Magpie Gulch Details

Activities
- Mountain Bike
- Hike
- Trail Running
- Snowshoe
- Backcountry Ski
- Nordic Ski
Riding Area

Big Belts
Helena, Montana
Ref Number

#248
Difficulty Rating

Blue rate
Hiking SAC Scale

T1 Hiking
Trail Type

Singletrack
Bike Type

AM, Fat
Trail Usage

Multi-use
Direction

Both Directions
Popular direction shown
Climb Difficulty

Black Diamond
Physical Rating

Hard
Trail Visibility

Always easy to follow
Season

may-oct
Dogs Allowed

Yes
eBike Allowed

No
Local Popularity
5 in Mountain Biking [+]
- 5 in Trail Running
- 5 in Hiking
- 5 in Snowshoeing
- 5 in Skiing
- 5 in Skiing
Land Manager

USFS

The trail follows up a ridge to the junction of the hanging valley trail from Vigilante Campground. For me it was mostly hike-a-bike with some riding (i'm 75 years old). Coming down was hard on the brakes. The trail is well-marked, but not used very much, mostly by hikers. The trailhead is hard to find. The best way is left through the cow pasture along magpie creek for 0.5 miles. The road is not an all season road and could get really muddy in the spring or after a heavy rain.

Access Info

Start up Magpie-Gulch road from MT 284. This road is washboard, but all season. After about mile 7.5 the road starts up out of the main creek drainage. At this point, turn left off the all season road along the cow pasture for 0.5 miles to the well-marked trailhead.

Local Trail Association

Montana Bicycle Guild
Montana Mountain Bike Alliance
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More Stats for Magpie Gulch bike trail trail

Altitude change

650 ft
Altitude min

5,170 ft
Altitude max

5,945 ft
Altitude start

5,295 ft
Altitude end

5,945 ft
Grade

11.402%
Grade max

-29.756%
Grade min

31.319%
Distance climb

4,641 ft
Distance down

1,002 ft
Distance flat

61 ft
Avg time

00:45:19
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