Interview: A Decade of History - Highland Mountain Bike Park Turns 10

The only dedicated lift access mountain bike park in the world, Highland Mountain Bike Park, will be kicking off their tenth year in business on Wednesday. Mark Hayes vision of diversity, progression, and adaptation throughout the years has led to a successful season endeavour that many have come to depend on when the East Coast snow melts. We took some time to talk to him about the park's development over the last ten years, the secret to keeping the dream alive, and what he sees for Highland over the next ten years.


You are celebrating your 10th year of operation at the bike park this year, how did it all start?
My first real mountain biking experience was in the early 90's when a group of friends invited me for a trail ride at the Middlesex Fells Medford, Ma. Prior to that I had only taken short rides on fire road type trails and I had no clue about the type of trails that existed all around me. It didn't take long into my inaugural Fells ride before I realized that I was hooked. I was riding 3 to 4 days a week. The core group of friends that I rode with was very competitive and soon our XC style started to morph into a Freeride style. Our gear changed from hard tail bikes and spandex to full suspension and baggy shorts, and we fully converted to the Freeride Mountain Bike scene that was growing in popularity. In 1998 my friends formed a DH race team and they invited me to join them. This discipline pushed me deeper into the sport and without it I might not have pulled the trigger to develop Highland.

Passion played a major role in the development of Highland but the capital to feed this passion came from the sale of my fiber optic company. In 2000 I sold a business that I started with my father and sister. I took my newly acquired capital, bought an old run down ski area and during the summer of 2003 my crew and I started Highland Mountain Bike Park.



You are the only dedicated lift access mountain bike park internationally, with most seasonal bike parks operating in the red, how have you kept the dream alive for ten years?
The bike park industry is still relatively small so it’s no big surprise that most seasonal bike parks are having a hard time staying out of the red. The easy answer to why a bike park is in the red is to say they simply have not attracted enough riders to generate the revenues to pay their bills.

Highland is a company of very passionate individuals. The passion is the driving force behind the creativity and the momentum that keeps us going. Without it we probably would have quit a long time ago. But with that in mind it’s still a business with real costs. We rely on a good strategy to keep our dream alive.

Highland is a brand that caters exclusively to the bike riding industry and more specifically to bike parks. We’ve gained extensive knowledge of bike park development over the years by building Highland Mountain Bike Park, Northfield, NH. Our Bike Park caters to riders of all abilities but it also acts as an R&D facility feeding knowledge to our trails division called Highland Trails. This division offers training and trail building services to help others scale their bike parks. It’s an ongoing strategy that brings in revenue while helping to grow our brand and the industry. But it wasn’t always like that.

In 2006 Highland opened to the public at a time when the bike park scene was very different. Most of our customers on opening day were either Downhill racers or advanced riders looking for more Freeride terrain. We lacked novice trails and learn to ride programs, so as a result we lacked the ability to sustain any real growth. We opened our first beginner trail by the end of our first season. That trail was enough to entice a few more folks to try riding but it still wasn’t enough to sustain the growth that we needed to build a successful operating bike park.

Through the years we’ve managed to open our doors to a much broader audience by breaking down some of the barriers, like the fear and cost associated with Bike Park riding, through our Park Ready Programs. If you offer the first time rider a deal and show them how to ease into the sport there’s a likely chance they’ll have fun and want to come back for many more visits year after year. It’s this recurring revenue business model that adds growth to the park and helps to keep it out of the red.




What is the park employee culture like? Do you have people who have worked there all ten years or is it more seasonal due to the industry?
Highland is a business that caters to customers on their day off. These are customers that share the same passion as we do, so as a result the culture is very laid back. We are in a fun industry and are having fun while working hard at what we love. Most of our year-round employees have been with the company for 6 or more years. The seasonal employees come back too. Most have also come back year after year.


How has the trail system in the park developed over time?
When we started out our trails were a mix of the typical “East Coast” rocky, rooty, aggressive DH trails along with an early generation of gravity freeride trails. We were building stuff at Highland that very few people had ever experienced. It was a taste of the future for east coast gravity bikers. Year after year our trails continued to develop through a process of trial and error. We would build, test, build some more, tweak and eventually open to the public. It’s a process that has defined who we are and the trail quality that we offer as bike park builders. Over time and as our customer base has grown, we have developed trails that allow the beginner or family to enjoy Highland as well as the aggressive hardcore rider. Our newest section of the mountain, Central Park, even has a section for kids on kick bikes.




What features does the park offer outside of trail riding?
Outside of your typical “lift access downhilling” we’ve built a full network of XC trails with support from NEMBA (New England Mountain Bike Association). The trails are free of charge and really fun. Also, we have the Highland Training Center (HTC) that is a 9100 square foot indoor training facility with a foam pit and resi jump. A lot of the features mimic the features on the mountain so it’s a great stepping-stone for progression. We also have a 50x50 foot Ayr Bag, two dirt jump parks, a kick bike track, beginner zones, and progression areas. We offer a full line up of lessons and camps, including Ayr Academy; our overnight celebrity coached weeklong camp.



Do you host racers or competitions through the season? What events do you have coming up this year?
Events have always been an important part of the Highland brand. We like to have fun with them. We have hosted big freeride events like the Claymore Challenge over the years, but the local events are fun too. Our biggest event this year is our OverMountain Enduro. This event is part of the East Coast Enduro Series, and will draw over 250 racers. It’s a great event with a huge turnout. Big events can be quite rewarding but there’s something to be said about the small ones. Last year we hosted a Friday night race series and that turned out to be a big hit. We kept the entry fee low by using hand timing and no cash prizes. It was a great way for friends to hush a week’s worth of trash talk in a fun, laid back race environment. The full Highland calendar of events is posted here.


What are you doing to celebrate your ten year anniversary?
We talked about doing a big party or something, but we decided Highland is just cool the way it is. We want to celebrate it for how it started and where it’s going. I don’t think we need a cake or anything to acknowledge 10 years. However, my marketing manager convinced me to make a logo!


With the East Coast weather at play, how much work is it to get the park ready to open each year?
Well the last 2 years have been a challenge for sure. The East has had record snowfall and up until last week the trail crew was really sweating it, but per usual the tides have shifted for us and we are seeing 60 degree sunny days now. 90% of the snow is gone off the mountain and we’ll be in great shape for opening day!


Where do you see Highland in the next few years?
Highland’s mission is to be the premier company providing the best mountain bike training programs at all rider levels, as well as, to be the premier trail design, construction, and maintenance experts in the industry. I predict the growth that we are starting to see now in bike park development will continue to pick up speed and the Highland brand will be at the forefront of the charge.




Trailforks.com

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