Start: 7:07am

Finish: 12:50pm

Saddle Time: 4:10

Ascent: 1,684 feet

Descent:  1,041 feet

Miles: 49.4

Total Miles: 785

Highlight: Riding a segment of back country road paralleling highway 2 which went over the Middle Fork Flathead River, made me want to go fishing or rafting.  

Lowlight: Riding on highway 2 from West Glacier to Pinnacle.

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

Admittedly I didn’t start today in the right frame of mind, I wanted it over, just making progress to get out of the mountains and away from Glacier and the heat at this point. As you can tell I’ve been frustrated the past few days by my current situation with the heat and the location close to Glacier.  Right or wrong I’ve been solely focused on getting over the continental divide and down the other side of the Rockies. I didn’t expect this trip to be all fun and enjoyable.  I knew it would be hard especially at the start and there would be times I absolutely hate. This is one of those times.

The day didn’t start well with my $300 hotel room not having a coffee maker, hot water kettle or microwave.  Of course I could break out my stove but that requires unpacking and repacking.  I went to the lobby which was closed with sign saying to go across the street to the Firebrand, a nice looking hotel which I guess is owned by the same people. So there’s not even coffee and hot water in the lobby.

I went across the street, told an employee where I was staying and asked where’s the coffee and hot water?  All hotels have coffee in the lobby!  Not here. Restaurant opens at 7:00, he said.  I said but I just want hot water.  He frowns, goes in back and gets me hot water. Seriously, I’ve never seen this before, certainly not at this price point.

Now coffee’d up, I ate a Cliff Bar for breakfast.  I took my time this morning knowing it’s a shorter day than yesterday.  By the time I was ready to go it was around 6:45.  Figured I might as well head over to a coffee shop on the way out of town that opens at 7:00 and get a breakfast sandwich to go for second breakfast in an hour or two.

Immediately after leaving town the route veered off onto a side road which I thought would give me some respite from the Montana highways.  The scenery was nice but there were a fair number of cars including big trucks.  The road made a strange zig zag pattern through the area making right angle turns every now and then.  I guess following old property lines.

This went on to the next town of Columbia Falls where I turned onto another road, not a highway but pretty similar.  Now the headwind hit fierce.  Very strong, directly in my face. While riding my mind thinks about this blog and instagram, what do I want to say about the day.  My highlight and lowlight came to mind.  For highlight I thought I would write “absolutely nothing” but then the route made a right hand turn on a road now protected from the wind.  Very quite and scenic, the road eventually crossed the Middle Fork Flathead River where people were camped out on a sandbar. Really nice looking river.  The other side had lot of trucks with flatbed trailers for what I guess is a rafting launch or pickup point.  Eventually made my way to highway 2 which I will follow the rest of the way today and tomorrow.  Thankfully it began with an excellent bike path for a few miles up to the entrance to Glacier.

I don’t think I mentioned the Northern Tier routes through this area.  The main route enters Glacier here in West Glacier and follows the Going-to-the-Sun road over Logan Pass which is supposed to be spectacular. I had considered doing this route when I started the trip but the road is very narrow and winding, built back in the 1930’s not for the volume of cars and size of RV’s we have now. An early start is required, cyclist can’t start after 11:00. Cyclists I met back in Republic, WA rode this route before it opened to vehicles.  They said it was fantastic but would never do it with traffic.  Their input along with the current heatwave and it’s just not happening.  I will follow the alternate route along highway 2 skirting the south side of the park and over Maria’s Pass on to East Glacier. 

My ride was about 20 miles on highway 2 with a fair amount of traffic and of course the crazy Montana speed limit.  Again, thankfully many of the cars were out of state so traveling at reasonable speeds.  There were quite a few that slowed down on turns waiting to pass me rather than giving inches of clearance.  With a focus on finishing the day and not getting killed I tried to make good time through the area, not stopping for pictures.

I made it to the Glacier Haven Inn by 1:00.  This night was “only” $150.  My room wasn’t ready when I arrived so I asked if the cafe was open, he said no it’s closed for renovation.  They advertise having a cafe which I was counting on for lunch and dinner, there’s nothing around here. There was no cell service in the area so while waiting I asked if I could get on their wifi.  No wifi. I eventually checked in to the room, figured I’d make a phone call to let people know where I am. No landline phone service here either. So now I really was off grid.

I had a long afternoon and evening ahead of me.  I cooked up some oatmeal for lunch along with an energy bar.  For dinner I had my rice and sardines emergency meal.  This room does have a coffee maker, microwave, fridge and an ice machine.  Way better than the crappy $300 room last night.  Plus I had a can of wine in my bag so not all that bad.

Tomorrow I climb the last pass in the Rockies then start descending the eastern side, spending some of the climbing credit I earned peddling up to 5,000 feet.   Time to coast, so excited!