Another gorgeous day, albeit a bit breezy, as we headed out of town and once again into the countryside. The ride out of town was not as spectacularly gorgeous as the way in, but the roads were better, so we enjoyed it nonetheless.  Plus, the deer were everywhere and allowed close-ups. We chased this one back into the woods as she was too close to the road.

Met Thane from Boulder, flying down the road; doing the Continental Divide ride.  We related stories of the same paths we had taken and then continued on our way, the mountains ever present as we traversed.

Missed our turn at one point, only to find the beautiful waters of the Flathead River. Sometime during all the picture taking, “we” realized we had gone the wrong way.  Only a couple of extra miles, but the view of the river was worth it.  Back on course we rode through the wilderness and were always surprised to see homes tucked into the woods.

We did have a short three mile stretch of gravel road, But another beautiful river to cross with the most unreal color of blue 

Just before noon, our scenery started to change as we came to the entry to Glacier National Park. Stopped for lunch at a great cafe that offered the biggest slices of homemade pies you’ve ever seen; we had Huckleberry pie in our sights.  However, after our huge lunch, we had no room.

Entered the gateway and began our adventure, green hills, blue rivers,rafters taking advantage of the rapids and bears ……we really do NOT want to see one.

By 2:00, we arrived at our stop for the night, Lake McDonald Lodge. Up until noon, we were planning on camping, but we made one last phone call (the last of the hourly vigil we had been maintaining for two days) and secured a room at this beautiful property.  The Lodge was privately built in 1914, (acquired by the state park system years later) and is beautifully situated on Lake McDonald with stupendous views  of the mountain we have to climb tomorrow.

Though we were spent from the 45 mile (almost five hour) up and down ride from today, we managed a chat with the colorful locals (ground squirrel) a test of the icy cold waters and one last look at our climb tomorrow.

Sunrise 5:47 a.m.

Duckie departure 5:30 a.m.

Even as we loaded our bikes with all our gear, we could feel the wind blowing and knew it would not be to our advantage.  We were “Going to the Sun” this morning; Glacier National Park’s most famous road. It is a 22 mile trek straight up the Continental Divide….that Mountain in front of us!

The “fly in the ointment” was, we had to have it completed by 11:00 am (National Park time allotment).  Tough to climb a steep mountain (and take pictures) under a time constraint, but that was our only option.  So, out of the door with no coffee and half a stale cinnamon roll.

We had a ten mile pedal to get to the “climb”, scary thought since we were doing our best to make forward progress on this part, especially with the wind in our face.  Naturally, it was beautiful.

Nestled deep in the forest, we could see the moss covering the forest floorwhile looking for any bears that may be concealed in the darkness. We could hear the music of the streams rushing down the mountain; magical when we could catch a glimpse. We watched the sun kiss the mountain top, then retreat behind the clouds rolling over the mountains.  

We hoped the 40% chance of rain predicted, would hold off at least until we reached the summit.  But the wind in our face was also quickly blowing the clouds over the mountain towards us.Our progress was laboriously slow, stopping as little as possible with the clock ticking in our minds, but managed a “few” photos (okay, close to 400, between the two of us). Someone had told us the first six miles up was the toughest, but they must have only gone five miles; there was no part of this ride that was easy, gorgeous YES,

nearly a 500 foot drop.

Two tunnelsone critterand the most incredible Heaven’s Peak summit.Standing at 8987 feet, it was impressive from every angle.Other than that it was mountain peaks, glaciersand waterfalls of all kinds…..and then The Summit…..by ten o’clock in the morning.You would have thought we’d climbed Mt Everest, but we were ecstatic with our 3000 foot climb to Logan Pass.  Even the sun came out to light the mountain tops.Fabulous.

We hesitated to leave, but our trip into town was not a short one, nor all down hill.  Dropping down the greener east side of the pass we were met with a gusty headwind, more incredible viewsand an unbelievable shot of this glacier.Still more climbing, albeit not nearly as steep or long, but tough on our tired legs.  On our twenty plus mile ride from the top and stunning views.Took a lunch break along St. Mary’s Lakeand noticed the clouds were forming again, with gusto.This is Triple Divide Peak,one of the few places on earth whose waters feed three oceans (Pacific, Atlantic or Arctic ocean).  And then we come to the point where the Rockies meet the prairie.  Only forty miles today, but we were toast.  We watched from our motel perch the storms forming over the mountains.Then the wind swept down bringing with it arctic temperatures and rain. We hustled inside and put on every stitch of clothing we could find, it was Cold.

Thankfully, the rain stopped in time for dinner and a slice of Razzelberry Pie ala mode.

It was Freezing (okay, in the 40’s) when we walked out this morning, the fog was so thick, the mountains were totally hidden from view, but it was too cold outside to take the photo, so this is the best we could do. Since we had a short ride, we decided to take our time at breakfast over Huge pancakes and super good coffee. At eight, when we finally decided to get going, the fog had cleared and the temperatures had reached into the 50’s. The coolness was great considering the Over six mile climb we had to do to Once Again cross over the Continental Divide.   Thankfully, this climb was not the steepness we had experienced yesterday, nor did we have the time constraints, so plentiful stops and pictures.The destruction from a 2003 wildfire was still very evident in the foreground. It will take decades for the forest to restore to it’s original thick towering trees, but it was showing good promise with healthy flowers (locally called Blanket Flower) and undergrowth.At the top, without mountain tops obstructing the view, we could see forever. The drop from the divide crest was equally relaxing as the tall pines gave way to lush shrubs then green fields, the mountains ever present in the background. A couple more good climbs and we were in the high plains; a vastness of fields that seemed to stretch to infinity. The ride was not without awesome views and a MOST incredible experience. We doubt these were wild horses, as there is a lot of open grazing in Montana, but these horses were not fenced and definitely keeping a close eye on us. After taking way too many photos (seen below) we pulled ourselves away.  Shortly thereafter, we see cows getting in on the “out of the fence” party.By 11:30 we reached our destination, Browning (93% Blackfoot Indian population) but with the wind at our back on flat land, we could not bear to stop biking.

A quick lunch and back on the road, the mountains slowly fading.Jerry had the opportunity to chat with another bike tourer, but he didn’t stay long as he was logging about 100 miles a day.  The road and terrain became increasingly flat, a forecast for our next several weeks.  But we were enjoying the healthy fields, historical markers and the wind at our back.  On our entry into Cut Bank, we were greeted by Blackfoot Indians, appropriate for the huge reservation we had just biked through.  We stopped just before checking in for a cool drink where we ran into Bryce (who had biked with us earlier).He is on his way home to Michigan and we hope to see him on our way through, which is a long way from today.

Since we did 65 miles today, tomorrow will have to be short; our mileage at this point is dictated by where we can sleep at night (ie: a motel) and we have a bit of housekeeping to tend to.

Thank you for your patience as we catch up on the posts.

As we biked out of Cut Bank this morning, we were surprised to see a penguin and the statistic it boasted.  This town holds the world record for the largest drop in temperature in 24 hours; dropped one hundred degrees from 54° …..Ouch, that’s cold!

This area is all about oil drilling and the railroad.

We biked gently rolling hills, void of treesand wind. We had a narrow shoulder that we shared with rumble strips, making looking around a bit more precarious.  But the scenery changed little, so we had a chance to easily see it all.The same storm that passed us two days ago, dropped a lot of rain here, still evident in puddles and the lush green fields.On our approach into town, we thought these railcars were loaded with some alien spaceship transporter. Any guess what this is?  Here’s another hint.Give up?These are parts to a wind turbine.  This one blade is the length of two rail cars, just enormous.  As promised a short ride (24 miles), but an opportunity to get caught up.

Not much going on in Shelby at seven in the morning, which was just fine with us as it meant no one on our roads.Clouds from the showers that had just passedmade for a pretty sky and cool (58°) morning as we pedaled the straight and sometimes rolling hills.The day was so quiet we could hear the infrequent cars coming from miles away.We have been watching the silhouettes of these mountains, since leaving the Glaciers.  They are the Sweet Grass Hills, the tallest standing 6983 feet.  Of course, from the vantage point of the high plains (around 3000-4000 feet) it is only a 3000 foot elevation difference.  Formed by volcanos (not glaciers), they are the highest isolated peaks in the United States.

The fields seemed to stretch on forever, with an occasional wheat silo and one left over from days gone by.We entertained ourselves by taking pictures of each other and making up stories of spaceships gone awry.By ten, we picked up a nice tail wind that assisted our arrival into town by 10:45. Now what do we do?  We chatted for a while with Tim from Washington DC, but he’s doing 100 miles a day, so that will be the last we will see of him.  We tried hard to figure out a way to go further with this tail wind and not have to camp in the wide open.  But our choice was to stay here with 45 miles down, or do 100+.  We checked in to the only motel in town.

A cool, crisp 52° cloudless morning.  Long straight roads, rolling hills, nothing to really see that we haven’t seen already, but you could see It forever.

It was a spectacular morning!

Looking back for one last look at Sweet Grass Hillsand further back (in time) for an unexpected dinosaur. We were biking before 6:30, as we planned to stop five miles down the road for breakfast, but we felt so good, we couldn’t stop pedaling.  Twenty five miles and endless fields later, we decided it was time for coffee. Shortly after nine, as we started up again, the wind met our backs and gave us an encouraging push.  There were new mountains (Bear Paw Mountains) to watch get larger, a rare body of waterand soldiers lined up on the hill defending the border to the Kremlin.

Five miles from town we begin to see trees, steeper hills and two story homes (first since before Glacier).  Though the hills of these last miles were a bit more taxing, with the wind at our backs, we wished we could go further; but once again good shelter dictated our stop in Bison country.  Our hotel recommended not missing The Best milkshake, right down the street. Must say, it was really good.  May have to try one after dinner, too.

Not much to see in town, except the statue of James Jerome Hill, the Empire Builder. Mr. Hill was instrumental in building the Hi-Line railroad from St. Paul to Seattle (1700 miles) as well as creating the towns that support it; impressive story.

During dinner a wicked storm blew through the town, unfortunately changing the wind direction, but leaving a beautiful double rainbow. The only thing that could top that was another visit to Wolfer’s Diner for a peanut butter milkshake topped with Oreo cookies; after 62 miles today, we felt justified.  If you Ever, find yourself even remotely close to Havre, Montana, Wolfer’s is a Must!

Out of the door five minutes later (6:25), yet 10° warmer with the nice breeze from yesterday.  The topography yielded more trees as we biked along the tracks running through the Milk River Valley. There is just something about a tail wind that just paints the day, prefect.The colors of the sky and fields were mesmerizing.

By 9:30 we had completed 43 miles; we needed to slow down.  A food break and obligatory horse picture, always works!  A half hour later, as we pushed off, the wind was really kicking.  The strong winds were starting to whip at our side (note the flag is straight out), threatening our vertical position and forward momentum, but not disturbing the vista.

Even with the wind adding challenge to our ride, it was a gorgeous day.  We watched the birds feasting on the freshly harvested fields and horses content on the green pastures.

A little more than five hours on the bike seat, 72 miles done and we were at our destination, still not ready to stop.  Grabbed some more water and headed to the next town.  Thankfully, the road was relatively flatand plenty to see with historical markers and colorful wildflowers along the highway.

We hit the wall at 88, but it was a 90 mile ride.  Limped into town exhausted but exuberant from our record breaking ride…..Eight hours total, Seat time 6:48 and 90.6 miles…..Great Day!

Checking in to our hotel, we met bikers heading west; Daniel from Buffalo/Argentina/Italy, Andrew from Tampa and Greg from Oregon.  Check out Andrew’s charity.…..Great cause if you have some spare change.