreme weather. We make weather calls the day of, 90 minutes before the start of practice. We will contact you via email and/or Team App about adjustments to practices; please do not ask in advance. Assume practice is always running unless you have received an email or a Team App notification otherwise (be sure that you can receive Team App notifications and do not unsubscribe from RunSignUp). Due to the lack of adequate indoor space and additional programs utilizing it already, Trail Kids is unable to shift practices inside the Trailhead on days where we have inclement weather. In instances where practice is canceled due to inclement weather, we do not offer refunds or make up practices.
