Rest Day #4 (Glacier National Park, MT)

Date: Sunday, 7 August 2016

Time on Bike: 0

(Uploaded on 20 Aug 2016)

[No. We are not stranded/stuck in Glacier National Park!! Although that would not really be a bad thing!!! ;) I have been having really long days in the saddle and have not been able to keep up with the blog. Sorry about that kids! Will do better now I hope…]

Woke up in Glacier National Park! And it was overcast.

Looked at the weather first thing.

That Flash Flood Watch is the troubling part!!!! After some more research, decided today was really not a good day to do the climb! Going-to-the-Sun Road and Logan Pass could be a problem... Instead, we would be tourists!!

So first order of business was finding a place to stay one extra night so I can do the climb tomorrow…

Went to the Rising Sun desk and of course, they were booked for the night. Sweet talked the girl and explained that I was biking from Chicago to Seattle and was supposed to do Going-to-the-Sun Road and Logan Pass today, but the weather… blah, blah, blah. There was no waiting list, but she offered to write our name down and if anyone cancelled, she would give us that room.

The staff at Glacier is just phenomenal. It reminded us of the service we got at Banff many years ago. Mostly kids, very service orientated, very professional , and sincere in how they treated customers. Not your normal kids that we encounter in real life!!!! Must be the mountain air!

We had breakfast on our front porch. We carry enough food in our 12-volt cooler for a day or more! I walked Woz around the Rising Sun area. There is our building with the hotel rooms & a store, another building with the restaurant and information center (acts as hotel desk as well) and a picnic area across the road (where we got busted yesterday evening!!) Woz likes the cooler weather now that we have gotten to the mountains.

No internet in our hotel room. The only Wi-Fi (slow!!!!) is at the information center right across the parking lot from where we were staying. We spent a lot of time in that building & on the bench below it searching for accommodations for the night (yeah, right!!!) and checking in with the world.

Let’s have you take a quiz first!!!

We decided to take the shuttle bus to the top of Logan Pass. But before we left, I needed to know if we had to be back before 2 PM to move out of our room or if we could stay another night. Yesterday I was pissed we were paying so much money for this room for the night, and now I was really hoping we could pay that much money and stay one more night.

Success!!! There was a cancellation and we could stay in the same room. We were now free to play around all day long!

We think this was Woz’s first time on a bus. He was a little hesitant initially to take that first step, but by the end of the day, he was a seasoned traveler!!

We didn’t get off the bus until Logan Visitor Center. All the way up please! It was socked in with clouds.

We got our obligatory picture at the Continental Divide - Logan Pass – 6,646 feet sign! Tomorrow it would take longer and be a lot harder for me to get a picture of me with this sign!!

Everyone (apparently, including me!!) is thrilled to see and take pictures of the the Columbian ground squirrel. They seem to be everywhere!

We boarded a smaller bus to descend the western slop. Too narrow a road to allow larger/wider vehicles! The clouds were rolling over the mountain tops but the sun soon started to break out.

We met a family who had biked up Logan with their 11-year old daughter at the visitor’s center at the top. We saw them again as they were descending stopped by the side of the road allowing traffic to pass. The western side is a long, narrow, long, winding road!

Next stop is The Loop. The destruction caused by a fire in 2003 is still evident.

We enjoyed the view, used the facilities, and caught the next shuttle bus. We got off at Avalanche Creek, but found out we couldn’t do any trails as we had Woz with us. No dogs allowed. Not sure that is Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant, but we can’t push the point as no matter what his vest says, Woz is a technically and really only a service dog-in-training! We boarded the next shuttle bus to Lake McDonald. More to do there we were told.

Traveling with a dog opens up all sorts of conversations. Come to find out our next bus driver used to live in Charlottesville, VA!! Small world. He has been doing this gig of driving shuttle buses in Glacier for several years now. Loves this area. Who wouldn’t?!

There is a lot to see at Lake McDonald, all centered around the Lake McDonald Lodge.

This really cool, cozy old hunting lodge was bustling with people.

It was initially only accessible via an 8-mile boat trip on Lake McDonald. The lake is still the draw today…

Although there are now cabins in an attempt to accommodate all the tourists. That would be us too I guess...

We decided to turn around and get back to where we were staying, on the other side of the pass! It took over an hour for the next shuttle bus to arrive. During the wait, Woz became friends with a bird! Good distraction training for the boy!

By the time we got back up to Logan Pass, the clouds had opened up.

And on our way down Going-to-the-Sun Road, we are treated to a visit by several Bighorn Sheep.

It is already getting dark when we return to the Rising Sun.

Dinner was so good last night from the restaurant across the parking lot, we pick up food there again.

I try to get to bed early, but my mind wonders thinking about climbing to the top of Logan Pass tomorrow. I have already gone up by shuttle bus and kind of know what to expect. But it is the climb I have been thinking of for 32 years now. And tomorrow is the day!

Oh! And the answer to that quiz…

Way too many pictures to post from today… here are a few more. And tomorrow I will have the opportunity to take more pictures as I slowly, slowly ascend the mountain on my bike!