Video: Montana's First Shuttle Bike Park Now Open

Jul 15, 2021
by Pete Costain  
Views: 3,743    Faves: 6    Comments: 0


Montana's first shuttle park opens July 15, 2021. LBP is located above the west shore of Flathead Lake near Lakeside, Montana and offers a wide variety of gravity trails carved into a private north facing basin of former timberland. The crew and I at Terraflow Trails have been holed up and pounding away 7 days a week for 4 months to get ready for this summer's "soft opening" of the trails and campground. Five main top to bottom routes and 13 named trails offer riding for all abilities, from rollercoaster greens to our flagship double black jump line, Forty, with you guessed it, 40 massive hits.

The goal with LBP was to create a destination catering to mountain bikers with no extraneous BS, just sweet trails with quality shuttle rigs and a backwoods campground that's a great place to relax. 31 campsites, a primitive shelter and two pumptracks complete the package. Future expansion potential is massive, but for version 1.0 we put our efforts into what we do best, carving super flowy dirt lines through the forest with an emphasis on air, long transitions and smooth landings.

Although we've had as many as 8 excavators sculpting at once, in the end we've also scratched in an impressive array of hand built tech lines that plunge through shale features and the mossy duff leftovers from 100 years of logging. A couple trails leave from the true summit above the shuttle drop so there's a quick pedal or push available for those times riders want to stretch their legs.

Anyway, the crew and I hope you come visit. LBP is open Friday to Monday through October 17th this year, weather permitting, and daily passes are the only option this year at $40/day. Camping for one vehicle and up to 4 people is $35/night. Kids 7 and under are free. For more information and to book your shred session check out legacybikepark.com.

This quick edit by @zaneclampett shows a bit of what we have to offer. Thanks to @dakotaraybikes, @gunnywebber and Dave Norris for taking the time to get some shots! Thanks to Marty Beale and the rest of the crew at Mindful Designs for their stoke and vision.

Sending a mega shark fin at Legacy Bike Park
Photo: Aidan Croskrey @aidancroskrey

photo
Photo: Aidan Croskrey @aidancroskrey

Ed. note from Alicia: I had the opportunity to ride Legacy Bike Park about a month ago when it was still under construction, and I can confirm that it's a good time.

Author Info:
petecostain avatar

Member since Jun 10, 2012
1 articles

59 Comments
  • 16 4
 No trailers in the campground? Lots of people doing FSRs with small trailers that would make it in anywhere.

Dealbreaker for probably lots of people coming from a bit further away.
  • 4 0
 Agreed
  • 15 0
 Give them some time...
  • 2 1
 @MikeyMT: For sure, I hope they open it up a bit. We travel in a van so not an issue for me, but all of our friends have little tent trailers, so we wont be coming down (other than the obvious border closure getting in the way..)
  • 14 0
 It's Montana, there’s no shortage of areas nearby to camp. Not to mention most the nearby campgrounds are along Flathead Lake.
  • 2 1
 @Ride406orDie: yeah there’s so many dialed camp spots around Flathead! Definitely no shortage
  • 6 0
 @stormracing: Yeah, no doubt. The appeal of being in their campground is that you don't have to drive to go biking, and we have a young child so it makes it easier for arranging for naps and taking turns riding etc.
  • 1 0
 i did just see a RV park close in the town... Edgewater RV resort up the road
  • 8 0
 The road into the park isn't super trailer friendly at the moment. But it's a safe bet it'll get improved in the future (hence this being a "soft opening").
  • 17 4
 don't come then
  • 9 2
 tents exist
  • 3 4
 @bonjurns: See my comment above, not an issue for me.

@toast2266: You can haul a tent trailer basically anywhere if you go slow enough and aren't worried about damaging it too much.

@Isaaccop: Tent is definitely an option. Camping with an infant is significantly more challenging though, especially when you have a perfectly good trailer with a stove and comfortable beds. The campground specifically talks about family friendly areas. Pretty much all the families I know around where I live haul a trailer out to different local shuttle areas and camp.

I am just saying based on what I see all over BC, lots of people going camping and biking on the weekends are towing (usually small) trailers.
  • 4 0
 @michaelasnider: dont worry, by the ti.e the border opens, they will probably have the road paved.
  • 2 0
 @michaelasnider: you can’t camp at all at CGP can you?
  • 11 0
 @michaelasnider: Sure, you can get a small trailer into a lot of places.

But it's a lot easier for them to say "no trailers" (at least until they get the road improved) than it is to say "trailers allowed, but only if they're less than 15' long and have at least 15" of ground clearance and if you ignore these restrictions and beach your giant camper on our road and cut off the only access to our bike park we're going to be very annoyed"
  • 12 0
 We’ve just opened up 5 designated trailer spots and plan on more. We’re quickly realizing small trailers are everywhere!
  • 2 0
 I prefer a well-equipped cabin or comfy hotel room (I am old).
  • 2 0
 @mbh1013: Coast Gravity is the other side of the province from me, I have no idea what their camping rules are. Most of the bike parks let you camp in the parking lot.

@toast2266: Yeah, I have no idea what the road is like, but I've seen my buddies haul their tent trailers on some pretty brutal roads. The trick is to not give a shit.

@petecostain: stoked! If the borders open in time this summer we will be heading down.
  • 11 0
 not even fair. And we can't even legally build a roller in norcal... lol
  • 4 0
 #lifetimecalipoacher
  • 5 0
 Really? Lots of trail building in NorCal. Humboldt, Redding, Shasta, Weaverville area all have lots of new legal MTB trail being built.
  • 1 0
 @prozach215: yes, that is awesome. to confirm, I was talking about bay area, apologies...
  • 7 0
 @Dmaxwell: oh, that makes sense. We don't consider the bay area northern CA. Lol
  • 1 0
 @prozach215: That's funny cuz I grew up in SoCal and the prevailing mentality is that you're not really from California unless you're from down south. Haha! Went to school in Humboldt though and live in the bay now and would much rather be anywhere besides down south. Blue lake, Redding, and Shasta trails rip by the way!
  • 6 0
 Pete and Terraflow are class act folks. They do great work. for sure worth checking out. Has california found Western Montana? Yes!! Everything has been expensive there for years. this is nothing new. Camping complaints!?! Cool but not relevant here. These guys have been slinging shovels for months/years to get this thing built.

respect the builders!

ride it or dont.

more trails the better.
  • 9 0
 Why any hate what-so-ever? This is so cool!!! We need more of this all over the world!
  • 4 0
 I had the thrill of riding the LBP back in May when it was still under construction. It's an awesome place with wicked fun trails that I'm sure are a lot longer and bigger by now. Pete is an incredibly cool guy and the park is legitimately fun. I can't wait to come back and ride the complete park.
  • 7 1
 No trail map and it’s not on Trailforks? Weird.
  • 17 1
 probably haven't paid yet.
  • 3 0
 It looks like there just getting started.. give them a year or so to get comfortable, and build out more, get more land. Hope to see it grow.
  • 5 0
 Camping on site - nice. Will be headed that way...
  • 4 0
 Props. Seems like a really awesome idea
  • 4 0
 Woah. That looks pretty darn good for a start of a bike park.
  • 2 0
 So sick guys, thanks for all the dirty work! Can't wait to get up there!
  • 3 3
 Who else read "shuttle" and thought life access at first and got excited? Then read again and realized shuttle meant shuttle and went back to 6 o'clock.
  • 2 0
 Yeehaw!!! Roosting in Montucky!!!!
  • 3 0
 This looks AMAZING!
  • 4 3
 Just bought a house in Kalispell last year. So stoked to see this!
  • 1 0
 Looking good @petecostain! Can't wait to get over there and ride.
  • 2 0
 Hell yeah!
  • 2 0
 Stoked for this weekend!
  • 2 0
 Glorious.
  • 1 0
 that makes me miss being stationed in Great Falls
  • 1 3
 Hey guys sorry but that’s not quite correct big sky has been doing shuttle and lift serve downhill sense 2014. I am really happy that there is another though.
  • 6 1
 You are right that Montana has a bazillion lift access spots! Big Sky, Whitefish, Discovery, Montana Snowbowl technically... but there hasn't been a shuttle-specific one until now. Do correct me if you know of one though, and we'll edit the article to make sure it's accurate.
  • 3 1
 @alicialeggett: big sky (town, not resort) allows users to shuttle from the Meadow up to the resort. This in no way is shuttle service as it doesn’t drop you at the top of a trail. You can pedal up to the top of Mtn2meadow but isn’t technically shuttle service and by no means a shuttle bike park.
  • 4 0
 Technically vigilante shuttles in Helena provides more of a shuttle bike service than Big Sky does.
  • 1 4
 Hey pinkbike, you should probably go to Whistler…Legacy is no bueno—it really won’t meet your needs. Sorry, the locals will suffer.
  • 2 5
 If I am building a bike-specific park, I would put it somewhere that I could stay open basically year round.
  • 1 0
 There’s one in Texas…
  • 2 0
 So in the U.S you’ve got SoCal, Arizona, Texas, Carolinas and….f*ck the rest of us, right?
  • 1 0
 @ahauck: there are a hell of a lot more places than you listed that could have nearly year round shuttle parks.
  • 3 6
 $35 for camping with no amenities. Pretty steep.
  • 5 0
 I am guessing you haven't been to NW Montana lately? Everything is expensive up here now.
  • 7 0
 Im going, super stoked..Look at hotel prices. It was $800 for the travel lodge that weekend in Kalispel! There is a festival that weekend or something, buts it's super inflated during most of the summer. I'm happily paying $70 for 2 nights tent camping at the bike park this weekend!!! Gonna be hot and dusty and sick!!! I'll keep my cheetos out of the tent!
  • 1 0
 @Beaconbike: We were looking to come check out the opening (and Glacier) this weekend & noticed the same thing. Turns out there's a country music festival in Kalispell this weekend (Under the Big Sky Fest) so everything is insane.
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