Explore the best rated trails in Lonepine, MT, whether you're looking for an easy walking trail or a bike trail like the Polson Bike Transit Loop and A.J. Hoyt Memorial Trail . With more than 9 trails covering 3845 miles you're bound to find a perfect trail for you. Click on any trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
Ok section, kind of dull. Agriculture & cows. Found a bit of shade by a grain elevator for lunch. Several washouts filled with tumbleweeds as you get closer to Lind.
We started in Akron and rode about 18 miles north. Loved it!!!
We ( recumbent trike & e-bike) headed West from the Kiwanis park. Turned around after 9km as the surface was really tough on the trike. There’s 2 good wheel tracks for bikes, but the trike had to ride partially in the coarse trail ballast. Scenic area with farm views and a huge windmill farm in the distance.
We started at Riverside Park and followed the trail clockwise (the best direction unless a steep hill climb is preferred). Through town we didn’t follow the map exactly, avoided travelling on Main street where more traffic and no bike lanes. There are not any trail signs to follow. Eventually the trail connects to the Carol Sampson Sherick trail. This is the portion of trail which was the old railroad bed. Trail is wide and nicely paved, easy railroad grade climb to top of hill. Saw a couple deer along the trail. Trail could use some weed control love and crack seal but over all good. If wanting a long ride can continue straight at top of hill and follow wide paved path all the way to Ronan. We turned right on Caffrey road, the trail follows alongside road with a curb between road and trail. Next intersection made the right turn and eventually climbed to top of hill overlooking Polson and Flathead Lake. Then the trail goes down the steep grade into town. Eventually wandered city streets back to start. My mileage was to be 10.5 miles and very little deviation from trail, if anything we were a bit short on mileage from not exactly following map. Overall, some nice portions and some not so nice.
From Kalispell to Somers Most of the time followed Hwy 93 which was noisy. Loved it when the path was further away from the highway and closer to Somers. Somers is a nice quaint town, had lunch at Dels and was back in Kalispell in no time on our e-bikes.
Rode the entire trail since it was an easy connection to the Northwest Historic trail. There are some homeless who hang around but it’s a beautiful trail. Parked at the end opposite to the Historic trail to add to it.
Rode this trail in 2022, not sure why I didn't submit a review. Headed back to Kalispell soon and most certainly will ride once again. Great improvement to the city and nicely done trail. Fun to see the engine on display and ride through Depot Park. Easy connection at West end to the Great Northern Historical Trail for a much longer ride.
Five stars for scenery but the trail is coarse chunky gravel in places, rutted and used by ATVs that are sometimes going too fast. You definitely need tires 2-in or bigger.
Despite the name NorPac, the trail doesn't always follow the NorPac rail. Sometimes if follows the NorPac access road. Sometimes it follows the forest service roads created on the old NorPac rail line. Sometimes it follows forest service/County roads that don't have anything to do with the rail line. The maps of the route vary greatly. The one here on TrailLink seems as close as it could be. It matches what Garmin put into their biking map in the bike computer. It was easier to follow the Garmin map than any of the others. Most of the signs pointing out the route are gone so if you don't have a bike computer like the Garmin, it can be difficult to figure out where the trail goes in a couple spots like the pass, Taft, and Saltese. The Borax tunnel is collapsing so there is a bypass route. It's easy to find, just turn on the road when the big sign says road closed. You can still ride down to the tunnel to see the Borax tunnel. It's easier to see the collapsing from the bottom end of the tunnel. If you are coming from Mullan, the trail head from Larsen to the Yellowstone trail trailhead is really hard to find. Just get to the sign about the Hale Fishery and turn left. There is a good signage where it crosses the road to the snowmobile parking area/Yellowstone trail. The road was not difficult to ride. There are a lot of potholes but they are easy to get around. There are a couple of places where I'm not sure what the road builders for the forest service were thinking. With the exception of the bypass at the Borax tunnel, it's all easy to bike in both directions. The Borax Tunnel bypass is easy to bike down but going up is a hike-a-bike section. It's not long. The pass going from Mullan to Saltese is confusing if you don't have a map on your bike computer. The actual trail goes through the equipment parking area. The paved road to the left will get you down the pass to Taft, but it is not the trail. The trail swings out to some beautiful scenery, the paved road follows I-90 for the most part so it's noisy and not the best paved road I've ever ridden. At Saltese you can jump up to the Route of the Olympian. Do it at the sign about 1/2 mile before Saltese. Doing the hike-a-bike up the road at the trestle in Saltese is quite the uphill push. There is a sign telling you where to go up to access the upper route. It's a sign for four wheel vehicles, not bikes, so be aware of that. From there to St. Regis, the Route of the Olympian is fairly level, slightly downhill, and follows the St. Regis river for the most part. I parked at Taft and road up and over to Mullan so the trail made more sense. Then I biked back to St. Regis. 64 miles total but two beautiful trails. Neither trail had much traffic but they did have some so keep an eye out. In 64 miles I saw three ATVs and one group of six dirt bikes. Not much at all for that distance. I did ride on a Sunday so I expected more. I don't know how to post photos so some of this would be more clear. It was quite enjoyable and I'll likely do it again next year.
This trail had been on my bucket list since we rode down to the tunnel from the Hiawatha trailhead in 2017. That was at the tail end of our trip and we had run out of time to explore. Today we finally got to do at least part of the Olympian on our gravel tandem. We parked in Haugan and rode up to East Portal, then back down past Haugan about two miles, stopping for ice cream at the colorful trailer with the M&M's theme along the trail back at Haugan. Having sampled it six years ago and being experienced gravel riders, we pretty much knew what to expect in terms of difficulty and trail characteristics. The trail was in good shape overall; the section up to Saltese was a little chunkier than north of Saltese but we easily managed with our tubeless Maxxis Ramblers, 700x50c. The southern section also had numerous low spots, not really potholes, but they do give you a good jolt if you hit them wrong. They were pretty easy to steer around in most cases. The short section just north of Saltese trestle up to the new NORPAC trail access road is a different texture of rock--coarser and a little bigger--and it shook the bike pretty noticeably but again, very manageable. Speaking of Saltese trestle, it seems to be in pretty good shape; the gravel is deeper than on the trail itself but it's easily rideable. Glad to hear of the preservation efforts the locals have undertaken there, I'd say it looks succesful. Dominion Creek Trestle is just breathtaking and it's my new favorite. So peaceful and scenic. Tunnel 19 was a bit muddy at the south entrance so we elected to walk our bike through it both ways just to try and stay a bit cleaner. After reaching East Portal and resting for a short time we bombed back downhill and went past Haugan about 2 miles just because we felt like it. Along the way we encountered several ATV's, all of which were very courteous to us and very friendly. We also met another local couple riding their mountain bikes on the trail and had a nice visit with them as well. All in all, a great day on a fabulously scenic trail! Next trip we will do the remainder down to St. Regis.
Surprised to see this amazing trail that has great bed and breakfasts along it is not noted as part of the Great American Rail Trail. It sure would help demonstrate more GART completion if it was.
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