The Infamous ‘Going-to-the Sun Hwy’

I was up and moving pretty early…but again somewhat tied to the morning sunshine in order to get my tent dry.  I found the going quite easy at first and wow…so much to look at!  I pulled over at each little creek and overlook I found, and did a little hiking around ‘sun-something’.  I slid into the Sunrise area and got the quintessential omelette and five cups of coffee.  Even the view from the restaurant was spectacular.  I journalled and overheard people’s conversations about what they’d been doing in the park…then the waitress loaned me a paper and I got my first dose of reality/news in a week or so.  No word on Farve, Prop 8 facing some issues, local football stuff, and a super long story on the escaped convicts.  Two had been caught, but the notorious first cousin/fiancée duo was still out there and had been in the Yellowstone area…yikes.

I moved on and basically climbed for the next couple of hours.  The notoriously awful traffic on this most famous highway was actually pretty tame by my standards.  The cars had to stop for flaggers and I got to advance to the front of the line each time.  I jockeyed with a few cars in particular and had a little cheering crew of 4-12yr olds in a van.  I felt so good, and the views were so amazing, that I was charging up the last parts of Logan Pass.  As the last part of the climb was dirt and gravel, I actually had a corvette behind me that was obviously afraid of getting dirty or scratched…so for the last 1/4 mile of my climb up the Continental Divide at 6646 feet, I outsprinted a sports car!  WooHoo!

At the visitors center I was happily refueling with water and my snacks when I finally got the real-deal on cycling Glacier from a ranger.  Turns out that from 11-4, they keep bikes off a section of the highway that I needed to cross in order to get to Apgar that evening.  Suddenly, I had four hours to kill.  I was feeling pretty good, so amongst an absurdly crowded visitor’s center (they’d been turning away cars for lack of parking space) I tossed on my sneaks, grabbed my camera and a full bottle of water, and made my way out on the Garden Wall trail. 

It was spectacular…absolutely stunning…and not nearly as crowded as I thought it would be.  I came upon mountain goat families right from the start…as well as lots of ground squirrels, and quite possibly the worlds least timid marmot.  Seriously, the people who were behind me have a picture of me stepping over him!  The trail continued along the sides of a few different ridges, and gave way to some big views over the valley stretching to the south and west.  I could have continued on and on for days, but at the two-hour mark I had to flip around to get back on the bike.  5 miles out and 5 back…it wasn’t until I got back tot he parking lot that I considered how my body might feel about a high altitude hike in the middle of a 60 mile day.  Turns out it was the Achilles tendons that had the biggest complaints about my little foray away from the wheels.  But with a group of bighorn sheep awaiting me 3 feet off the road the moment I got back on the bike…all pains were forgotten.

The following 10 minutes were some of the greatest, most wonderfullest cycling moments of my life.  The descent (which is legendary in the world of bike travel) is about 16 miles of the most scenic 6% grade you can imagine.  I started it by popping out in front of a tour bus (just after the stretch of road work) that had stopped to look at a marmot, and was instantly on an empty road.  All traffic behind me was stopped up behind the bus, and it was so late in the day that very few cars were coming in from the west side.  Only at the start did I even need to feather my breaks…aside from that I simply coasted and swerved and smiled and smiled and smiled.  I didn’t even stop to take any pictures, I just soaked it all up.  At the loop (hairpin turn), I even had a little cheering crew who were waiting for the bus…all they had to do was turn around and see my flying by again, to more cheers and hollers.  I was absolutely ecstatic!

By the time I got back to flat-ish ground, I was coming down off a monster high…for a bit I even felt grumpy that I had to pedal to keep it at 15mph…psshha!  But the west side of the park is much more Washington-like, with a river cutting some deep channels through the rock as the road bobs along next to it.  Tall trees block out much of any other view you’d have…but it still felt enough like home that my funk dissipated as quickly as it had arrived. 

I pushed on, rounded Lake McDonald, and before I knew it I was rolling into Apgar at the west side of the park.  The biker/hiker spots are popular in the parks system, so for $5 I rolled on to set up camp…where I met a fellow two-wheeled traveler of almost 60 yrs of age!

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