Riding to the Sun

We wanted to start off the day early, so we could get through Glacier National Park via the Road to the Sun and Logan's pass before the rush of traffice. I guess that we succeeded somewhat, as we began the ride at about 9:00. There was still quite a bit of traffic, but it we were still able to go at our own pace without being held up by all of the tourists stopping and taking pictures :)


We entered the park through the west entrance, and the route proceeded alongside Lake McDonald on our left. At times, the lake shoreline was right against the road, while tall stands of pine were on our right. The road soon began to wind and slowly ascend, but we really could not enjoy the ride as much as I would have like since we were limited by the speed limit. Once we hit about 4100 feet, the rate of rise and twists increased until we reached the summit at Logan's Pass and 6646 feet (Logan's Pass also marks a spot on the Continental Divide). We stopped where we could on the narrow road, but the pictures do not do this road justice. There were points along the road where drops of hundreds of feet were unguarded. Rains from the day before rewarded us with waterfalls that were channeled under the road and made shear rock walls weep. At Logan's Pass, there is a visitors center where people start day hikes either going up (some destinations reached 10000 feet) or down. The initial decent from the summit was in stark contrast to the ride up. It was maked by two stretches of virtually straight road before it reached grassland below and began to wind. I noticed on the way down that there were hundreds of acres of pine that had died by some other cause than fire. I suspect it was because of infestation or disease. We rode the 50 miles and made it to the east entrance in about 90 minutes.

We keep on coming upon roads that have been awesome to ride, and I keep calling the current one the best of the trip. This was no exception. If you ever have the opportunity to ride or drive the Road to the Sun, you will have to first determine the type of person you are. If you are the type who like to save the best for last, start at the east entrance to the park. If you are a person who likes to eat the desert first, begin at the west entrance.

We then decided to take the long way to our next stop in Butte, Montana and visit the festival in Missoula that we were told about earlier in the trip. The festival celebrate the castration of bulls and has the moniker of the Testicle Festival. Actully, that name is a misnomer, since the main activity is the celebration of vice. There was one booth that sold fried balls, but there were many more that sold beer and other foods. There was also a stage where the females in the crowd were given the opportunity to show what god had given them. Basically, this was a pre-Sturgis party for all the bikers heading east from the western states.

We did run into Pat and Butch from Oregon again (they were the broke-down bikers we ran into in Whitehorse in the Yukon the first of four times on the trip). We had about 120 miles to go until we hit Butte, so we left the festival after a couple of hours. We jumped onto I-90, and cranked the bikes up to 75MPH, the legal speed limit. After about 50 miles, we saw rain off to our left so we pulled in to a gas station to put on the rain gear. When we got back on the road, there was a huge storm that had formed off to our right. The road trip gods must have been watching out for us, because we again stayed dry. I knew that would not last long, so about 10 miles from our destination, we pulled into the next town and made the decision to stay in a hotel for the first time since the first day of the trip. Yes, life has been good. Every day has been a full-leather day of riding, with crisp mornings and mild afternoons. That should change tomorrow, when we will ride to meet the rest of the group from Lawrenceburg in Pinedale, Wyoming. The forecast is for the tempuratures to rise to nearly 90.

Sorry there are no pictures again today.  The internet here is horrible and it is all I can do to post this text...