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Beardance Mountain Bike Trail
Bigfork, Montana
MTB TRAIL STATS
Avg Rating:   |
3 trail reviews |
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Status: updated 9/3/09 by mtbgreg1 |
Difficulty:  Advanced |
| Length: 15 miles | Global Rank: #1241 |
| Tread: Singletrack | Configuration: Lollipop |
| Ridden: 2 | Wishlist: 2 |
| Avg. Speed: 7 mph | Avg. Time: 1hr 0min |
 1 trail check-ins |
Directions:
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Description: Start climbing right off the bat up beardance trail 314, and hang a right on trail 76 at the fork. climb until you hit forest road 498, and hang a left. ride along that road until you can hook up with 314 and drop back down 314 all the way to where you started. **This trail is not in the Glacier Cyclery ride guide** Be sure to pick up the Swan Lake Ranger District map for reference. This trail contains a stinking killer climb on the way up, but a sweet stinking descent on the way down, with some uber steep tight switchbacks, a whole ton of rocks and roots, some drops, and some super flowy, beautiful singletrack!! Not to mention some of the best views of Flathead lake anywhere!!! This one is a must-ride.
Description: Start climbing right off the bat up beardance trail 314, and hang a right on trail 76 at the fork. climb until you hit forest road 498, and hang a left. ride along that road until you can hook up with 314 and drop back down 314 all the way to where you started. **This trail is not in the Glacier Cyclery ride guide** Be sure to pick up the Swan Lake Ranger District map for reference. This trail contains a stinking killer climb on the way up, but a sweet stinking descent on the way down, with some uber steep tight switchbacks, a whole ton of rocks and roots, some drops, and some super flowy, beautiful singletrack!! Not to mention some of the best views of Flathead lake anywhere!!! This one is a must-ride.
added on May 5, 2009 by 
TRAIL REVIEWS review this trail
reviewed by camolloyd on September 6, 2011
Trailhead was easy to find and had a nice parking spot across the road. The trail starts out pretty rocky but gets much easier as you move on. This trail has a decent amount of man-made and natural feature along the way. There are a few decent sized jumps, some split logs, banked turns and just a really fast downhill. This trail is great for a variety of riders. You get some great views along the way. I'd stay away from heavy bikes though, I used an 05 Rocky Mtn Switch and I had to push a decent amount. A lighter bike can handle this trail easily but having a DH bike made the jumps a lot more fun and the rocky end not so hard on the arms. Watch out for some of the corners because it's easy to fly off the trail. Downsides are the parts that are overgrown which in my opinion isn't a very big deal. The biggest downside is that to shuttle this trail you have a 25 mile drive all the way around the mountain to the trailhead making a shuttle not worth it. You're best off riding up trail 76 the whole way. The best parts are the variety of features added with the high speed and 99% downhill make the 25-30 minute ride down exciting.
* Review edited 9/6/2011
Similar Trail: Stuart Peak trail in Missoula. Very similar trail w/o the features Beardance has to offer.
reviewed by trailwinder on August 17, 2011
this trail was sick. i went up crane mtn, and found the trail. there was a sign along the side of the road and it showed the trail on a map better than google earth or map quest or anything ever. so i matched it to google earth and rode the daylights out of it. its a campfire ring, with a gate past it just 10 feet, and then a long flat road for like 1 mile or 2, then it just drops off to the left, very fast and very fun!!! crazy bomber style. i flew off with the front tire a couple times, chill really really thin trail and off camber!!! tha best ne way go do this man. go do it!@ and email me if you cant find it and ill send you my google earth pics. you could totally do this if you suck, but you couldnt keep up lol. i went like 30 or something down it all. ifyou dont have a demo 9 with a 888 you mite call this an easy trail, but at 35+ its a double black niqqua!
Similar Trail: mmmm duno not from here
reviewed by AK_Dan on October 5, 2009
This trailhead is right at mile marker 23, just about 8 miles south of Bigfork. It is signed Trail 76 all the way up to Crane Mtn rd. The first half mile is pretty rocky and fairly steep but don’t let that discourage you it gets less rocky the farther up you go and after about mile 3 it’s just a great singletrack ride through the forest. At .5 mile you will come to an intersection with trail 973, continuing right on trail 76 your treated too rocks, mud, some steep exposed sections and tight corners, all the things that make a trail memorable. There are many man-made props as well, several jumps, skinnies, and some up & overs, these however are set up for riders coming down the trail. The upper half seems to be less traveled and in some places is almost overgrown- its begging to be ridden! At just about mile 6.5 and 2000 ft of climbing later you will come out to Crane Mtn rd. Please note that at this end the trail is marked # 10222 and is very hard to see from the road (see photo). You can ride down the road 6 miles to trail 973 and 3 miles back to the original intersection. Or do this loop the other way although it is a very long and steep 6 miles up the road. I did not ride trail 973 so cant advise on it. I seen some guys doing a shuttle to the top in a truck but at this time I don’t have decent directions to Crane Mtn rd. I hope to do this again someday but it will either be a shuttle or an up and back down on trail 76.
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