Glacier National Park - Day 5/6 Marias Pass
East Glacier Lodge
We stayed two nights at East Glacier Lodge. And it was a good thing too. I think everyone was ready to have a day to sleep in, relax, go for a hike or a boat ride and avoid the bike if possible. Of course, Kevin wanted to ride and he again suggested that we ride back to the Park Cafe and have a piece of pie. My left knee had begun to bother me the day before so I declined to return to St. Mary’s but Kevin decided he wanted to do a little ride so he went off to see Two Medicine Lake while I checked up on email and relaxed.
One thing that I did notice was that I was starving by 11 am. Mind you I had had a good sized breakfast but by noon I was ravenous. My body was in 80 mile day cycling mode. Kevin returned from his ride and we decided to go to lunch in East Glacier.
The town is not large and from what we saw, very hard-pressed. The local shops and establishments cater to the tourists that stay at East Glacier but I imagine that it must be very difficult to make a decent living during the winter months when the lodges are closed because of the weather.
Anyway, we walked over to the Glacier Village Inn and had a terrific lunch. The soup, sandwich, and french fries were delicious and our waitress was very friendly and helpful.
After lunch we walked around and found a t-shirt shop that sold some wonderful t-shirts - I bought one that had cyclists climbing “Going-to-the-Sun Road.” I wore it that evening and several other members of the tour got one too.
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, writing postcards, and visiting with the other members of the tour.
It is hard to believe that the tour was coming to an end. It was going too fast but we were having a terrific time.
The next day - day 6 of the tour would take us back to Apgar and West Glacier via Marias Pass. The ride was about a sixty-mile journey with most of it going downhill. We would have about 1800 feet ascending and 3500 feet descending. If we wanted to go really fast, this was the opportunity to do so. Dick and Dave suggested stops along the ride, Marias Pass Summit, the Goatlick, and the Izaak Walton Inn. The total day’s ride would be about 60 miles.
However, the first part of the ride, was about 10 miles slightly uphill. The elevation at the summit of Marias Pass was 5280 feet. In fact, the elevation over this stretch was about 500 feet ascending stretched over 10 miles. Not very steep at all.
So this should be a piece of cake - no problem - we should be able to maintain a pretty good speed. Ha! Think again. We started out and ran smack dab into a pretty strong headwind. The combination of the headwind and the slight incline forced me into a pretty low gear to maintain an average speed of 12+ miles per hour. Shesh - I guess the mountains wanted us to have the complete weather experience package - rain, wind, cold temperatures, more rain, more wind, and some sunny time. Today was sunny but the wind really made us work harder.
We made it to the summit and stopped for a nature break and to take pictures at the monument.
After cresting Marias Pass we continued riding for the next thirteen miles until we arrived at the goat lick. We saw a few goats but we were so far away that the goats were just moving specks. However, we saw a train moving over the tracks near the goat lick. The engineering that went into creating the railroad lines is pretty impresssive - considering that if undertaken today it probably would not be done because it is too expensive.
Tour guide Dave and Dick recommended that we stop at the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex. One of the many landmarks worthy of a few minutes to view. To get to the Izaak Walton Inn we had to cross a bridge that was in the process of being repaired - the road was completely torn up and big and small chunks of gravel had replaced the nicely paved roads we had been riding along. Once we crossed we made our way to the Inn.
The Izaak Walton Inn was built in 1939 to provide accommodations to the railroad workers of the Great Northern Railway. The Inn is located just west of the Continental Divide. The Inn was named after Sir Izaak Walton, a 16th century English author and sportsman. Sir Izaak wrote the book THE COMPLEAT ANGLER. James Willard Schultz, who lived in the area in the early 1900's probably named the hotel after him.
We decided to stop at the Inn where we met up with another group of riders who were having coffee and huckleberry cobbler. We decided to join them and although the service was very slow and there were times we weren’t sure if the wait staff was up to the task - we eventually were served coffee and cobbler. The cobbler was absolutely wonderful. They served it hot and it really hit the spot.
We shoved off from the Inn and made our way to Apgar. On the way, the terrain was absolutely wonderful, the weather was cooperating - it was warm and sunny and we were able to fly down the road.
As we were coming near Apgar we stopped to see rafters coming down the river. It was such a wonderful day, that Kevin and I decided that we wanted to do some additional mileage. Once we made it to Apgar we stopped at Eddies and had a nice lunch. At this point it was about 2 in the afternoon and Kevin suggested that we go do Going-to-the-Sun Road. All we would have to do is ride over and be ready to ride at around 4 pm when the road reopens for bicycles. I would have liked to have done Going-to-the-Sun Road again - and since the weather was so much better it would have been a great thing to do but I did not think we would have enough time to ride the entire 20 miles and return back before dinner at 7 pm. As it turned out - the ride would have been a very long one - the 20 miles up/ 20 miles back and 20 miles just to get to the start of the road. I finally convinced Kevin that I did not think that this would be a good idea so instead we decided to get in some additional mileage and take the road out to Polebridge that we had done on the first day of the ride.
We had a nice, leisurely ride but I must say that by the time we made it back to Apgar - I was ready to be off the bike. We had ridden hard today, we took the opportunity to really ride much more aggressively than we had throughout the week so that we had done about 85 miles for the day. Mind you most of it was down hill but it was still a good day’s effort. We made it back to the Apgar Inn where we were staying the night - situated right on Lake McDonald - it was a very impressive vista to say the least.
This was our last night on the tour and the entire crowd gathered after dinner to take a group picture and Tour Guide Dave presented Hand Cycle Dave a t-shirt to honor his efforts, enthusiasm, determination, and inspiration for all of us.
The next day would be short, only about 35 miles back to the Outlaw Inn. Luggage and stuff would be loaded into the van by 8am but we decided to delay our return to the Kalispell. I wanted to do some shopping and Apgar had some nice shops. Our flight did not leave until the following day so there was no rush to return to Kalispell - we could take our time - which we did.
We left Apgar around 11 am and made our way back to Kalispell. It sure looked different this time around. The last time it was raining, windy, and overcast. Today we only had to worry about traffic - lots of traffic and flat tires. We finally rolled into Kalispell and found a place to have lunch. And then onto the Outlaw Inn where we dismantled our bicycles - boy was that a mess - taking the bicycles apart - we sure looked like amateurs - bicycle grease everywhere - but we did managed to get everything back into the bicycle containers.
The trip was absolutely wonderful and it was sad that it was over. We had worked hard to get in shape for the trip and it paid off. We had a great time and hope to do it again next year.
Timberline did a great job in providing great accommodations, assistance where needed and an experience that we will remember.
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