Chad Schoenauer spins a bike chain through a rag, wiping off excess lubricant as he tunes a full suspension mountain bike for a customer. Repairs are his main source of revenue at his Old Fort Bike Shop with the local economy in a post-Helene slump.

Before Helene swept through, Old Fort was well on its way to remaking itself as an outdoor destination, especially after furniture manufacturer Ethan Allen laid off 325 workers when it converted its Old Fort factory into a distribution center in 2019.

"I came down to Old Fort because multiple community partners got together and realized that they could change the economy here in the town by developing a trail system,” Schoenauer said.

Named for a Revolutionary War-era stockade, the town decided to become a world-class destination for hiking, running, horseback riding and, most notably, mountain biking.

A local trail collective had just finished building out 21 miles of trail on public land when Helene washed them away and damaged homes and businesses.

When the storm blew through on Sept. 27, 2024, the Catawba River converged with the normally placid Mill Creek, leaving much of downtown under several feet of muddy water.

Schoenauer, who opened his shop in 2021, says it took two days before he could make it to town to assess damage to the business housed in a refurbished 1901 former general store.

The water rose more than 3 feet (1 meter) inside the shop, leaving behind a 10-inch (25-centimeter) layer of reddish-brown mud. The beautiful heart pine floors buckled.

But there was hardly time to feel defeat.

“As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw that my landlord and a team of 15 people were already inside my shop mucking the place out, like literally throwing mud out the door in wheelbarrows and all that,” he said. “That feeling of community I will never forget."

Nearly a year later, his shop is back up, but he believes door swings are down roughly two-thirds compared to before Helene. Visitors seem to have missed the memo – the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains are open for business.

Kim Effler, president and CEO of the McDowell Chamber of Commerce, blames much of that on damage to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is consistently one of the most visited of the national parks. About 35 miles of the North Carolina route, including long stretches in McDowell County, aren’t slated to reopen until fall 2026. She expects this will put a major dent in visitor numbers for fall leaf-peeping season.

“We can't wait any longer for people to come and visit us. We need that to happen now. What's at stake are business closures," Effler said.

Although Schoenauer and his neighboring businesses are waiting for the phone to ring and the doors to swing, he remains patient in the quest to shift the economy to that of a premiere trail town.

“So many people have given of themselves to make sure that all of us are able to keep going and bring prosperity to this town that I, I, I can't leave," he said.

AP video by Brittany Peterson

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