Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Day 58 – Babb,MT to West Glacier,MT

Date: 25.06.2018
Altitude: 3189.0 ft (972 m)
Distance: 61.30 mi (98.66 km)
Total Altitude: 100882.6 ft (30749 m)
Total Distance: 3895.20 mi (6268.72 km)

What an amazing day. Today I biked through Glacier National Park and it was just as beautiful as everyone was telling me. Although I don't know what is still ahead of me, but I'm pretty sure this will have been the highlight of my trip.


It was not a really long or hard day, but I still started pretty early so that I had enough time to enjoy my trip and didn't have to hurry. I started in Babb after a nice breakfast at around 8am, this morning. It was a great day, the sun was shining and the wind wasn't too bad in the morning. Even with the sun, it still was not too warm, so it was perfect for a bike ride. From Babb it was about 9 miles to St. Mary and the east entrance of the Glacier National Park. The ride to St. Mary went along the St. Mary River and stayed on US 89. It was a nice ride along the river (for me it looked more like a lake) and a great start into this day. On my way to St. Mary, I saw a bear for the first time on this trip. The bear, I think it was a black bear, was crossing the street maybe 500 feet in front of me. In St. Mary I entered the Going-to-the-Sun Road. The road goes over Logan Pass, ends in West Glacier and is probably the most traveled road in Glacier National Park. Actually my timing for being in Glacier National Park was perfect, because the road over Logan Pass opened just a few day's ago. The road itself and the scenery along the way were just great. I stopped all the time to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. The further up I got, the more snow was still on the side of the road. Closer to the top, the wind picked up and especially on my way down I had to be careful. On two occasions when I came around a bent and the wind suddenly hit me, it almost pushed me of the road. At the end of the day I left the Park in West Glacier.


When I entered Glacier National Park this morning, I met Michael right after the entrance. We were both going up the Going-to-the-Sun Road to Logan Pass. Since my legs felt really good today, I passed Michael on the way up and didn't see him again on the ascent or descent. But we met again at Lake McDonald Lodge for a late lunch. Normally I wouldn't have stopped at Lake McDonald Lodge since it is only about 9 miles from West Glacier, but the road to Apgar & West Glacier is closed for cyclist between 11am & 4pm. So I wasn't able to keep going and decided to get something to eat and have a beer until the road opens for cyclists. After a while Michael showed up at the same place and so we got talking and after the road was open for cyclist biked together to West Glacier. In the evening we had a few beers and were talking about biking together to Withefish, tomorrow.


Conclusion for the day:

If you haven't been to Glacier National Park you should really consider going there, it is so beautiful.






































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