Day 24 – You pay the price…

Date: Saturday, 6 August 2016

Time on Bike: 4:14:23

Total Travel Time: 5:42:49

Miles Covered Today: 53.37

Total Trip Miles: 1,565.6

Average Speed: 12.5, Maximum Speed: 35.9

From: Blackfoot, MT

To: Saint Mary, MT (Glacier National Park)

(Uploaded from Eureka, MT on 10 Aug 2016, a rain day)

Today might have been my hardest day on my bike so far. Boy, my legs were sore… from the first pedal spin until the last! I guess I paid the price today for my 100+ mile day yesterday!!

Thankfully, I had a good wind to start the day!

As usual, I started where I left off yesterday. Actually, in the middle of nowhere!! Woz wants to know what we are doing here!!!!

Bunny & Woz went ahead to Browning. No Micky Ds!! But I will find them with the Find Friends app.

The Rockies were getting bigger and bigger as I got closer and closer! Eventually, I am going to be up there somewhere!!

I soon arrive in Browning, MT. We are in Blackfeet Nation territory.

Bunny can’t find any of our usual hangouts. And Find Friends directs me to… Taco John’s!

You hear about alcoholism in the Native American community… The local community apparently thinks it is a serious problem too.

After our break, I am heading out into uncharted territory. According to the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route, we head into Canada for two days and swing back into the states at Glacier National Park (GNP). That is how you get to Going-to-the-Sun Road and Logan Pass. I cut those two days out a long time ago!

I found an alternative on the Adventure Cycling blog about taking a back road from Browning to Saint Mary, MT. There is an entrance to GNP at Saint Mary and that is the start of Going-to-the-Sun Road! Several people have chimed in and done it.

I am doing it to. But no map of it, and no idea about the elevation profile.

Of course we have no damn AT&T cell coverage, but I send Bunny up the Duck Lake Road and tell her to try and find a good rest/break place 15 to 20 miles out. See ya!

I cross Cut Bank Creek… again.

There are three different river valleys I need to go down into and climb out of. My legs & knees are singing. It is 35 grueling, knee knocking, leg stinging miles.

I keep looking for the red Prius and Bunny & Woz. Finally, some 20 miles or so into the ride I see a red car at the bottom of the hill I am flying down and a white car parked right behind it. I hit the brakes as I quickly see it is our Prius with the blue tarp covering the gear in the cargo rack. I quickly find out that Bunny has made some friends!!!

Right after Bunny found this driveway (in the middle of nowhere--no shade or toilets for miles either way), this sweet couple Vishal [right] and Seema [left]) from Sunnyvale, California pulled in right behind her. They got to chatting and kept Bunny company for an hour plus while she was waiting for me. Usually Bunny is by herself (Woz is not the greatest conversationalist!) so it was nice for her to be with nice folks.

There was lots of talk about labradors and golden retrievers. They seemed to not want to leave her until I showed up--what fantastic people! Let's face it, they could have been sightseeing, not sitting by the side of the road.

Since we met up at the bottom of the hill, the first thing I must do is climb out of that valley… with stiff, cold legs!

I finally, finally, finally crest what I can see is my last climb before I go down the big descent to pick up HW 89. Made it!

This is a breathtaking look at the valley below that connects Babb to Saint Mary. I am close now! But I can see from the sky that storms are rolling in…

I am flying down that road now. Doing 30+ MPH. I slow up a bit in an attempt to zip up my rainsuit top as it is cold on the descent. I spot a red car off to the right. SURPRISE!! Bunny & Woz have staked out a spot to give me the energy for the final push into Saint Mary!! I hit the brakes hard & roll in to visit!

It is a rollercoaster ride down the valley toward Saint Mary. I can see the storm getting closer and closer…

I am so, so happy to see Bunny by the side of the road at the major intersection in Saint Mary. The sky was turning darker by the minute and I had ultimately run out of fuel.

When she told me it was like 8 more miles to the hotel, boy was I pissed. Where the hell is this place??? How can it be 8 more miles? That isn’t even Saint Mary anymore…

It was 8 miles up the road because it was inside Glacier National Park!

First we went through the gate to get into Glacier National Park. Use my Golden Eagle Pass for the second time!! Tell her I am there to climb Logan Pass. She mentions something about weather.

I just want to get to our room before the heavens open up. And I am thinking… how can there be a private hotel in the park?

What Bunny & I didn’t realize is we had booked a room in the premier spot in Glacier National Park!!!!!!! A small building with maybe 8 rooms. We only got it as there was a last minute cancellation.

We checked into our room at Rising Sun. Sweet room. Sweeter view!!

Bunny orders dinner at the restaurant on site… ends up being the best food we have eaten our entire trip! Go figure! At a National Park?!?!?!

We sit on the front porch and enjoy the view.

We take a walk with Woz. I take a selfie that might be the best picture I have of the three of us!!

And then, we get busted by a Park Ranger for having Woz 1) off leash 2) in an area where dogs are not allowed… and 3) a mother black bear and cub are only a few hundred feet away by the lake! YIKES!!!

We walk back to the Rising Sun. Woz is happy to carry his stick!

I hear other guests talking about their plans and what they are going to do about the weather. It starts to rain hard.

I start to reevaluate our plans for tomorrow. Maybe we will take our rest day tomorrow and I will climb Going-to-the-Sun-Road on Monday…

And I did almost 2,900 feet of climbing total elevation gain today. Might just be a good idea to rest up for a day and be tourists tomorrow!!

Some more pictures from the day.