Flathead bike trails ranked No. 7 in nation

The online mountain bike-trail review site Singletracks.com recently ranked the Flathead Valley as a top destination for mountain bikers.

In its Top 10 mountain biking destinations in the U.S., Singletracks.com ranked the Flathead seventh.

The ranking used an algorithm that culled through 15 years of data from more than 275,000 users submitting reviews, guides, photos and other information about mountain trails around the world.

The Flathead’s high ranking was not a surprise to Mark Christensen, a board member of Flathead Fat Tires biking club.

“The Flathead Valley is definitely a growing destination,” he said. “A lot of our trail systems showcase what the area has to offer, in terms of views and the whole outdoor experience. We’ve just got an incredible valley with lots of different trails where you can get yourself into some pretty dang cool geography.”

Christensen has worked at Wheaton’s Cycle in Kalispell for the past three years, and he grew up biking the mountains of Utah, where destinations such as world-renowned Moab are considered a mountain biker’s paradise.

Cricket Butler, owner of Whitefish Bike Retreat, noted that one publication nicknamed the Flathead the “Moab of the North.” She said she’s noticed a dramatic uptick in the popularity of mountain biking.

“I opened in June of 2013, and compared with our first year, we about quadrupled business in the second year,” she said. “We get a lot of Canadians coming down, and the Whitefish Trail is a huge draw. It was developed and designed for multiple use, so it’s not a very technical trail, but it’s something families or experts can enjoy, which makes it unique.”

The recent addition of the Kashmir Trail to Whitefish Mountain Resort’s trail network is particularly noteworthy. She said it quickly became known as one of the best flow trails in the U.S. and won recognition as a “model trail” from the International Mountain Biking Association last year.

The Flathead Valley also boasts a number of top-notch freeriding trails, including the Spencer Mountain trails, one of the highest-rated in the area on Singletracks.com, Butler said. The Beardance Trail near Bigfork took top honors.

“There’s a lot more trail going in, and there are a lot more touring cyclists coming through with the three ACA routes in the area,” Butler said.

The ACA routes, designated by the Adventure Cycling Association, include the longest bike trail in the world, the Great Divide Route from Canada to Mexico. Bikers also use the Northern Tier Route, with a stop in Whitefish, to travel coast to coast, and the Great Parks trail swings into the valley from Canada.

While not every trail is technical, the newly completed Blacktail to Lakeside trail can keep expert riders busy with a nearly 3,000-foot vertical descent, Christensen said.

The Singletracks.com Top 10 list was dominated by Colorado locations, and the authors noted that some locations from Colorado were pulled from the list to offer a bigger geographical range.

However, Christensen said the Flathead’s relatively recent fame gives it a leg up on much of the competition.

“Right now, we’re pretty unknown and you can go on all-day biking adventures and see maybe one or two people the whole time,” he said. “If you go to some of the more congested areas, better known or near big cities, you can be running into a traffic jam just to get out and enjoy the trails.”