[Da Bureaucrat]

Am headed to Great Falls in June for parents 50th wedding anniversary. Saw the link on rides near Helena and Butte. Any good rides in the Great Falls area or would I be better off riding near Helena? Thanks

 

[AFViper]

I recently moved to great falls. The only trail I know of is the Rivers Edge Trail . There should be others outside of town but I don't know of any yet.

 

[Jeebs]

There's a decent trail in the Highwoods, I think it's called Thain Creek. There's a turn before the town of Highwood that will bring you to a campground, and the trail starts from there.

 

[jparker164]

I rode the rivers edge trail last summer and it was pretty lame. Or maybe that was just the mud. The highwoods have some excellent singletrack. I don't remember where we started from but there were a few different loops to ride. Highly recommended. Check out the number of casinos in the town - unreal!

 

[AFViper]

Found this site with trails in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The site lists hiking trails so I am not sure if these are all open to bikes. It looks like you will have to buy a map to find out where all of these trails are.

 

[Da Bureaucrat]

Hey Guys, Thanks for the info.

AFViper, have you found a good LBS? Last time I was there (2 or 3 years ago) I went into a shop near the downtown area and asked about local riding and was told "No good riding around here. Don't know of any good riding anywhere". Took it as locals protecting their turf??

 

[AFViper]

I know of 2 stores around here, Central Bike, and Knicker Biker . Haven't been to either of them yet. There is also a cycling club in Great falls. There must be some riding here since there are two stores, and a cycling club, I don't know why the LBS was telling you there are no good trails around here.

 

[jparker164]

Go to the Highwoods. We started out of some sort of campground, shouldn't be to hard to find on a map. Trail map at the trailhead. Good riding there.

I wasn't too impressed with the bike shops in town.

Heres a pic of the sun setting on one of the many dams and refineries. No more great falls there, only dams and mud pits. uhhhg. . . brings back memories of that sticky mud i came across there. . .

 

[AFViper]

I know what you mean when you say sticky mud. Just got back from a short ride over there. A couple miles into the trail, right after the bridge there is a big area of what feels like clay. This was my first time going through there when the trail was a little soft, so I had no idea it was going to be muddy in that part since there are no puddles. After going about 10 feet through there I was halted by the clay, and spent 10 minutes cleaning it of of my tires. But other than that area it was fairly dry.

 

[lewdj]

Am headed to Great Falls in June for parents 50th wedding anniversary. Saw the link on rides near Helena and Butte. Any good rides in the Great Falls area or would I be better off riding near Helena? Thanks

There's some great riding in and near Great Falls. The North Shore trail is Awsome. Just take the highway north of town (towards Havre) to the Ryan/Morony dam road take a right and go either to Ryan or Morony dam. Theres trail head signs ect. I usually start at Morony dam, but it depends on the wind direction. There's the Windy mountain trail in the Highwoods, some hard climbing and very fun down hill. Also Pilgrim Creek in the little belts is great either as a shuttle or an all day epic if you don't mind riding some fire roads and climbing. Send me a message, maybe we could hook up for a ride, or I can connect you with some of my riding buddy's if I'm not available.