The Flying Bike’s Torin Kexel knew some service-industry workers in Asheville who shied away from discussing the effects Helene had on them or their business.

For Kexel, though, it became a part of his tour. Prior to the storm, Kexel, an owner of an e-bike tour company, had a staff who would lead riders through Asheville’s downtown and he spent more time completing other tasks for the business.

His business was down 60 percent because of the storm’s effect on tourism. He lost 16 of his 20 employees when he shuttered for six months. He didn’t, though, lose any of his 45 e-bikes due to flooding, even though his office was in the River Arts District. In fact, his space was in the River Lake Building, located at 170 Lyman Street, which endured the flood of 1916. 

Helene got him back on his bicycle and in front of a tour group.

“I got back in the saddle. That was the more happy side. I hadn't led a tour in a couple years, and I started leading my tours again. I loved it,” he said. “I really got to tell my story, and I got to show people. I would take people by the old place, and they could visually see my door, the 1916 high water mark painted on the building, and the actual line is still there (from Helene).  I could share  stories of the resilience of the community, and share my own story, and the amount of  love and outpouring of support that I received. That felt good, and it felt good to have a reset on the business.”

Now a local organization is trying to reset more guide businesses and set them up for additional successes. With some extra funds from a grant, members of the Outdoor Business Alliance of Western North Carolina decided to help these entrepreneurs.

The group received $10,000 from REI and were asked to use the money in a hurricane-related way. First off, the group brought in Kelly Davis, who is the Director of Research for the Outdoor Industry Association, to discuss the realities of over- and under-stocking. Then, Executive Director Dorene O’Malley and others began to brainstorm ideas for the remaining money. 

“The guides are the ones that are really suffering,” O’Malley said. “Some of their businesses are down 50 and 60 percent.”

The group decided to run a marketing campaign, called “Go With a Guide,” in an effort to remind tourists and locals that these services are available. A video was made to highlight what guides do in the area, showcasing how hiking, biking, wellness, and more is available. The plan is to share the video with local tourism agencies this spring which could help guide services find more clients.

While Helene caused several outdoor recreation small business owners to lose money, it gave some of them a chance to look at their businesses.

“With a little bit of more downtime, we were able to use that time strategically in 2025 to expand our offerings,” said MTB Skills Factory owner Josh Whitmore. “In the past, we had almost exclusively just done skills lessons and then, in 2025, we expanded to do our guided-ride program and our kids summer camp programs. We were able to add those items and were able to jumpstart them with a little bit of that grant money.”

MTB Skills Factory also offers private mountain biking lessons along with its other offerings. Whitmore said he and his company’s other guides utilize trails from Brevard to Boone and were shut down two to three months as trails had to be repaired following the hurricane. 

While there wasn’t much access to riding spaces during that time, he also knew that riders were dealing with more basic issues and that offroad fun wasn’t on clients’ minds. Now, he wants to continue with what the company did last year. 

“For 2026 we're really just hoping to carry that momentum and keep marketing our programs,” he said. 

Lindsey Barr, owner of Blue Ridge Hiking Company, was in a similar position, as much of her income is derived from being on trails. Without those trails, it’s hard to schedule day hikes or backpacking trips.

She and her guides were able to utilize some spots in the Smoky Mountain National Park, but she said the fall of 2024 was a total loss.

“We actually have a better year (in 2025) than we anticipated,” she said. “I think one of the things that makes us quite fortunate in that regard is that a lot of our backpacking clients are traveling to Western North Carolina to backpack. This isn't your regular tourist coming into Asheville and decides to book a day hike while they're here and doing a bunch of other stuff. That part of our business was substantially down this past year. We have a lot of folks who travel to this area to backpack, and because of that, our impact was not as significant as it could have been.”

Nicole Will’s Asheville Wellness Tours is another outdoor recreation small business that took a hit after Helene. Will said that while the business operated some, she was down 60 percent. The positive was that she kept her team and the downtime allowed them “some space for creative program development. 

“It allowed us to really evaluate our partnerships and shore up the ones that were really strong. It allowed us to create new ones,” she said. “We now have exclusive access to private conservation land for our blue ghost fireflies tours, which is just incredible. I really don't know that it would have happened without the time and space of Helene, because they were in the same place, too, of nobody coming to Western North Carolina. We all had time to dream bigger, and now it's an incredibly magical experience.”

Will’s business includes tarot card readings and in-home massage, which continued after the storm, along with goat yoga, private group yoga classes, group meditations, and custom and corporate retreats.

Due to Helene, Will was able to develop a few packages with other businesses to expand their reach, such as the Summits to Sauna package, where there’s a hike in the morning and then a stop at Drip Sauna in the afternoon. Then there’s the Detox to Retox experience that includes a morning hike and an afternoon brewery tour. “All the best of Asheville,” Will said.

These are just a sampling of the guided services available in Western North Carolina. 

As the area continues to recover, outdoor recreation business owners say the message is simple: the trails are open, the bikes are rolling and the experiences are waiting. Through the Outdoor Business Alliance of Western North Carolina’s “Go With a Guide” campaign and the resilience of its entrepreneurs, the region’s outdoor economy is finding its footing again. 

For visitors, choosing a guided hike, ride or wellness tour is more than just booking an activity — it’s a way to invest directly in a community that has weathered the storm and emerged determined to move forward, one tour at a time.