Mountain Biking | Midland School

Mountain Biking

Find freedom, focus, and flow on the trail

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Built for Momentum

One of our newest and most popular offerings at Midland, mountain biking involves not only skills-development in riding and technical bike handling, but also in bike maintenance and trail development. Whether you’re an experienced rider or excited by the idea of trying mountain biking out for the first time, there’s space for you to shine in our program. Build strength, balance, confidence, and trail awareness across our gorgeous hillsides and ridgelines. There is no more beautiful place for a two-wheeled adventure!

Ride From Your Doorstep

Our 2,860 acre campus features mile after mile of trails, including mountain biking trails built specially for our team’s training and competition purposes. Our campus trails hook up into the Los Padres National Forest trail system, so there’s always more mountains to climb and views to explore.

Trail Design

Learn the science of trail design and how to give your ideas real momentum… then dig in and make your vision come to life! Recent student trail design and construction includes a beginner-to-intermediate flow trail featuring berms, rollers, and jumps proximate to central campus.

State-Level Competitions

Our trails are special… and we’re not the only ones who think so! Midland is honored to host state-wide competitions on our home trail system in partnership with the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA). Our team competes with other schools at races across the state.

Develop Your Skills

Mountain biking brings together adventure, fitness, design, and land stewardship. Many of our students first discover riding for the pure fun of it, then begin to see how every trail depends on planning, care, maintenance, and respect for the land.

Students can get involved in a variety of ways: seasonal sports, Experiential Saturdays, free riding during Half Holidays, and even design trails through Senior Projects. Over time, riders gain confidence, endurance, technical ability, and a deeper relationship with the landscape beneath their wheels.

Ways to Get Involved

Students can choose mountain biking as a seasonal afternoon sport, building skill through regular rides and guided practice. Riders develop fitness, bike handling, trail awareness, and confidence across varied terrain. Beginners learn the basics of shifting, braking, climbing, descending, and riding safely in a group. More experienced riders refine technique, build speed, and take on more challenging trails.

Experiential Saturdays give students a low-commitment way to try mountain biking, especially if they feel curious but new to the sport. Students can get on a bike, learn basic skills, and experience the fun of riding without committing to a full season.

These sessions may include trail rides, bike maintenance, trail work, or skill-building activities. Students get a taste of the sport and the community around it, with plenty of room to try, laugh, learn, and keep going.

On free afternoons, many students opt outside on two wheels, exploring new sections of our extensive ranch property.

We frequently have seniors undertake a Senior Project related to trailwork and design. Recent work has included planning and building a durable mountain bike trail for Midland’s emerging bike program. Students who pursue trail projects learn how to read terrain, shape flow, manage erosion, and build features that other riders can enjoy. Once complete, they leave a meaningful legacy within our landscape for future Midlanders to enjoy.

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