Prior to quarantine when we were still working in the office, more than half of our team participated in a popular bike to work program. Before we started social distancing, the Denver team also had a group of bikers who met up on weekends to go mountain biking together. The rides typically ranged from 5-15 miles, depending on our weekend availability and how ambitious we were feeling.

Favorite Colorado Trails

Since many people are currently embracing time in nature while social distancing, we wanted to share some of our favorite Colorado mountain biking trails.

We have enjoyed biking more than 20 trails along the Front Range near Denver. Some of our favorites that are currently open include:

Buffalo Creek

Buffalo Creek is an office favorite due to the gradual climb, smooth trails, and extra-flowy end segment. It's a slightly longer drive to get to when compared to most of our rides, but the extra time in the car gets you far enough back into the mountains to get away from the steep and rocky trails that characterize front range riding. Pack a sandwich and prepare for the Sandy Wash descent, one of the most enjoyable segments we've ridden.

Staunton Lake

At 20 miles and 2,700 feet of climbing, the Staunton Lake trail is no casual undertaking. All of the effort is well worth it, as it takes you through flowering Alpine meadows, past a red rock ringed mountain lake, and to several gorgeous vistas. And case the scenery isn't enough for you, there's also a 1,500-foot descent waiting for you to close out the ride.

White Ranch 

White Ranch is one of the closer rides, if you want to venture past the more crowded, city-adjacent trails. In addition to being conveniently located, it also offers a great mix of technical features, fun flows, and challenging climbs.

Mount Falcon

Want some exercise? Mount Falcon offers an unrelenting 1,700-foot climb over four miles of trail. It's a great ride for maintaining fitness even when you don't have a ton of time to ride.

Centennial Cone

Centennial Cone offers almost 20 miles of smooth trail and gradual climbs. There's nothing too exciting here, but sometimes that's what you want. Great for laying down base miles and building your endurance.

White Rim Trail

In mid-November 2019, we also embarked on a three-day backcountry ride covering the entirety of the 100-mile White Rim Trail in Moab’s Canyonlands National Park. As of May 29, Canyonlands National Park is reopening in phases. 

We're fortunate that the Denver area features a variety of trails ranging from casual to advanced. In addition to getting some exercise, we value the team-building and work-life balance that comes from hitting the trails. We look forward to biking together again when it is safe to do so, and we hope that you're finding ways to enjoy the great outdoors wherever you are. 

Learn more about DMC's company culture. 

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Whirlyball Origins

Despite its conception in Salt Lake City in the 1960s, there is a complete lack of properly outfitted Whirlyball facilities in my native southwestern U.S. I first thought that there may be some correlation between Whirlyball availability and regional lacrosse ability, but the presence of a location in Dallas in conjunction with the absence of any locations in the Northeast disproved this theory.

Whirlic-Ready

This hybrid mashup of bumper cars, lacrosse, and basketball was totally alien to me. All ball handling is performed using a ‘scoop’, which looks like a sawed-off piece of lacrosse equipment. I used to play tennis, and I assumed that the requisite hand-eye coordination involved in using a racquet effectively would bridge to using the scoop. Not so. I only managed to pick up the ball once, and after having done so, I grossly overestimated how much force would be required to pass the Wiffle ball ten feet to my teammate who was in perfect position to score a Whirlic. For those who don’t know, a Whirlic is the primary method of earning points in Whirlyball. The only other ways to score involve being fouled by a member of the opposing team.

Despite the fact that the most gracious thing that could be said for my performance was that I wasn’t an active detriment to my team, I had a blast playing! Now I just need to figure out how to get some solid scoop-handling practice in before the next time I play…

Whirlyball Miscellany

While researching the sport on Wikipedia to learn the proper terminology to write this article, I learned a couple of interesting things. First, there are advanced maneuvers for me to attempt the next time I play with names like “roll-offs” and “wall bouncing.” I also learned that the “pillow block” was one of the few positive contributions I brought to the court. 

DMC isn’t quite ready for the professional Whirlyball stage, but I found out that players at the national level prefer Trac Ball scoops over the standard Flo-Tron scoops. I now have a new bucket list entry: Watch the national Whirlyball championship!

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