Day 344
Glacier (West)
The skies had decided to be generous and the rain was falling very heavily when we woke. Tom wanted to get an early start so we were up and packed by just after 7am. The rain continued to fall. Rich came over and Tom confidently told him the rain was forecast to cease at 7.30am. It did, but at 7.35am it started again. By 8.30am we wandered over to see Tim and Pam the camp hosts and take up their offer of a morning coffee. Tim pointed out a spot where the rain didn’t quite penetrate through the leaves and we had our daily fix of caffeine. Still it rained. By 9am we had decided to head out, waterproofs on, off we went. The road wasn’t too bad and within the hour the rain finally stopped. We had a great second breakfast at Echo Lake, no beach in sight, and then it was pedals down, Glacier here we come! We were staying just out of the park with Warmshowers hosts, Jeann and Joe. After 30 miles on quiet back roads that reminded us of the UK we had 15 miles of hell. Little or no hard shoulder, Bank Holiday traffic, many of whom were clearly towing a caravan for the first time in months, if not ever, and no one appeared to want to leave any room when passing cyclists. Many thought the Bank Holiday had blessed them with the ability to see around corners, it hadn’t. Somewhat to our surprise, we arrived in one piece at Jeann and Joe’s and no caravans were written off in the process.
We took advantage of Wi-Fi and updated the blog, and of the washer/dryer and got our kit clean. We also did a bit of bird watching, spotting a Montana Blue Bird easy to spot, it’s very, very blue.
In the morning the ride into Glacier went smoothly as we now had a cycle path all the way to the park. On Joe’s advice we headed to Sprague Creek campground by McDonald Lake. An absolutely stunning spot. We were greeted by camp host Ed. We were the first hiker-bikers of the season and had the whole hiker-biker site to ourselves, not bad for $30 in total for both of us for 3 nights! He told us all about the site, the 21 bears that had visited in the last month, the names of the trees, recited some poetry for us and, don’t tell anyone, but also took pity on us and gave us wood for a camp fire, what a guy!
After a restful night, we were going to have 2 days off cycle touring, a rest maybe, just chill eh? Ha! You know Tom, it wasn’t going to happen. No, we were here for a reason, to ride the legendary ‘Going-to-the-Sun-Road’, built literally on the mountain sides to link West and East Glacier. Snow blocked for most of the year we were hoping that before it was fully open to cars, us cyclists would be allowed to ride it. Usually the bikes-only season was around the end of May to early June, however this year we were out of luck. The late spring meant that not only was the work to clear the road weeks behind schedule, but the danger of avalanches was high. Last year 5 cyclists had been trapped by one, and though no one was badly injured it cost the park half a million dollars to bring them to safety. So this year the road would only fully open when the Park were happy it was safe, and this wasn’t going to happen for weeks yet. We had to be satisfied with riding car-free to The Loop, about a 9 mile section and a 1,000 feet of climbing, with 6 miles alongside the McDonald River to get to the car-free section, this meant a 30 mile round trip, so not quite a restful day.
The ride was awesome, we missed seeing a couple of grizzlies ambling along the road by minutes, but the views made up for it. When we reached the ‘Road Closed’ barrier it was so hard to stop. We could just make out the road as it snaked up to Logan Pass. It was simply mind blowing, the road was built on the side of a sheer cliff, oh we so wanted to ride it! Reluctantly we headed back downhill, thrilled by what we had ridden but wanting more, ah well.
So 30 miles and a lazy afternoon right? No way, we decided to walk to the Way of the Cedars, a short boardwalk section through the forest, but wait, it led onto the walk up to Avalanche Lake, so be daft not to do that too, right? So off we went, in total about 4 hours of walking. We could almost see a mountain goat perched high above us, what we saw was a white blob, but fellow walkers kindly showed us photos they had taken. It looked awesome but how the heck it got there, perched on a cliff face was beyond me. Finally we headed back to the campsite, a quick meal and bed, we were shattered, these rest days are pretty hard work.
So our second day off dawned and I for one was going to take it easy. I am prone to bouts of fatigue, so far I’ve been OK, but I knew my body wanted rest. Tom of course was all fired up, so I chilled with a book whilst he went and climbed up a waterfall or something (Sacred Dancing Cascades). When he returned it was treat time. Our campsite was just a mile or so from the iconic McDonald Lodge. Built in the early 1900s it was very similar to the Old Faithful Lodge, full of old-world charm. We decided to treat ourselves to lunch and as we had a wait for a table it seemed sensible to sit in the bar and drink a cocktail. I can totally recommend the Huckleberry Margarita! Lunch over, I was ready for a snooze by the massive open fire, Tom not so much! So book in hand, I had a lazy afternoon whilst Tom climbed a mountain (Mount Brown)! Forest fires and downed trees meant most sensible souls went elsewhere, but 5,000ft of rough climbing was just the ticket for Tom. He wasn’t completely alone, some hardy mountain goats were there too. Naturally, being Tom, he descended as if he was on a Hardmoors race and Jon Steele was threatening him with a time cut off! Needless to say he has sore legs today, but the experience was worth it!
So today we leave the west side of Glacier National Park and head to the east side. First though we’re off to do a bit of trainspotting!
