Day 108 — Glacier!

Well that was fairly to moderately epic!  We made it through Glacier… barely.  It’s snowing outside, but we found ourselves a roof and a warm bed for the night.

We woke up in Whitefish earlier than we needed to. We hit breakfast and were primed and ready for a big day.  Post office 15 minutes before it opened.  Someone came around and found our bounce box.  Great, we can send that along.

But, no passports.  I’ll let Eszter detail the comedy of errors in that debacle, but for a good hour, it was looking like going into Canada was out for us.  Or we’d have to wait several days in Whitefish.

Meanwhile, both Cricket Butler and Dave Chenault popped by the post office.  Perfect, the two people we wanted to see in Whitefish, but didn’t really have time to connect with.

Eventually Eszter came out of the Post with passports in hand.  Go time!

We kept a blistering pace for the 20 miles to Blakenship Bridge, a nice dirt alternate route to West Glacier.  At that point we realized that the passport debacle had put Waterton out of reach for us.  The border crossing closes at 6pm, and we have 7 hours to pedal 80 miles.  Oh, and there’s a line to enter the park, and 30 min construction delays.  Not to mention the 3000 ft climb, wildlife delays, and the fact that we wanted to see the park and not just time trial it.

So, we cooled the pace down and settled in for a day of touristing.

It was quiet lovely — for most of the day.  The divide once again wielded its influence on us in a very heavy handed way.  Just like every other day since mid-May, it was all about the divide.


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But first, we stopped to check out Avalanche Creek.  A friendly older gentleman that we met while taking photos at the park entrance suggested we take the short walk.  It was well worth it — carved and colurful rock with water blasting through narrow corridors.  A nice break from flat pavement, too.

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The climbing began in earnest soon after.  The divide was our high point, at Logan Pass.  It was a grind, for sure, but the views are off the hook.  I see where the ‘crown of the continent’ moniker comes from.  Traffic is pretty thick but we didn’t have any issues and everyone goes slow.

A guy had a scope set up to watch some mountain goats up on the Garden Wall.  Pretty cool to see a mom and kid way up on the cliff, from just below.

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Not long later, we saw a different mom and kid scrambling down to cross the road and get out of the approaching cold front.

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Clouds and mist were pouring over Logan Pass like a slow moving waterfall.  Like a giant mist monster, creeping over the divide to freeze this side.  I knew what was happening — the cold front and likely snow were stuck on the east side of the divide.  Only small portions of it were breaking the boundary.

We enjoyed the warm western air while we could.  Near the top the cold gusts cut right through us.  Bitter.

At the top the visitor center was closed, but the bathrooms were open.  We found ourselves readying for yet another cold National Park ride, finishing up yet another long distance trail. Symmetry.

Coasting downhill with wet clothes and drained bodies is a fantastic recipe to get chilled to the bone.  Our core temps were fine, but extremities were tough to keep with us.  The construction delay didn’t really help matters — we need to pedal to generate warmth!

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The whole east side was socked in, as expected, so we missed all the views in East Glacier. Oh well.

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Just before the construction a silly young bear was chomping on an aspen. First bear I have ever seen that didn’t run away immediately.  Got a really good look at it as it climbed around. They are forest monkeys with such long limbs!

The lodge/restaurant of Rising Sun couldn’t come fast enough.  Temps were in the 30’s even down low, with light mist / snow coming down.

Lodge was full but they were kind enough to call around for us.  A cabin in St. Mary was available — sold!  We ordered some dinner and basked in the warmth of the lodge.

The cabin is actually 3 miles north of St. Mary, so we still had a cold 8 mile ride in the semi-light evening.  The wind was brutal and right in our faces.  Darkness fell.  You know, standard fare for a little epic’ing! 

Our store bought knit gloves kept our hands warm, and I was venting to not overheat before we actually arrived.  That bodes well for riding inbetween snow storms tomorrow.  We still have 40 or so miles to go!

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