Days 11-12: Bigfork to Babb, Mont.

We are staying in the small town of Babb, Montana, just east of Glacier NP. We had two shorter days of cycling in terms of mileage, but took a big chunk out of the overall climbing for the trip, and summited what will be the high point (literally) of our trip as we crossed the Continental Divide at Logan Pass this morning.

In Seeley Lake, we caught the second half of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, so we have been living by their creed, and being sure to be excellent to everyone. In Bigfork, we also lived out the second part, and we partied on, checking out a brewery, distillery, and catching some live music in the park. 

Tuesday morning we headed north out of Bigfork on some excellent, quiet roads. We knew we could not get to our campground in Glacier until after 4pm, so we took our time and did some re-supplying in Columbia Falls, visiting the bike shop for some additional tubes, and the grocery store. We made quite a hunt through Smith’s Food and Drug in search of a bottle brush. So we are now equipped to clean our water bottles. Or baby bottles.

The road into Glacier was long and dusty. When we reached the entrance, a sign on the highway warned that there would be fresh chip seal going in the next day on Going to the Sun Road. This was worrisome. After conferring with several Parks staff, however, we determined that the chip seal was only going on near the entrance of the park, not on the road up to the pass that we summited this morning. The Going to the Sun Road is restricted to cyclists from 11am to 4pm, so we waited around Apgar for a few hours, unsure whether we really needed to wait to ride the last seven miles to our campground. Finally at about ten minutes to 4pm, we decided to head down the road. As it turned out, a car had crashed into a tree and blocked the road anyways. As we inched forward to see if we could sneak through, they finally opened one lane of traffic. We raced by the ranger who was directing traffic and noticed him check his watch, presumably to make sure we were not scofflaws disobeying our cyclist curfew. I checked my watch too. It was 4:01pm. We became unofficial Park spokesman as the 2+ mile line of traffic waiting to pass westbound asked us what the delay was for. By about 4:30pm, we reached our campsite at Sprague Creek, and set up in the “hiker biker” section. Niamh and I stayed at the campground for a week three years ago after my last tour to Glacier, so I was well acquainted with the park. We cleaned up as best we could and walked up to the Lake McDonald lodge for dinner, and sat out on the patio enjoying a view of the lake until near nightfall.

At 5am this morning, our alarm went off and we broke camp to try to get on the road as early as possible. By 6:20am, we were pulling out of our campground and headed up the Going to the Sun Road. It was about 22 miles to Logan Pass, which was about 3400 feet up from our campground. Despite the timing restrictions for cyclists, traffic was still heavy at times, with long clusters of cars passing us. The parking lot at the pass fills early, so we suspected cars may be trying to get there to get a spot. Most of the elevation came in the last 10 miles of our climb, with grades from 5-7%  as we inched along the ridge. Views were spectacular, weather was cool but not freezing, and passing traffic was mostly polite. A few hours later, we arrived at Logan Pass. Molecules from our sweat from today, depending on when it fell, may end up in either the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, or Hudson Bay. 

After walking around Logan Pass for a little bit, we continued on and descended down the east side toward Rising Sun and St. Mary. Our pace increased rapidly and we’d descended 12 miles in probably about 30 minutes. We stopped for lunch in Rising Sun, then continued riding along St. Mary Lake out of the park, and north just a little ways to Babb, where we will spend the night.

Tomorrow we’ll cross back through Glacier NP, into Canada, briefly into Watertown NP, then spend the night in Cardston, Alberta. It will be another relatively short day, but hopefully we’ll be in for some excellent views through both sides of the Watertown-Glacier NP. 

By the numbers:

Miles Traveled: 59 (Tuesday), 50 (Wednesday)

Elevation Climbed: 1630 ft. (Tuesday), 4120 ft. (Wednesday - nearly all from miles 10-22)
Slices of Pizza consumed: 11
Lbs of coffee carried: 0.56
National Parks Rangers giving incorrect info about hiker-biker sites: 1
Other campers in our hiker-biker area: 2

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get photos uploaded tonight - I’ll add more once we have a better internet connection.

The high point of the trip.

Views from Going to the Sun Road

 Climbing Going to the Sun.

Just starting the climb. 

Somewhere north of Bigfork.

 Quiet roads out of Bigfork.

 On the way up the pass.

 Coming down toward St. Mary.

Waiting at Apgar for the road to open.