To infinity...and beyond!

A little post from yesterday, then an update from today:

Tomorrow, we ride the Boston Marathon of mountains... the highest pass of the trip (over the Continental Divide)...with a TIME LIMIT. Bikers have to be up and over Logan's Pass by 11 am, or Rangers come, pick you up + throw your bike in the back of a truck. A few things to note 1. The climb is not mandatory. The maps offer another, smaller pass and actually only offer this one if you're planning on riding into Canada. 2. (and probably most importantly) It's really, really, gut-wrenchingly beautiful.

What else? Oh, yes...I passed out today. Don't worry, nothing serious...we had gotten on the bus to ride back from hiking (Park offers a free shuttle up + over the mountain with stops at trailheads), my stomach had been really weird all day, and for some reason the standing on the bus got to me. Everything started getting far away, and down I went. Some nice people gave up their seats right away! (I think this is a good way to get seats in the future in Chicago)... Got back to camp, drank lots of water, ate dinner, took care of business... hopefully a good night's sleep, and then climb tomorrow. We have been inside the park for two and a half days, and have hiked the last two.

Bah! I forgot... we mailed our running shoes home in Sandpoint, ID to save space/weight. I'm not exactly sure what we thought we were going to do when we got to Glacier 'cause...we both wanted to hike. So, to resolve our dunder-headedness, we stopped at the one thrift store in Columbia Falls, MT and got a pair of running shoes for me, and a pair of men's dress shoes for David (the only thing they had in his size). Grand total: $2. Score! The dress shoes actually worked out surprisingly well! They are, however, in the garbage now. All good things must come to an end.

We had the... ahem... pleasure... of camping with a bear. This bear was named Floyd, and I kid you not, was the loudest camper we've shared a space with. I woke up in the middle of the night and could not block out the snoring, grunting (and...hrm...farting) from twenty feet away. I woke again later and heard quiet stepping and munching outside our tent, and figured it must be a deer. I listened for a little bit, (it was RIGHT outside!) then went back to sleep. All in all, not the most restful night. In the morning, I asked David if he'd heard the animal outside our tent. "Baahahhahahaaa. Was it a bear? Honey, that was Floyd." Floyd was munching leaves outside our tent? "Uh...no... he was having a flem and coughing/farting/grunting episode in the middle of the night." Hmmm... must have missed that one. I overheard other campers talking about the deer that was outside our tent... but no one said anything about Bear Floyd.

We've seen some pretty depressingly named areas on this trip. Washington takes the cake with: Coffin Lake, Dead Man Road, Desperation pass... David and I started joking about the names. "Honey, have we passed Poison Lake yet?" "Yeah... it was right after Starvedtodeath Lane." Glacier/Waterton Park has a cliff named Buffalo-with-head-smashed-in-jump. Mmmm....pretty.

But about Glacier. H.O.L.Y. amazing COW. Is this place real? Because seriously, the entire time we were there it felt like we were dreaming up the scenery. I mean, seriously... you hear all this hype about Yellowstone and Yosemite, but Glacier N.P. isn't usually one I hear too often (although, it is called the "Crown of the Continent"). There is one mountain range (Tri-Continental Divide) that separates water towards the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Hudson Bay. Imagine being completely encircled by 9,000 ft. mountains, with a hanging valley of coniferous trees and wildflowers. Waterfalls were gushing down the faces of the mountains. The sun would crest on snow peaks and set them on fire. We saw Mountain Goats, Big-horned rams, White-tail deer that would walk within five feet of us... we climbed up a snowy pass to a place called "Hidden Lake". ... sigh. mmm. Glacier.

The first day, we waited for the free park shuttle with Dave and Sue, a couple from Baltimore that decided to buy a retirement house in Whitefish so they could be near Glacier. Dave said, "Yeah...we went to Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons...this is the most majestic." So, who was at the park? Canadians, British, French, a couple Americans. We're in the minority here. We waited with Dave and Sue for an hour and a half... no shuttle. Supposedly the shuttle comes every 15-20 minutes. Sounds like some of our experiences with Megabus! We ended up all loading in the back of someone's Ford Ranger (with a cap) and rode back up to the top of the pass (the shuttle goes only to the top from both the East and West sides). Dave and Sue drove us back down to our campsite, and told us how they fell in love with the park last summer. They worked at a hotel that had couple dormitories. Sue worked the front desk, and Dave worked in a convenience store. Room and board was free, and they got paid. They also got to go horseback riding whenever they wanted, use the boats for free... pretty much sounded like a blast. Thank you again, Dave and Sue for the ride to the bottom!

Update from today (July 8th):

Well, we rode Logan's Pass today...the road is called the "Going-to-the-sun-road". We woke up at 5 am, and were on the road by 6 to make sure we beat the traffic and the time limit. Rode through a herd of Big-horn rams, and passed by a momma, daddy, and baby kid goat. Pretty stinking cute. The road is pretty scary... sometimes not wide enough for two cars and a cyclist, but we were on the road early enough to avoid any problems. Washington Pass (that 42 mile climb) and the day against the wind in Guadalupe we both agree were much worse, and the 16 mile climb up from our campsite to the top was actually...dare I say fun? I think our legs are getting used to the abuse, because they weren't complaining. "Going-to-the-sun-road" is by-far the most scenic road we've been on, which is why...after seeing it out the windows of the shuttle bus... we decided to ride.

We were told by Loyd (the Bear) that once we got over the pass, it was all down-hill from St. Mary's to Browning (which is where we re-met up with the southern option from the maps). Not quite. Apparently, St. Mary's is in a bowl, because we got down from the pass...and then re-climbed another 11 miles back out again. Hmm... still, the legs were fine. We got motivated in St. Mary's by reading some of our other biking friends blogs who didn't take 2 days off. Lonnie (whom we linked in an earlier blog) took the northern route. The father-son duo Jerry and Ned took the southern route, but took only one day off. It looked like if we BOOKED it from St. Mary's and ended the day in Cut Bank, we'd all be in pretty much the same area. So... today ended up being another 100 mile day, except 20+ miles of it was climbing. I'll be honest and say... my legs were complaining the last 15 or so miles. But we made it! It felt like an accomplishment of sorts.

At the grocery store in Cut Bank, a man offered his back yard for us to stay in. When we got there, it turned into offering us showers (which we needed after 4+days), laundry, and a futon downstairs. Dan-is-the-man. He has completely re-done his home...it's obvious everything was meticulously done, and that he's very proud of it. Dan is extremely kind and accommodating... we are very very thankful he opened his home up to us. After a record 4 days straight camping, a bed is quite nice.

Last but not least, about our 4th in Whitefish (I know it was 4 days ago, but oh well):

We pulled into Whitefish, and I wondered, "Who are we going to find that's home and willing to have people camp in their yard on the 4th of July?" Not long after, two nice-looking college-aged girls walked by, and I asked, "Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you...but we're cycling across the country and are looking for a place to camp tonight. Do you know anyone who maybe wouldn't mind us popping up our tent in their yard?"

One girl said, "Yeah! I think my friend's mom wouldn't mind." With that she whipped out her cell phone, called Kathy, and after asking, "Hey, would you mind if two cyclists camped in your yard?"... and that's it! We had a place to stay. Not quite so hard as I thought it would be.

Kathy let us pop the tent in the back, showed us the bathroom for showering, and offered the washing machine. She told us she'd be gone tonight for the 4th, and would have to leave early tomorrow, but that she'd leave the house open for us. WOW!

We went into Whitefish, made some Ramen and split a Burger at the Bulldog Saloon, and then met up with Kyle, Mandy, and their kids (the couple we met in Rexford) for the 4th festivities. We went and got coffee...the kids got GIANT swirly lollipops (and a sugar rush) and Kyle got us our coffee. Mmm. So good.

We all went down to Whitefish lake together to watch the fireworks. Jackson and Nikale (the two little boys) threw stones into the lake while we got to talk with Mandy and Kyle. What a fantastic couple...we hope to stay with them when we go through Minnesota, and I can definitely see continuing a friendship with them over time (they want to come to Chicago some time!). Kyle ALSO got us a huckleberry ice cream cone to share...everything up here is huckleberry huckleberry. Nikale lost his ice cream, but moved on pretty quickly to the Cheez-its and cherries we brought to share.

Even if the fireworks show had been some backwoods thing over an RV park, it would have been fun... but it was over a lake with tons of boats, where the sun was reflecting off the smoke, mist, and mountains... pretty spectacular. David's comment is that he's never seen so many other people shooting off their of firecracker/works before, during, and after a 4th show before... the bottle rockets and roman candles continued probably til midnight. Kyle and Mandy are awesome... and their kids are hilarious. As we sat and watched the sun set on the lake before the show, I thought how incredible it was to be in Whitefish, MT with my husband...at a lake with new found friends. Pretty. Amazing.

Mom, Dad, I'll call you as soon as I can (service is pretty spotty out here)... I love you, and I'm thankful for the comments and messages I've been getting from everyone.