Flathead bike trails No. 7 in nation

The Flathead Valley has been tabbed as a top destination for mountain bikers.

An online bike-trail review site, singletracks.com, recently published its Top 10 mountain biking destinations in the U.S., with the Kalispell area taking seventh place.

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

For Mark Christenson, a board member of Flathead Fat Tires, the Flathead’s ranking is hardly a surprise.

“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, having moved to the area seven years ago. Before that, he grew up biking the mountains of Utah, where destinations such as world-renowned Moab are considered a mountain biker’s paradise.

Cricket Butler, the owner of Whitefish Bike Retreat, said recognition of the valley’s mountain biking opportunities has led at least one publication to dub the area the “Moab of the North.”

And while she has only been the proprietor of the bike retreat for a couple of years, Butler said she has 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. Some of that is just getting the word out, but I think [the valley] is getting to be more known,” 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.”

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

She added that the Flathead Valley boasts a number of top-notch freeriding trails, including the Spencer Mountain trails, one of the highest-rated in the area on Singletracks. 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 added.

Those routes, designated by the Adventure Cycling Association, include the longest 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, as well.

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

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

However, Christensen said Kalispell’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.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.