Day 18 – West Glacier, MT to East Glacier, MT

 Miles 57

Total Miles 877

 

We didn’t get up quite so early this morning and it was quite a mild morning to get going.  We stayed on Highway 2 for the entire day.  It was a beautiful ride, but the road was very busy and at times had very little shoulder.  It seemed that we had to watch traffic quite a bit.

 

We crossed over the continental divide today. The divide was on Marias Pass and was at 5,236 feet.  This particular location was used by the Indians when Lewis and Clark came through and it is the lowest place that the continental divide is at in Montana. It seemed we still did plenty of climbing. All in all it was better than yesterday’s climbs in that it was not up and down all day long.  I would rather just climb and get the climb done, but, you know.  You have to take what comes. 😌 We did climb about 3,200 feet today. 🚴 🏔

 

We had a hard time finding a place to stay tonight.  Yesterday, I called the place that I had researched and a recorded message said they were not going to be open in 2021. I couldn’t find any other place, so I was calling a motel to get a reservation there and found out they also had an unadvertised RV place.  The place is pretty remote, but it has all the hookups, so we are ok. Internet is terrible (hence can’t post today). That is one thing I am learning is to call a local business and ask if RV sites are available.  Many times you find ones that are not advertised.

 

We took Tim to the train station tonight.  It was so nice to have him along for this portion of the trip.  We seem to travel pretty well together and I’m going miss him.  He is riding the Amtrak back to Tacoma and it was fun to wait for his train and send him off tonight. I would like to take a trip on Amtrak someday. Tomorrow will be different riding alone.  I hope it works out ok.

Thanks to Tim for joining me on this ride.  It was wonderful to be with him and have his company.

Tim loading his bike on Amtrak.  Pretty slick way to take a bike! 

 

After getting over the continental divide, the landscape has changed again.  There are a few pine and fir trees, but it looks like there is going to be so much more grass and rangeland.  I am excited to see it tomorrow.