Page 31 - Flathead Beacon // 7.30.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM JULY 30, 2014 | 31
BUSINESSMONTHLY
TOURISM
Clint Ball, left, hangs a bike on the rack as his wife, Karen Tremaine, heads to their camper at their campsite at Whitefish Bike Retreat near the Beaver Lake trailhead. BEACON FILE PHOTO
Two-Wheeled Tourism
Increase in bicycle-related tourist activities brings
more cyclists to the Flathead
In high summer in the Flathead, tourists and travelers arrive in all manner of transportation, from planes and trains to cars and RVs. And lately, more tourists are mak- ing the valley either part of or their entire bicycle trips.
Out near Beaver Lake, west of Whitefish, Cricket Butler of Whitefish Bike Retreat has experienced a boom of guests who are staying at her lodging accommodations near the Whitefish Trail.
“My summer has gone amazing,” Butler, who opened the bike retreat last year, said. “Business has quadrupled since last year.” Butler said she believes the increase is due to a combination of more people finding out she’s got campsites and bunkhouse space specifically catered to cyclists, and having more cyclists
in the valley.
Robert Lucke at Montana Bike Hostel, located off U.S. High-
way 2 north of Glacier Park International Airport, said he’s seen a similar increase in business, and also attributes it to better marketing and more bikers.
“I think cycling is really growing,” Lucke said.
By MOLLY PRIDDY of the Beacon
The Flathead Valley is part of two major cycling trails: the Great Divide and the Northern Tier. Some riders, instead of starting the Great Divide trail in Canada, are now flying spe- cifically to the Flathead to start their trip, which will eventually take them to Mexico.
“People have been flying into Glacier Airport and they FedEx their bikes here and the next day they assemble their bikes and they ride the Divide trail,” Lucke said.
While the two trails certainly bring many cyclists through the valley, the Flathead is developing and growing its own repu- tation as a biker’s paradise, with road cycling opportunities as well as world-class mountain biking.
The Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau has identi- fied cyclists as one of its target demographics, WCVB executive director Dylan Boyle said, because they come to the Flathead for all of the road and mountain biking opportunities and end up discovering other aspects of the valley.
See Tourism PAGE 33