Back from Montana

The Montana excursion was a glorious experience. Weasel and I rode some amazing countryside. We Amtrak'ed to Whitefish, MT, spent the night in a motel, and embarked up the Great Divide Route at the crack of noon the next day. There was little or no descending that first day, and no pavement for most of the first three days.



In our search for a campground marked on a cartoon-like map, we made a wrong turn up this two-track road with a relentless grade. The view was nice.


But we eventually found the place, Upper Whitefish Lake. It was a pretty primitive campground. There was no way to pay, and we'd neglected to purchase the necessary state camping permit back in town. So for this first night, we were campsite pirates. The view was nice.




More climbing toward Red Meadow Pass (about 5600 feet amsl, 2500 feet above Whitefish). The view was nice.




Over the pass, past the gorgeous Red Meadow Lake (which I didn't photograph for some reason), and down a sketchy descent, we eventually made our way to the "town" of Polebridge. The view was nice.


From Polebridge, we were able to enter into Glacier National Park. It was getting late in the afternoon, and campsites were apparently in short supply at Bowman Lake, but we decided to chance it. After all, it was only 6 miles. Those 6 miles were arduous, to say the least. Bowman Lake Road is very steep in places and rough everywhere. The view was nice.






From Bowman Lake, we headed down the Inside North Fork Road, a portion of which is closed to cars. It was rugged terrain, a rustic road (my favorite), and there were thimbleberries and huckleberries to snack on. Also, lots of grizzly poop in the road. The view was nice.










This brought us to the large campground at Apgar. Apgar also had a restaurant and ice cream and a paved road, which we detoured with a short chunk of singletrack. The next morning, we started on the first piece of the Going to the Sun Road, which is closed to bikes 11am-4pm. We took a break during these 5 hours at Lake McDonald Lodge. I caught a fish. The view was nice.

After camping at Avalanche Creek, we were back on Going to the Sun Road, now going uphill in earnest. The view was nice.















Finally, after 32 miles of going uphill, much of which on the side of a mountain ravine, we made Logan Pass, a beautiful place if ever there was one. The view was very nice.


After Logan Pass, we bombed down the other side to Rising Sun for our 5th night of camping. This is on St Mary's Lake. The water was cold, but the view was nice.

Our final day of riding brought us to East Glacier and Brownie's hostel, which was neat place. I'd consider living there, I think. Of course, the view was nice.