HELENA, Mont. — There’s something special about the dirt in Helena.
“Helena has magic dirt,” said Emmett Purcell, volunteer trails coordinator for the Prickly Pear Land Trust and an avid mountain biker.
That magic dirt makes for great trails in Helena’s South Hills, for both mountain biking and hiking. When the trails are dry, they turn to hardpack, rather than getting dusty and loose. When they’re wet, they’re tacky rather than slick or gumbo-y.
“We almost don’t have mud,” Purcell said.
Dirt like that is hard to find. But it’s not just the dirt that’s turning Helena into a destination for mountain bikers.
Helena’s trail system begins moments from downtown and offers 75 miles of trails. New trails are being built every year. A shuttle is available to take mountain bikers to less-accessible trailheads, and the riding season in Helena runs from March to September.
“Our season is surprisingly long,” Purcell said.
Helena has been working to capitalize on its trails and to turn the town into a destination for mountain bikers.
Helena’s South Hills trail system has been around for a long time, but up until recently no one had worked to market those trails, said Pat Doyle, who previously worked for Bike Helena, which is part of the Helena Tourism Alliance, and now volunteers with the group.
The Helena Tourism Alliance launched Bike Helena, an effort to brand Helena as a biking destination, in spring of 2013.
“Our main goal is to get heads in beds,” said Heidi O’Brien, executive director of the Helena Tourism Alliance and Bike Helena.
While it’s hard to know exactly how many people have visited Helena and stayed in hotels because of the Bike Helena campaign, indications show it’s working.
“It’s hard to get hotels to track those things,” O’Brien said.
However, in talking to trail users, it’s clear that people are traveling to Helena to ride the trails.
“We see a lot of people from Bozeman coming up to use our trails,” O’Brien said.
Canadians also stop to ride when passing through, Doyle said.
In 2014, the year after Bike Helena launched, hotel occupancy increased 1.5 percent.
“That was a non-legislative year,” Doyle said.
The same year the Helena Tourism Alliance created Bike Helena, Helena was designated as a Ride Center by the International Mountain Bicycling Association.
“That’s IMBA’s thumbs up that you’re a world-class mountain biking destination,” Doyle explained.
Getting that thumbs up isn’t an easy process. There are currently 27 IMBA Ride Centers worldwide. Helena is the only community in Montana with the designation.
Communities must be invited to apply.
After getting an invitation, the application takes about 40 hours to complete, Doyle said. Then IMBA sends a couple of representatives to spend three days in the town, checking out the trails and seeing what else the community has to offer.
“IMBA actually sends people up here to ride as tourists,” Doyle said. “They pretty much rode our entire South Hills trail system.”
They also ate at restaurants, visited breweries and stayed in hotels.
“It’s not just an experience solely based on riding,” Doyle said.
Basically, IMBA wants to see whether there’s enough riding and after-ride entertainment to fill a three-day trip.
The Bicycling Association determined that Helena did in fact qualify and gave the city a bronze Ride Center designation. Recently that was upgraded to silver.
Earning IMBA’s Ride Center status didn’t change Helena overnight, Doyle said. However, it has helped attract more riders to the Queen City.
“This has become a major marketing tool for us,” Doyle said.
“It’s been huge for us to have that credibility,” O’Brien added.
The designation has earned Helena recognition in mountain biking magazines, on websites and on top mountain bike destination lists.
In addition to attracting visitors, Purcell also sees Helena’s trails attracting people to move to Helena and keeping residents there.
“The whole quality of life picture is kind of coming full circle in Helena,” he said.
While Helena has been working to attract more out-of-towners to its trail system, the bulk of the users are locals.
