Mountain Bike Tourism - Maah Daah Hey Raises Medora To Mecca

Mountain BIking Success Stories

IMBA Trail News
Volume 16, Number 2
Early Summer 2003

A few years ago the state of North Dakota sat invisible alongside Papua New Guinea and the Sahara on the average mountain biker's radar. Fortunately for the village of Medora, that has changed. Now bikers are a regular sight in this tiny, remote tourist town of 100 near the North Dakota-Montana border. According to Loren Morlock, co-owner of Medora's only bike shop, Dakota Cyclery, "You go (to Medora) now and it's car after car after car with bikes on top."

It's only taken one trail to transform Medora into this veritable velo-hotbed - one 100-mile-long singletrack named the Maah Daah Hey. Officials from the surrounding Little Missouri National Grassland conceived the Maah Daah Hey as an equestrian trail, but input from Morlock and his wife Jennifer, along with IMBA, convinced them to make it multi-use. In 1999, Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew leaders Mike and Jan Riter participated in the trail's opening ceremonies, and they returned in 2000 to lead an IMBA Trailbuilding School. A year later, the Maah Daah Hey was designated an IMBA Epic. The number of mountain bikers visiting Medora has been increasing ever since.

"Once you're designated an IMBA Epic, it gives you a lot of publicity," says Jennifer Morlock. "It definitely gave us a nice little boost."

Having a bike shop in town was also key. As Randy Hatzebuhler, President of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, puts it, "The Morlocks gave (Medora) a mountain bike image, so we're not just a horse town."

Trail promotion by the North Dakota Department of Tourism has also helped. They sponsored a trip to bring outdoor journalists to the Maah Daah Hey and have run regular ads in national mountain bike magazines.

Now bed and breakfasts are opening along the trail while ranches and lodges that used to cater to hunters say mountain bikers bring the bulk of their business. As Jennifer Morlock puts it, "People think mountain bikers are cheapos who just camp and eat granola. But that's not necessarily true - we like steaks and hotels, too. Trails like this can be a huge economic boon for a community."

More Success Stories:
Mountain Bike Tourism

Fruita, Colorado: Bureau of Land Management works with local IMBA clubs to build new singletrack, create renowned cycling destination. More info: www.fruitamountainbike.com

Rapleje, Montana: Near-ghost town revives by building trails, hosting a 24-hour race. More info: