LAKESIDE — With summer just around the corner, Legacy Bike Park just opened its doors to riders everywhere and things are expected to be bigger and better than ever before.
"It's pretty awesome that Montana has something like this," said park manager Heather Hilton. "It just feels like an amusement park for adults, kids, everyone in between and something that I love about Legacy is we don't really market for it but it's for families and I love that atmosphere."
To begin the 2024 season the park had a sold-out opening day with 120 riders in attendance.
"It's been cool to see word spread and people from all across Alberta, B.C., Seattle just coming out here to enjoy the trails we've created over the last few years," said part-time employee and rider Parkin Costain. "It's a lot of positive stoke and energy that I think it's just been feeding itself in the past few years, it's just gotten busier and busier."
Costain grew up riding in Whitefish and his family has helped build Legacy over the past five years, and they couldn’t be happier with the results.
"It's been insane to just watch the younger generation the past few seasons become like that much more of a shredding posse than I ever grew up with," said Costain with a smile. "I always wanted to kind of go out and ride stuff like this when I was younger (but) we didn't have the opportunity or trails locally to really make that happen. So to have that out here now for these up-and-coming shredders is really cool."
And one of those up-and-coming shredders is Asa Brown, who first learned to ride downhill at Legacy two years and has since fallen in love with the community.
"There's nothing kind of like mom and pop family-like community style like this that has all aspects and levels of riding like this place quite does," said Brown. "I mean, the flow trails here are immaculate and tech is super fun. And I mean, just the community there's not a whole lot like it with the level of riding that is here."
Since diving into the world of mountain biking Brown has visited other big parks across the country, but for him nothing compares to Legacy.
"Not anywhere else dude. The stoke level and just how hyped is everyone is all the time," said Brown. "Everyone's so nice and like uplifting and encouraging no matter what level of rider you are and everyone's just welcoming. Its super cool."
And it's that environment that continues to draw people to the park and lead to its growth.
"It’s the people of this place; everyone's nice, everyone's stoked, everyone embraces you and brings you in," said Hilton. "And if you come here without knowing anyone you leave with a ton of friends, driving in the back of the shuttle with everyone you just form community that way, it's really cool."
Legacy Bike Park will remain open to any and all riders from now until mid-October.
