Volunteer Spotlight

January Volunteer Spotlight: Mike Weber

Mike Weber is all over the mountain biking scene in Northern Colorado.  You’ll find him organizing holiday group rides, reporting trail conditions online, and riding dawn patrols almost daily.  Weber was recently awarded the “Silver Sprocket” as Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol Volunteer of the Year–AGAIN.  Rumor has it this was his 12th honor in a row, so we challenge other members of DPMBP to step up!  Mike is currently a director at large on Overland’s Board of Directors.  Read on to get to know him a little  better.  

How long have you been involved with Overland? 

Weber: I’ve been involved with OMBA for a little over 10 years, starting with Wednesday social rides in 2012 or 2013. 

When did you join the Board of Directors?

I started with the Board of Directors at the end of 2022.

Why did you decide to get involved with DPMBP? 

Kenny [Bearden] was the patrol director and talked me into being on patrol because I was already out there a lot and already willing to help people as needed, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to just go ahead and join the patrol.

What’s the most rewarding part of volunteering for Patrol? 

Interacting with visitors and providing info to them is primary, but I also enjoy being able to assist the land agencies in knowing their use patterns and knowing the conditions of their properties since they can’t be everywhere at once.

What’s the strangest thing that has happened to you while out on Patrol? 

Fortunately most of my patrols are pretty uneventful.

If you could educate trail users on one thing what would that be? 

Stay on the trail and be nice to other trail users.  A little mechanical knowledge and a little first aid knowledge goes a long way.  Bring layers for changing weather.  Sorry, that is not one thing – MW

If Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol sounds like something you might want to be a part of, then you can email patrol director, Pete Skram at overland.dpmbp@gmail.com.  Patrollers educate users about trail etiquette, collect trail use data, monitor trail conditions, report incidents, provide information, medical and mechanical assistance when necessary. You get to be a “good guy on a bike” and basically volunteer when you’d be riding anyways!

 

December Volunteer Spotlight: Matt Moulton

Matt is a recent transplant to Northern Colorado, but didn’t let that stop him from immersing himself into planning the Northern Colorado Mountain Bike Festival when we put out the open call!  He created the route maps and Poker Ride cards then donated the cards along with the Poker Ride signage you saw out on the trails during the festival. His passion for community is infectious and we’re so grateful he decided to be part of ours.

Why did you decide to volunteer for the Northern Colorado Mountain Bike Festival Committee?

Matt:  I am always looking for random things to be a part of. One of the goofiest ones is I volunteered to be a hostage for a SWAT training exercise, which that’s probably something I need to write about. I think that that would be a funny story but then I was like, Well let’s not do that again.  I love riding my bike. I love being outside. And I’m new to the area. I want to join this this committee. I’ve worked on planning some events before in different capacities, and I feel like I could meet cool people and do cool work.

Tell us about your experiences as Director of the Poker Ride.

Matt: So it was fun. I have a 10 year old who is gung-ho about all things maps right now. We’ll just pull out his iPad, and then look at Google Maps and everything. And so this was an opportunity for us to kind of plan things together.  I’ve never done a Poker Ride, I’ve never even heard of it until the planning meeting. And I was like, Okay, so there’s a map involved. Great. This can be kind of fun, like a scavenger hunt. I think that it kind of matched some of the skills that I have. And then it also gave me a fun creative outlet. That’s different. From what I do on a daily basis.

That’s so cool that you got your kiddo involved. 

Matt: He’s a blast. He’s still gaining confidence on riding his mountain bike, but he did the Poker Ride too, which is great.  It was so cool planning that event and then kind of being there and helping run the event and experiencing it. 

What was your absolute favorite part of the festival?

Matt: Oh, the festival was just a blast. It was great getting there first thing in the morning. And then helping with all the setup and being able to meet a lot of the people that are involved in the organization but weren’t necessarily a part of the planning committee.  It was good to be around community of people that dig the same stuff. 

I think that my favorite part was I sat down the Specialized dealer who was doing an E-bike demonstration. While I was doing that, Michelle, my wife, and Jack, my son, went out on an introduction to mountain biking beginner ride with Ninja Mountain Bike Performance.  Which is awesome because here’s all these different groups that are out here [at the festival] and everybody’s doing something all at the same time. I was able to sit down at this e-bike demonstration and I won a free tire, and then I jumped over to Santa Cruz and I hopped on one of their mullets and I caught up to Jack and Michelle out on their ride. And it was awesome.

I love that. There’s something for every person in the family at that festival. It’s not just geared to bros who want to go fast and jump, and it’s not just geared to kids.  Everyone had an opportunity to explore new trails, experience new bikes, and then just have a blast and be outside. 

Let’s bring it back to the volunteer role. You’re obviously gung-ho to jump in and help out, but not everyone feels that way. So what is it about volunteering that lights you up? What would you say to someone who is maybe on the fence about jumping into a volunteer role?

Matt: I did a trail building day when we were working on the Nomad-Stout Connector, and so I was out there for one day and I loved that.  I think the cool thing about Overland is that there’s stuff for everybody.  If you want to do advocacy, you can do advocacy.  I’m sure you can get involved in Fort Collins bike park efforts. If you want to build trails, you can build trails.  If you want to talk to people, ride bikes, go have a beer, and sit down with them and talk about trails or whatever. 

With the festival I think that the way you and Kenny made it so accessible for people.  There’s no need to RSVP and say I’m definitely going to be there, but just there’s an open meeting, we’re gonna meet here, come and check it out. And then kind of make it what you want. You can jump in as deep as you want. So you [can say] I want to plan a certain activity or I’m just gonna sit here and when somebody says, Oh, we need a volunteer to do this, then you can jump in and do that. You don’t have to have experience as an event organizer or working with kids, but if you’re just like, Hey, I like riding my bike, and here’s an opportunity to meet people. I say do it.

Last question. What’s your favorite trail to ride in northern Colorado?

Matt: Right here, close to Fort Collins, I’d say Blue Sky is my favorite. I think that the massive downhill before you start getting closer to Indian Summer if you’re doing the loop–that is so much fun to go down and then it just absolutely kicks your ass going back out. And I love it. And I should probably do that more often than I do. Yeah, that’s a good one.

Thank you, Matt, for enthusiastically jumping in to a new experience–even when you weren’t sure exactly what you were getting yourself into!  Your contributions definitely leveled-up the Poker Ride and your positivity always livens up the room.  

 


November Volunteer Spotlight: Joanna Fetherolf

Joanna joined Overland Mountain Bike Association in 2021 to support trail efforts in the community.  She has been attending the Women’s Adventure Rides, taking her family on the OMBA x Wolfpack Family Fun Rides, and when she heard the NoCO MTB Festival was expanding to TWO DAYS, she knew she wanted to contribute in a bigger capacity!
 
 
Why did you decide to volunteer for the Northern Colorado MTB Festival committee?
 I wanted to get more involved in the OMBA community and thought this was a good way to meet people while contributing to the organization. 
 
Tell us about your volunteer role. 
I was the leader for Take a Kid Biking Day. My family and I had a blast the previous year riding with the kids and thought the event was fantastic. I wanted to contribute as the festival grew to a two day event. Begin a part of the festival planning team was awesome, I loved getting to know the other committee members and brain storm ways to grow the festival. We had an amazing turn out of around 100+ kids participate in the day. We worked hard to provide age appropriate routes, good group sizes, an engaging game and fun day for all! 
 
Folks always say volunteering is “rewarding”.  How did volunteering for the festival make you feel?
Being a part of the festival planning and take a kid biking day was so rewarding! I got to know the leaders and fellow committee members from OMBA, which was a great way to make me feel more a part of the community. Hearing the “we had the best time” response from kids and ride leaders as they returned from the course was the reward for time well spent. 
 
Watching your hard work come to fruition, what was your favorite moment of the festival?
Seeing 100+ kids on bikes set off on the course made my heart happy – I already can’t wait for next year! 
 
Which NoCO trail is your favorite to ride?
Current favorite trail to ride in NoCo is Devils Backbone. 
 
More thoughts from Joanna: 
The Women’s Adventure Rides have been a rewarding experience with new friendships, skills practice and the opportunity to check out new trails. Thanks to Darlene and Samantha for leading the rides this summer/fall! Shout out to Brad for putting together the Wolfpack/OMBA combo kids rides. These rides have been a great way to keep keep the kids biking, while developing friendship and community for both kids and parents alike. Volunteering and participating in OMBA activities have given me a place to contribute and be a part of the OMBA community. I look forward to riding and meeting more members of OMBA, while continuing to support the trail efforts in our community!
 
Thank You, Joanna, for sharing your volunteer experiences with Overland members!  We can’t say Thank You enough for the estimated 6 hours of meetings and pre-planning for Take-a-Kid Mountain Biking, 5 hours of running the event, and stepping in to help with registration and the Poker Ride at the Northern Colorado Mountain Bike Festival!