We woke up this morning with some aches and pains we hadn't had before! My calves and knees were sore from all the walking the day before, and my ankle was complaining a bit--but nothing that a couple of Advil couldn't take care of.
Our plans changed slightly for this day. We had originally planned to go over Logan Pass inside Glacier National Park. But Logan Pass will not be open until July because they had major road damage on the East side due to torrential rains last fall. So no bicycles or cars were allowed East of the top of the pass. We had to take the only other option over the Rocky Mountains, which is Marias Pass and Route 2, with more traffic.
While we were in West Glacier, we met another cyclist who was doing the Jasper (Canada) to Denver trip--a route I'm hadn't heard of before. He had come from East Glacier the previous day and told us "Man, you have a 48-mile uphill to get over Marias Pass!" So I got a little psyched out--imagining a 48-mile Berthoud Pass! We decided to just get up and go and managed to be riding by 8:30 a.m. We started with fear and loathing, though. A narrow road, no shoulder and some traffic, and a 48-mile climb to "look forward" to. We were both feeling a bit down about the day.
My coaching kicked in, though. I decided that I needed to adopt a perspective for the day. I firmly put my bike into the easiest chain ring on the front and said "it's easy gear day until I get to the top." I also decided that I was going to have fun, and told David that I would do my best, but let's just have fun! He was not too worried about the pass because he had done the math and figured out it wouldn't be too steep (thanks for sharing, David). He was all for having as much fun as possible--no surprise there.
So we went for it! About 15 miles into the ride, I noticed we were going pretty fast and yelled "It can't be a 48-mile uphill because we don't have 48 miles left in the ride." David said "Well we've been going uphill this whole time!" So I figured at that point that we were truly rock stars and incorporated that into my perspective! Amazingly enough, with my attitude about Marias Pass adjusted, I did just fine and rode relatively quickly for me.
The ride was gorgeous and the traffic was minimal. We went along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. At the start of our climb, the river was huge! There were rafting companies taking trips down that part of the river, and it was very wide. By the top of Marias Pass, the water was tiny turquoise rivulets. Along the way, we found some fantastic waterfalls and stopped to see the mountain goats (they were there, but way up high).
At the top of Marias Pass, we celebrated like rock stars (because we were) and looked at the monument and markers there. They had a monument to Theodore Roosevelt, who designated Glacier as a National Park (and I believe started the whole National Park system). On the plaque, they noted that the Portland, OR to Portland, ME, route was the Teddy Roosevelt International Peace Highway. We loved this idea until we saw that the route is over 4,000 miles! Hmmm, where did those other 600 miles come from? We need to investigate that further, but think our specific route will be closer to the 3,400 miles we have planned.
After 4 1/2 hours uphill, we were really looking forward to the downhill (which lasted all of 30 minutes). We found our first bad trucker on the way down the hill. David had stopped to take a picture of the mountains, so we were off the road and standing on the shoulder (which was very small). This guy laid on his big horn for about 10 seconds and drove VERY close to us--even though nobody else was coming and he had both lanes to work with. It really reminded me of bullies in school. In elementary school, it was the 120-pound 4th grader who grew real fast against the 60-pound kid who didn't have a growth spurt yet. In our case it was an 80,000-pound vehicle versus two 200-pound bikes. And it made just as much sense. He didn't accomplish anything by his actions other than to label himself. This is the first trucker we have seen who acted this way--all the others have been more than willing to share the road!
We coasted into East Glacier and decided to splurge and stay at the Glacier Peak Lodge. This is Blackfeet Indian country--and we were on part of their reservation. This lodge was built in 1913, and really is spectacular to see. The lobby is made of HUGE old trees--Douglas Fir and Pine--that still have the bark on them. Many are over 6 feet in diameter, and the information available said they were about 800 years old when the lodge was built. It was amazing to see. The plumbing and heatine were also from 1913, but that added to the ambience of the place! Ha! We enjoyed a great prime rib dinner at the restaurant there and felt fueled up for the next day!
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