Made it to the U.S. around 2:30 and to a campground 6 miles later. 113.8 miles with that crazy crosswind, and I'm still bushed. Had a shower last night so I'll go a ways to a laundromat and wash all my clothes and maybe just goof around all day. I hear that bicycles are no longer permitted on the 'Road to the Sun' which goes through Logan Pass. I suspect a car ran into a bicyclist or two, which would seem to say that cars should be banned and not cyclists. The climb up isn't as high as I thought - the Pass is 6665 ft but I'm 4600+ now. Not sure what I'll do - the route around is 30 miles longer so I'll either have to take it or hitch a ride in a camper or pickup truck. Bleh.
I'm currently at a town called Babb, about 10 - 12 miles from St. Mary, which is said to have a laundromat, might as well get going. Really shouldn't feel this weak.
1:00 PM St. Mary MT
Washed my clothes and wrote Grandma a six page letter and drank a water bottle Gatorade and feel somewhat better. Don't see any big signs at the start of the "Going to the Sun" road, so maybe I'll just take it and see what happens. A cold front came through last night with a little rain but has disrupted the Chinook, so should be a good day for cycling. Not much else to say, I'll try to mail this and get moving.
July 2nd, 9:20 AM
odometer start: 2652.6
I stopped at the entrance gate to Glacier (cars pay) but the money collector was on the radio and waved me on, so I thought I might be able to get through the park okay. However, 10 miles down the road was a sign saying No Bikes, which I decided to ignore. About 5 minutes later a park car passed me and stopped at a viewpoint just ahead to wave me over. He was a naturalist and warned me that park rangers took a dim view of cyclists who pass the sign, so I went back to the sign to try to hitch hike across. Being a week day, there wasn't too much traffic so some 15 minutes and 10 vehicles later, the 4th one capable of carrying a bike and the 1st with room picked me up. It was a pickup truck with 4 Blackfoot Indians in front and 2 backpackers in back who had been picked up earlier. So we went bouncing up a ways to where we dropped off the backpackers and up further where we stopped for a little bit then continued down. I tried to get some good pictures but I'm afraid most will be pretty poor. If I had been able to ride over, it would have been the best part of the trip. Think I'll write a long letter to Park Service complaining about it. What they really should be doing is limiting motor vehicles (entirely) and bus everyone over. That way everyone would be able to see the park well and free up all the traffic making it safe for cyclists and hikers. Oh - the naturalist who chased me out said there hadn't been accidents involving cyclists, just that the park people decided to close the route to cyclists for their own safety. Garbage.
I'm going over to Columbia Falls and maybe further in search of bank and a cobbler shop to nail a broken cleat back on my shoes. Probably be somewhere on Rt. 209 tonight.
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Written 2024 June 19, last updated 2024 June 19.