Whitefish Trail Blazer Debuts New Legacy Center and New Trail
With a new home base on Sunday and freshly built singletrack on Saturday, the race's 17th edition doubles as a showcase for Whitefish Legacy Partners' expanding footprint
By Tristan Scott
The Whitefish Trail Blazer, the two-day trail-running event that has long served as the public face of Whitefish Legacy Partners’ conservation work, returns Oct. 3-4 with a new venue for its Sunday races, new trail underfoot for 50K runners and a new fueling sponsor. Organizers say it is also a chance to show off the nonprofit’s newest asset.
The 50-kilometer mountain ultramarathon takes place Saturday at Whitefish Mountain Resort. The half marathon, 10K, 5K and two-mile family fun run follow Sunday at the Whitefish Legacy Center, the 35-acre property at Beaver Lakes formerly known as the Whitefish Bike Retreat, which WLP purchased in December.
“We’ve been telling the public about how great the Legacy Center is, and telling families and kids about it, but we have yet to have an event with 400 people in it,” said Jedd Sankar-Gorton, program director at WLP and an organizer of the race. “We really want people to come out here and understand what this space is.”
A new home for Sunday
For years, the Sunday races were staged at properties WLP did not own, first at Stillwater Lodge and later at the Bike Retreat, under commercial arrangements. This year, the finish line sits on WLP’s own land, which Sankar-Gorton said gives organizers more say over how the weekend unfolds, and changes both the logistics and the economics.
“Your money goes straight back into this thing,” he said, describing a registration fee that now flows directly into developing the property and the public trail system rather than to a host venue.
Logistically, the acquisition has given race organizers room to rethink the flow of the day. The finish area is designed as a kind of campus: Runners will cross the line, grab food, watch other finishers come in, tour the property and hang out with friends. Organizers have added seating and expanded the spectator zone, and the finish celebration runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Staff will lead tours of the new headquarters, which includes offices, a hangout space, a pump track and skills track, picnic tables and Wi-Fi, all directly connected to the Whitefish Trail at Beaver Lakes.
The start and finish are at the lodge at the top of the hill, and runners will head onto the two-track and trails on the Legacy Center property before joining the Whitefish Trail via the same connector used in past years.
“We purchased this for the community to engage with and take shape so it serves the community,” Sankar-Gorton said, likening the property to the broader Whitefish Trail project on a 35-acre scale. “We want people to buy in and realize that they are welcome and invited to be here a lot.”
The event is a proving ground for that idea. Sankar-Gorton said that when people do visit, they leave energized, but that drawing them out on random weekdays, particularly while construction on U.S. Highway 93 West continues, has taken some convincing. A race day with hundreds of participants and spectators, he said, is a natural way to bring people in.
Three more miles of trail on Big Mountain
Saturday’s 50K starts at 7:30 a.m. and begins and ends at the Village at Whitefish Mountain Resort, where runners pass through the start-finish area in front of the Hellroaring Saloon four times between roughly 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The course again summits Big Mountain, runs down the Whitefish Trail to the Reservoir Trailhead and climbs back up.
The biggest change this year is on the descent. The route still climbs the Chair 3 liftline, but instead of returning to the Village by the same path, runners will now hang a left at the top and drop onto newly built Whitefish Trail on the way to the Base Lodge. From there they will cross the Willow lot and enter a new section that connects to the Reservoir Trail. In all, the course incorporates nearly three miles of new trail, replacing stretches of two-track.
The new trail, which connects the Big Mountain Trailhead to Hellroaring Basin, is a product of collaboration with the resort, which wanted more connectivity inside its property, where getting around in summer is difficult. WLP, meanwhile, is working to extend the Whitefish Trail from Haskill Basin to Hellroaring. A grand opening is planned for October.
“The race is going to be better because we’re cutting out some sections of two-track and adding trail instead,” Sankar-Gorton said, “but it wouldn’t have been possible without a strong working relationship with Whitefish Mountain Resort built over years.”
Organizers had worried that logging work would force them to reroute the course, but Sankar-Gorton said the map is intact, in large part because the resort worked to prioritize the trails and roads the race uses.
The 50K remains the part of the event most likely to evolve. Sankar-Gorton said WLP wants to make the course feel more like a wild mountain ultra, and is considering pushing the event into September, when the resort is open and lifts are running, and eventually routing it up Hellroaring.
Sponsors and amenities
Flathead Running Company returns as presenting sponsor, joined by OrthoRehab as physical therapy sponsor. This year, Open Fuel, the U.S. arm of a South Africa-based startup, joins as the race’s first official fueling and nutrition sponsor. The company’s sponsored athlete, local running phenom Makena Morley, is affiliated with the brand. Sankar-Gorton said the partnership fits WLP’s interest in working with growing companies eager to get creative with outreach, rather than large, established events.
Race weekend has other new touches. Packet pickup will take place at 38 Central in downtown Whitefish, with a bar, music, food and door prizes, intended as a hangout before race day. Responding to persistent public demand for food, organizers will provide meals to all participants both days and sell food or accept donations from spectators. Everyone will receive a shirt, all 50K finishers will get a medal, and Sunday’s winners will be recognized with medals as well. Live music by Todd Cowart and barbecue from Ed McGrew BBQ will be on hand in the Village Saturday.
Easements before the council
The race comes as WLP works through several trail-access questions with public agencies. This week, the group updated and sought direction from the Whitefish City Council on three easements, none of which will affect the 2026 edition of the event.
The first involves the Legacy Center itself. WLP has proposed granting the city a trail and trailhead easement covering a 0.3-mile section of trail and a new 27-car parking area, kiosk, vault toilet and pet-waste station. The easement would give the public perpetual access and fit into the existing Whitefish Trail easement structure. WLP is seeking to grant it free of charge and asked for direction from the council following a site visit with council members and city staff.
The second is a related 50-foot right-of-way across state trust land in Stillwater State Forest, needed because the trail, built as close as possible to the existing Whitefish Trail near Beaver Lakes, sits about 50 feet from the state boundary. The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) is no longer issuing new trail licenses and is moving projects forward only through easements, which require a full survey and appraisal and a hearing before the state Land Board. WLP will bear the cost, and the city would hold the easement. Sankar-Gorton said it is the first time the group has pursued an exclusively trail easement with the state.
The third is more consequential. Early last year, WLP learned that an appraisal for an 800-acre area easement covering Smith Lake and Swift Creek had come back so high that it was a nonstarter. The group pivoted to a 15-foot trail easement on 3.5 miles of existing trail and 6.5 miles of proposed trail, currently held under a land-use license that DNRC does not intend to renew. Securing permanent easements on all 10 miles requires a new survey and appraisal, and costs are expected to rise. WLP would fundraise to cover them, and the city would again hold the easement.
“We’re all a little disappointed it’s not an area easement,” Sankar-Gorton said, “but this still captures a lot of the value out there and community interest.”
Councilor Steve Qunell backed the effort. “The amount of trail we have now compared to 20 years ago is considerable, and it’s quite an amenity for the city and county,” he said, urging WLP to move forward.
Registration for the Whitefish Trail Blazer is open at whitefishlegacy.org/whitefish-trail-blazer. All proceeds support Whitefish Legacy Partners and the Whitefish Trail.