Help Us Out By
Volunteering on Trails

Volunteers put forth a large portion of all trail work being accomplished by SWMMBA. From helping to cut trees off of trails every spring, to raking pebbles off of trails, to complete reroutes of damaged or dangerous trails, our volunteers help make it happen. There are multiple ways to volunteer: at trail work events, at our regular trail work days, and as a member of our Trail Crew quick response team.

Please fill out a waiver prior to attending one of our Trailwork Events or Trail Work-Days. It helps save time, and electronic waivers are easier to fill out.

Have any questions? Shoot us an email: Trails@southwestmontanamba.org

 Report Trail Damage

To report Trail Damage, we prefer if you submit a ridelog with GPS coordinates of damage with photos. However, if you’re in a pinch and just remember about some damage, we can go resolve it if you submit a report below. SWMMBA Prioritizes trail maintenance based on Trailforks.com data, the more you provide, the quicker your report will be resolved.

Trail Crew Volunteers

The SWMMBA Trail Crew is an elite group of volunteers who dedicate multiple weekends to deep-backcountry trail clearing, berm buffing, and general maintenance. These folks have donated over 40 hours of trail work per year for multiple years, and have provided the community with accessible trails for years. You can spot them on the trail by seeing their custom uniform, silver represents our dedicated volunteer swampers and orange represents our volunteer sawyers. If you see them on the trail, thank them! Buy them a beer at the brewery or leave a cold one for them at the car, they definitely deserve it!

To become a Trail Crew member, please join our volunteer Trail Maintenance Committee and you will be considered the following year.

Corey Biggers
Trail Crew Lead

I saw my first mountain bike on the Stateline Trail 738 in the Great Burn around 1982, I was instantly enamored with a better way to travel backcountry trails figuring if I could ride 50% of the time that is 50% off my feet. Purchased my first Mountain Bike shortly thereafter a Shogun Prairie Breaker which I still have. It was the perfect way to travel with my Friends that were on horseback, it was an incredible way to get in and out of hunting camp and an extremely efficient tool for access/game cart to my favorite hunting areas. in the late 90s I started trying to figure out ways to carry a saw for trail clearing tried frame packs, internal frame packs and a bob trailer. In 2005ish I designed an aluminum scabbard for a Hard Tail Cannondale it evolved from there to a scabbard on Salsa Fat Bikes. Super passionate about back country trails and I don’t believe we should lose 1 more inch of back country trail. Lionhead Area Trails have my Heart and protecting bicycle access to them and the CDT from Yellowstone Park to Monida Pass has been an almost all consuming passion for the last 12 plus years, with the formation of MMBA attending hundreds of meetings with land managers and elected officials traveling to DC on more than one occasion, pushing for a National Protection Area for Lionhead and generally making sure everyone that would listen understood a bicycle is just our Horse. The Formation of SWMMBA has been an incredible leap for all of us the that care about bicycle access to wild places, I appreciate this next step in our evolution and am excited about the future of Bicycle access more than ever!

Justin HArdine
Trail Crew LEad

The best place to start… Where the road ends and the trail begins. For me, the trails didn’t become a place of clarity, peace and pure happiness until later in my life. On the other hand, the love of two wheels started very early and endless hours were spent riding up and down driveways, popping wheelies, and jumping over friends at a young age. These early days would blossom into a life-long love for riding and everything it encompasses.

One time or another we have all been there while out on our local trails or exploring uncharted territory; the feeling of uninterrupted, care-free moments of being completely content and the days challenges take a back seat to living here and now. As we listen to the sounds of the forest, feel the warmth of the sun on our face, and the utter silence atop a mountain; we look out from whence we came and process where we are going.

Volunteering has brought a new level of excitement and adventure into my life, typically starting mid-winter over beers with friends and fellow volunteers. We discuss spring mountain biking trips which always leads into plans for trail maintenance and epic days working in the wilderness. These discussions always stir up memories of past adventures and fuels the soul for another year spent in the mountains.

Keith Fortune
Sawyer

Spencer George
Dirt Jump Coordinator

Richard Hayes
Dirt Jump Coordinator

Richard Hayes grew up in Summit County, Colorado (Frisco). At a very young age (10) he was given the opportunity to work extensively at a local bike and ski shop. Little did he know this would shape who he is today. Being at the “shop” throughout his grade school career on a day to day basis allowed him to work under some incomparable mentors that taught him everything there is to know about biking, skiing, and work ethic! Trails were a huge part of this. He and his friends all raced cross-country bikes growing up but building Dirt Jumps was their passion!

“We built dirt jump sets all over the County (Gorilla Builds) and were lucky enough that one of my best friend’s families owned an excavation/landscaping company which allowed us to get savage throughout high school improving not only our riding skills but our building and operator skills too. (Thank you Jay & Mindy Armstrong)”

Ten years later Richard is currently a Grad student in the School of Architecture at MSU, studying Urban Planning and Design. Specifically trail networking and bicycle infrastructure. He works numerous jobs ranging from building cabinets and driving snow cats in the winter to landscaping and building trails for several different Contractors in the summer. In the end trails are his passion. Weather they are meant to biked or skied depends on the season but providing “sick” places for kids to ride and be inspired about biking and skiing is where he wants to leave his mark, “because without “sick” trails there is no one to inspire and pass the torch too.”