Great Falls Trail Bike Riders Association

09/27/2026

The riding season is winding down, but GFTBRA still has a couple of teams continuing to clear & repair trails as needed in partnership with Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.

The focus at the beginning of the season for our Trail Sawyer program is to just get the trails open and cleared enough so that the public can access them. Later in the season after all of the trails are open, our program's focus tends to switch to trail maintenance projects on specific trouble areas.

This oftentimes means additional brush cutbacks and tread maintenance. Some of the trails that our Trail Sawyers work on are remote sections where larger equipment mobilization is not feasible. For those areas, our Trail Sawyers pack in hand tools and work on the trails the old-school way, by hand.

08/29/2026

2026 has been a good expansion year for the GFTBRA sawyer program. With the new hires, comes additional classroom time. Thankfully for them, their classroom is the middle of the forest. Our sawyer teams concentrate on cutting and removing trees and other blockages from the trails, especially at the beginning / middle of the season. But as the season progresses, they oftentimes get to help with tread-work. If not handled correctly, water drainage can destroy a trail system pretty quickly. Minor changes to allow water to drain off to the side of a trail can save a large chunk of trail that otherwise would've been rutted and nasty if the water were allowed to continue to drain directly down it.

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08/21/2026

The part of the season we don't like talking about...... Getting to be that time of year where we have to mention upcoming seasonal trail closures. You have just over a week to get out there and enjoy some of them for the last time in 2026. Here is a list of some of the seasonal trails that are closed after Aug 31st:

#311 Deep Creek to the Smith

#722 Calf Creek

#734 Pioneer Ridge

#419 Snow Creek

#416 north of Baldy

#444 Woodchopper

#443 off Woodchopper

#435 Morris Creek / Kelly Mtn

#612 Morrisy

#601 Nevada Narrows

#610 Junkyard

Castles 50″ trails #618, #716, #719

07/31/2026

Having the multiple teams of trail clearing sawyers this year has been working out great. This expanded workforce has allowed us to cover much more ground and address additional areas that haven't seen much trail maintenance over the past few years. We have partnered with the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest for the past 15+ years on this trail clearing mission. This year has definitely been the greatest amount of trail clearing we've ever been able to do. And of course the trails wouldn't be anywhere near as clear and rideable if it weren't for all of you volunteer riders carrying saws while you ride throughout the season. We appreciate everyone that is able to help maintain the public trails throughout this area.

Here's just a few of the photos uploaded from one of our trail clearing crews. We don't have current photos, but another of our crews has been camping and clearing along the eastern side of the Little Belts in an area we haven't had the manpower to help out with for several years.

07/17/2026

Trail 311 from the Deep Creek area out to the Smith River is legally open for just 45 days per year = 07/15/2026 - 08/31/2026. It's a fun singletrack trail to ride and crosses personal property that the land owner has graciously allowed access to. Please remember to ride responsibly & respect the landowner's property. Make sure to close any gates you open and ride slowly around any animals (cows, etc).

If you are riding a dirtbike and encounter hikers or people on horseback, please stop and yield right of way to them. Common practice when coming upon horseback riders is to stop your dirtbike and remove your helmet until the riders pass or they give you instructions.

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07/12/2026

Three different GFTBRA hired sawyer teams have been working their way through the Little Belts & Big Belts over the past few weeks opening up motorized trails throughout Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest as quickly as possible. Some of the more recent trails covered in the Little Belts include Calf Creek, 711, Lost Stove, Balsinger.

Of course we always want to give a huge shout-out to all of our non-paid riders carrying saws and cutting as you ride. It truly wouldn't be possible to clear everything without the numerous riders that carry saws throughout the season. The work accomplished through the combination of GFTBRA hired sawyer crews, USFS personnel, and volunteer riders with saws is what makes our local public trail systems some of the best riding in the nation.

06/30/2026

Most of the Deep Creek trails in the Little Belts open up tomorrow for the season on July 1st. (Trail out to the Smith River doesn't open until July 15th.)

Great Falls Trail Bike Riders Association’s two sawyer trail maintenance crews had special USFS permitted early access to the area and were able to clear almost all of the Deep Creek trails over the past 2 weeks. Of course with the weather over the past few days, don't be surprised if there are some newly fallen trees to contend with.

06/26/2026

Singletrack maintenance in the Big Belts (Helena area) over the past couple weeks. This was a joint partnership effort between Montana Trail Vehicle Riders Association, Great Falls Trail Bike Riders Association, and Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest (Helena RD).

USFS Helena RD was in charge of the project. MTVRA provided the contractor with the mini-excavator. GFTBRA's Helena sawyer trail crew provided the grunt work.

06/19/2026

2026 is a big year of changes for GFTBRA's hired Sawyer Trail Clearing program. Last post, we touched upon our area expansion into additional covered areas (Helena, Lincoln) and mentioned that we were able to hire an additional couple of part-time sawyers in the Helena area.

This post is about the expansion of our full-time crews servicing the Little Belts, Castles, Highwoods, and other portions in the eastern portions of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest.

GFTBRA has been administering this program in direct partnership with USFS for the past 15+ years. It has grown from a couple guys working part-time, to where we are today. This season we have been able to hire 7 full-time sawyers with an additional 2 part-time sawyers available to fill-in if needed. Running 2 or more crews at a time will allow us to cover additional ground at a quicker pace throughout our public trail system within the confines of our limited seasonal access. It will also allow us to send crews out to work on some trails that have been neglected for many years due to lack of manpower and hours in the day.

Here are some before / after photos from the first couple weeks of work this season:

06/10/2026

Our hired Sawyer Trail Maintenance program was able to see additional area expansion starting this year. We were able to hire some additional part-time sawyers to help clear additional areas in the Big Belt Mtns closer to Helena.