46.7 miles, 4:39, 10.0 mph
After yesterday's mild heat exhaustion, and today's forecast for temperatures in the low 90s, even at elevation, I was determined to make an early start. Ben needed a new tire, and new tubes, and the bike shop in Bigfork wouldn't open until 10, and we weren't sure if they would have what he needed, so he decided to go 15 miles out of the way to Kalispell. Kalispell has many bike shops, so he'd be able to find what he needed. So we decided to travel separately today, and I headed off well before 7, while it was lovely and cool. We also booked a room in West Glacier for a second night, as the weather forecast was for some pretty heavy, dangerous thunderstorms, and we didn't want to get caught camping in the park in that kind of bad weather.
I took some photos of Bigfork, then headed up the big hill out of town, which was just fine in the morning cool. The views were great, and the riding easy for the first few miles, although there was an annoying northeasterly headwind from time to time, as I rounded corners of the Mission Range.
I stopped around 10 for a hot dog, and a retired medevac helicopter pilot was very curious about my trip. Turns out he was from North Dakota, and after the military drafted him during Vietnam, he moved to Kalispell. We chatted about how the area had changed, and his perception that a lot of nut cases had moved into the area in recent years. It was also cool to learn how they used to fly almost everyone who was really sick out to Spokane, but that now with the growth of western Montana, there's less need for medical evacuations.
I bid him farewell, even though he clearly would have wanted to chat all morning, and headed up Montana 206, the most harrowing ten miles of the trip so far. Narrow, full of idiot Montana drivers who don't slow down when encountering something in front of them---despite all the signs about the high Montana road death rate (highest in the country, by a decent margin) and the constant parade of white crosses on the side of the road, Montana drivers persist in driving too fast, and seem a bit out of control most of the time. The road rolled and twisted, and frankly, I was scared for the first time on my trip.
Happily it was only 50 minutes or so of cycling before I got to US 2!!!! My highway companion for over 1000 miles, until the eastern Upper Peninsula, with a few detours off and on. I felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment of having reached an important milestone on my trip, and it helped me to shake off the tired feeling from yesterday's heat problems.
I turned east up US 2, to head along the canyon of the Flathead River. I passed a lot of tacky tourist shops and displays before the road suddenly narrowed into the first part of the canyon. Another super frightening stretch of road, but with more tourists than Montanans, people actually slowed down before passing me. There was also very little truck traffic, so it felt a lot safer. After a few miles, the canyon widened out, and so did the road, and my sense of well-being!
The road began to climb, and the sun was hot. The fuel temperature was already over 100, and it wasn't noon, and I was starting to flag. I watered up, ate some more, and just slogged along, and slogged along, until finally, the mountains of Glacier National Park came into view. I was almost there, and the last half mile was a bit of a coast into the Vista Motel, which true to promise, had a full view of the central range of Glacier.
They were still cleaning rooms, and our little cabin wasn't ready yet, so I checked my email, and ended up chatting with the owner. Turns out she had hung out a lot in Montana in the 70s, then moved to the Bay Area, where she had lived for more than 20 years before retiring. Montana had maintained its pull and she decided to buy a rather rundown motel, and renovate it. It sounded like the pull of Montana had waned for her, and she also felt that western Montana had a lot more right wing people than before. Her husband still lives and works in the Bay Area, and she spends part of the year in West Glacier. The motel isn't weatherized so the season is only about 4 months long. She's done a great job of fixing it up, and it was nice to sleep on real cotton sheets!
While I was still in my cycling clothes, I cycled to the park headquarters to get some information, and was assured that all the front country campsites had bear lockers. This was a relief, as the website was quite unclear about bear lockers, and we would be bringing a couple days of food with us into the park. I rambled around the visitor center to learn more about the park, and then headed back to the motel for a well deserved swim!
There was a lovely Canadian family at the pool, and we chatted for a bit. They were from Red Deer, which is between Calgary and Edmonton (so WAY up there) and both had grown up on a farm. The husband worked as a heavy equipment mechanic, mostly oil field related, and the wife was a teacher's aide. I was struck by how well read and aware of the world they were, so unlike their American working class counterparts. To be honest they reminded me of New Zealanders----why is the American working class so stubbornly ignorant compared to its counterparts in other immigrant cultures?
Turns out the husband had recently been down to Tehachapi with his boss, to look into buying some used windmills. Apparently, the province of Alberta, in order to shine up its Texas-sized reputation for environmental destruction, is subsidizing the installation of wind farms! They'll sure have to put up a lot of them to make up for the Tar Sands..... Anyway, he was quite knowledgeable about the industry, and as I headed back to my cabin, he asked me if I knew who he should approach for financing! (I had mentioned that I had worked on some windmill deals back in the 80s, the summer I worked at Coudert and he figured I might know someone). I told him I didn't know anyone in Canada, and that generally the manufacturers help arrange the financing. But since they were looking at used windmills, I told him to approach one of the big Canadian banks in his town, and find out who did alternative energy finance. Let's hope we struck a blow for the environment in Alberta.
By now it was 5 PM and still no Ben. I was starting to get a bit worried since he had texted me that he'd left Kalispell hours ago. Around 530 I got a text picture of the Hungry Horse Dam, and it turns out that Ben had done a 5 mile climb in the heat to get to the dam. Crazy man! Anyway, he arrived not too much later, and we headed off for a nice dinner, and the knowledge that we could sleep in tomorrow morning!
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