Team Hike-a-Bike, admiring the superlative landscape of the Heart Lake Loop ride near Superior.
On a picturesque October day, a crew of MTB Missoula staffers, board, and advocacy committee members day-tripped west to Superior to ride the segments of the Heart Lake Loop that remain open to bike travel. The emphasis here that some of the loop is closed to bikes dates back to a 2012 decision from the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest to prohibit mechanized travel within Recommended Wilderness Areas (RWAs). This decision meant that the State Line Trail (aka Divide Trail #738) segment of the loop, that serves to link the two ends of the Heart Lake Trail, now prohibits bike travel. The Lolo National Forest, where the Heart Lake Trail lies, currently manages RWAs differently in choosing to allow bike travel.
The Heart Lake Loop links up trails managed by two National Forests, the Nez Perce-Clearwater on the Idaho side of the divide and the Lolo on the Montana side.
70 Miles From Home, Another World
Within the first quarter-mile of pedaling past the trailhead sign, it was already apparent that this ride experience was going to be different than anything else found in the Missoula or Bitterroot Valleys. “Yo! There’re massive Cedars all over!” shouted one crew member. Another answered with, “Yeah, these boulder slabs are amazing! Can we bring some home?” Still others voiced their disbelief about how tacky the tread surface was on a trail this close to Missoula, where “gravel pit” is loosely thrown around when describing the native soil profile. By contrast, this trail was truly loamy, rooty, and rocky. We pressed on through a section of boardwalks traversing a wetland area, then tried our best to clean some steep, technical climbs before the trail gave way to a cirque surrounding an alpine lake.
Advances through Advocacy
We scheduled this trip partly to celebrate and partly to reconnect with the place. The celebration was for our advocacy efforts over several years which, in late 2023, brought about a new Nez Perce-Clearwater NF recommendation (p. 32) to install a summer non-motorized travel corridor on the State Line Trail. (Note, this corridor will not be implemented until travel management planning is completed at an unknown date.) Since our advocacy work on the Heart Lake Loop started in 2016 with the Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest Plan Revision, we also wanted to demonstrate to new staff and board members why this particular trail justified so much time and attention via comment letters and attendance at public meetings.
After taking in the first clear shot of Heart Lake, minds continued to be blown by the challenging technical problems to ride through, all while set against the stunning backdrop of high peaks, fall colors, and charismatic wildlife–yep, mountain goat sightings happen often here. While the Nez Perce-Clearwater plan is approaching finalization, the Lolo National Forest plan revision process is in the early stages and the outcome will likely influence bike travel recommendations on the Heart Lake Trail. Our goal is to encourage the two Forests to align in allowing summer bike travel on both the Heart Lake and Stateline Trails, thus restoring the means to ride a loop route around Heart Lake. We’ve stated exactly this in our comments submitted to the Lolo planning team and have encouraged mountain bikers who appreciate backcountry rides to voice their support.
Our Position is Nuanced
At the same time, we also hope that goals surrounding large landscape conservation and wilderness preservation will be advanced through the forest plan. Rather than take an all-or-nothing approach on this matter, arguing against Wilderness Area expansion because it inherently prohibits bikes, we are proposing creative solutions that reflect nuance and deference towards related goals. In our communications on this work, you won’t see words like “fight,” “victory,” and “the opposition” because we don’t view it from that angle. This is because, ultimately, we value many of the same outcomes that come through conservation of special places, most notably that it will be forever preserved in a wild state of existence.
Our ask is simple: that bikes can continue to travel along a particular trail corridor that has allowed non-motorized use for many decades, not everywhere within the area nor on every trail. As conveyed above, national forest planning is not a quick process. This makes sense given the extensive scale of our national forests, the number of interests to consider, and the shelf-life of forest plans (20-30 years, sometimes longer). Please know that we’ll continue to prioritize access to Heart Lake and other noteworthy mountain bike trail routes throughout the Lolo Forest Plan revision process.
Refueling spot above Dalton Lake. The State Line Trail follows the ridge in the background.
Passion Drives Our Purpose
Back on the trail, while enjoying a break on the saddle overlooking Dalton and Pearl Lakes, a group of hikers celebrating a 60th birthday passed and we exchanged greetings. We spotted a family of goats on the shore of Dalton Lake, leading many in the group to affirm how glad they were to be there on the trip. Then it was time to head back. The downhill return route, filled with rocky pinch points and layered root gaps had the bolder of our bunch testing their bike-handling skills while the rest struggled to stay vertical. Packing up at the trailhead, someone brought it all home, “we’re lucky to be here, in a place this special, doing a sport we all love.”