Wealthy mountain bikers across the USA are leveraging their assets to build new mountain bike trails in areas where the geographic or political headwinds are blowing against trail development. Northern Idaho is no exception, but instead of the entire local community being stoked on a new privately funded bike park, the latest trail development has become a divisive issue.
Panhandle Bike Ranch (PBR) in Sagle, Idaho, not far from the booming MTB town of Sandpoint, has brought in world-class trail builders Gravity Logic to build top-tier downhill trails on a 170-acre property that they acquired. The bike park is designed around shuttle vehicles transporting riders to the top of the downhill runs and is in the process of building out a base area complete with a repair shop, bike rentals, food, and more. This investment is much more than a mere XC trail system development, and in order to cover the costs of such an involved operation, PBR planned to charge a fee to access the park.
Unfortunately, the planned bike park opening in June 2025 was blocked by an Idaho judge, despite PBR having received regulatory approvals in 2024 to build the park. As we recently learned, the legal battle is still ongoing.
The switch to nonprofit status
After Bonner County revoked Panhandle’s permit, the County notified the bike park that they could operate on a donation basis. “So that’s what we did throughout the rest of the season,” said Lance Kalbach, General Manager for PBR. “We just operated off of donations, which actually worked out really well.”
To get around regulatory hurdles posed by the ranch’s location in a residential zone, PBR decided to transition from a for-profit company to a nonprofit organization, because “all of our profits just get put straight back into it, creating more opportunities, like more trail development,” according to Kalbach. PBR’s legal counsel assured them that the bike park would qualify as a nonprofit, and so PBR submitted the required paperwork to the County.
“The County basically got back to us right as we were closing up for the season, and it was like, ‘No, you don’t qualify, and you can’t appeal,’ which goes against state and federal law,” said Kalbach.
So why didn’t the County consider PBR eligible for nonprofit status? “The main reason why they denied our nonprofit status is because we’re ‘commercial,’ because we’re charging,” said Kalbach.
“It’s selective enforcement, basically.”
Lance Kalbach
While PBR might be located in a residential zone, Kalbach noted that there is existing precedent for a nonprofit organization to operate in the area, as a nonprofit camp is located just down the road. “We’re basically the same as them,” said Kalbach. “They’re just a camp instead of bike trails and a bike park, and they’re able to charge for their services, and they’re considered a nonprofit.”
On top of that, there’s a for-profit paintball business located five miles down the road that was approved around the same time as PBR was going through all of its legal troubles.
“It’s selective enforcement, basically,” said Kalbach, expressing frustration with how the County is inequitably choosing whether or not to enforce certain laws.
“So now we’re pursuing legal action against them, since we’re not allowed to appeal,” he said.
While the legal process is working itself out, PBR plans to continue developing trails and base area infrastructure while operating on a donation basis in 2026.
A divisive issue? Not among mountain bikers.
While the County has erected roadblock after roadblock, when we first covered the issue in June, we heard from numerous local mountain bikers and the local MTB advocacy group, Pend Oreille Pedalers, and they were all entirely in support of the PBR’s mission. PBR has continued to work closely with the local community by partnering with the local NICA team, and they plan to have free or discounted ride days for veterans, “as well as free days for people who can’t afford to come out and ride,” said Kalbach. “We’d have days so that they could rent a bike for free and ride for free.”
While Bonner County officials might say “no” to everything, the local mountain bikers are fully behind PBR. In fact, during our best trails of 2025 nominations, dozens upon dozens of riders nominated the newly-opened trails at PBR to be featured in our awards. Stay tuned to see if any of PBR’s trails were selected for our best new trails of 2025 roundup.
The inspiration behind Panhandle Bike Ranch
The 10 miles of existing downhill trails at Panhandle Bike Ranch have been built entirely without outside funding. Including land acquisition, the Kalbach family has already invested $4 million into the bike park. They plan to build four new trails for 2026 and continue building out the base area amenities, including constructing a welcome center with bathrooms and showers.
While some people might have given up in the face of this political opposition from the County, the Kalbach family is dedicated to building and running a world-class bike park. But where did that inspiration come from?
“We got into it because my whole family is really into biking, and we’ve always wanted to be in the industry in some way, shape, or form,” said Kalbach. “And so we found this property […] and we thought it was perfect, because it’s pretty steep, so we could get some cool downhill trails in there. It’s in a really nice spot. The mountain is beautiful. And that just sparked it for us.
“We had some inspiration: Legacy is near to us. It’s about three hours away. We thought [that] Legacy [Bike Park in Lakeside, MT,] was amazing. So when we saw this property, we were like, ‘We could create something similar.'”
When Lance said that it’s a family endeavor, he wasn’t exaggerating. Lance’s parents, Jennifer and Scott Kalbach, are the President and Secretary/Treasurer of PBR, respectively. Lance’s brother Nick is also PBR’s Trail Crew Manager.
Scott is also the CEO of AvantLink, which he founded in 2005. AvantLink is a popular performance-based affiliate marketing network that connects online retailers with publishers and content creators to promote products. While the company is privately held and exact numbers are not available, Growjo estimates AvantLink’s annual revenue is about $9.4 million per year.
4 new trails in 2026 will add 600 vertical feet
PBR currently boasts about 10 miles of singletrack and 700 feet of vertical drop. By the end of 2026, Kalbach said that the park will have about 15 miles of singletrack and will boast about 1,300 vertical feet. Essentially, most of the new trails that they’re currently building for the 2026 season will be stacked on top of the existing bike park, creating even longer top-to-bottom runs.
To achieve this expansion, four new trails are currently under construction: three on the upper mountain and one on the lower. The upper mountain will see a double black tech trail, a blue flow trail, and a black jump trail, while the lower mountain will see the addition of a burly pro line.
Upper mountain trails
The double black tech trail on the upper mountain is being built by the Panhandle crew, which has received substantial training from Gravity Logic over the last two build seasons.
“It’s a crazy trail,” said Kalbach. “We spent a lot of time really perfecting that trail […] and making sure that it is genuinely a double black. As a double black rider myself, like, I’m able to ride that trail confidently [but] it scares me — I have my moments on that trail. While we were testing it, I was like, ‘Wow. Like, I’m pretty scared right now, but it’s a lot of fun.'”
The tech trail will have a couple of exits to the blue trail in case riders get in over their heads. At the bottom, riders can transition seamlessly into existing trails on the lower mountain.
The black jump trail was built by Gravity Logic with a smaller machine, creating a narrower trail with serious jumps, including some mandatory gaps. It will then dump out into the double black tech trail, requiring riders to negotiate several gnarly features before reaching the trail diversity on the lower mountain.
Finally, the blue flow trail was built by Gravity Logic, Lance, and his brother. This will be the easiest trail dropping off the upper mountain in 2026, due to the difficulty of the terrain. This intermediate flow trail will tie right into the start of Darling, a popular flow trail on the lower mountain.
PBR is building a pro line
While some — but definitely not all — lift-served bike parks offer trails designed for professional-level riders, it’s much less common in shuttle-served bike parks on private land due to the small number of riders that can even ride them, plus the liability concerns. Kalbach seemed unconcerned about the potential liability hurdles and instead was simply stoked about what they’re building.
“It’s something I’ve never seen before,” he said of the features being built on this new trail. “The lower section [has] these giant wood features. We have this giant seawall, to this giant shark fin traverse type thing that’s made out of wood, to a giant step up. […] The upper section is tight, high speed, technical gaps. And there’s a lot of natural sections.
“You’ll go off a drop, hit a berm, […] hit a cannon to an off-camber natural section where you have to ride through some tech. Then it turns, drops down, you hit another berm, then do a little wall ride to a big drop into a huge berm to a giant gap jump. So when we say it’s ‘pro,’ it’s definitely pro.”
The Kalbachs are optimistic about the future of Panhandle Bike Ranch
Lance’s infectious optimism shone through during our call. When he spoke of the world-class trails they’re building and the community of local riders that they’re serving, he couldn’t keep a smile off his face. Despite the ongoing legal struggle amid what he calls “selective enforcement,” the Kalbachs remain committed to their mission at Panhandle Bike Ranch and are convinced they’re building something truly special that the local MTB community craves.
Often, it takes a person or a group of people who are dedicated enough to overcome obstacles and persist even in the face of constant adversity to make big, beautiful dreams a reality. In Sandpoint, it’s clear the Kalbachs are those people, and it’s hard to imagine anything but success for their fledgling bike park.
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