McGregor Lake to West Glacier, MT

These blog comments refer to Monday June 13 – no internet access on the 13^th.

June 14 – rest day

This morning Cal began riding in the rain, at around 7:30.  It has rained intermittently all day.

Actually it seemed like it was raining every 15 minutes! The high temperature of the day was 53 degrees!  Sometimes the sun would pop out for a few seconds or minutes before another rain cloud moved over and within minutes it was raining. Even with the rain Cal rode 66 miles, but by the time he arrived in West Glacier (his hopeful destination), Cal needed to wash everything (Wash the Works!!).  After a shower, we found a laundry mat to do our weekly laundry, plus the rain gear and jackets that were so dirty after today’s ride. While we were doing laundry it poured down rain, harder than at any other time of the day – thank goodness Cal had arrived or I would have picked him up. At the laundry mat we met two recent college graduates who are working here for the summer and they said it has rained here every day for the last 3 weeks!!

Due to the low clouds I snapped only 3 photos today, and I saw no wild game. So not much exciting happened today! We were approaching Glacier NP and we could not see anything – disappointing.

     

Low Clouds over Glacier Nat. Park



Low Clouds and Rain over Glacier Nat. Park



 

Bike Trail - Great Northern Rails to Trails

 

Most of today there was no shoulder on the road on which Cal could ride – not what he feels comfortable with – on a couple of occasions it was great he was riding a trike as he could go off the traveled road surface for traffic to pass him – especially trucks. As soon as Cal had the opportunity to ride the ‘Rail to Trail’ bike path he moved from the highway to the trail. In total he was able to ride 10 miles of the bike trail.

Tomorrow Cal is taking a rest day.  He is doing well going between 55-66 miles each day and we are finding motels in those distances.  Tonight and tomorrow night we are in a rustic motel here in West Glacier – this one is knotty pine. We really do feel like we are in the West! Instead of feeding the horses that are pulling the wagon, Cal is cleaning and oiling his bike tonight!!

West Glacier has very limited Wi-Fi and cell phone service, so tomorrow we plan to go back into the valley, to Columbia Falls, to send this blog and check our email. Thankfully while in Columbia Falls this noon we SKYPED our daughter in the UAE, as we could not have done it later in the afternoon.  Hopefully when we get to East Glacier in two days we will have internet again or at least strong cell phone service so Cal can tether to his Blackberry.

AMTRAK Station in front of cloud covered Glacier Mountains

There are several antique shops in the valley. I stopped at one today, and we may just stop at a few others tomorrow.    

When packing for this adventure we were thinking summer!  However summer has not arrived where we are!  For those of you who are in the heat, I cannot believe I am wearing a turtleneck and sweatshirt to be comfortable.  Cal has not been wearing his heaviest gear, but he does wear a jacket to keep warm.  When he stops for lunch he can become cool. However the minute the sun shines, things warm up quickly. As soon as the weather clears and hopefully the temperatures rise we may do some more camping and cooking.  We enjoy eating out, but after a while we get tired of it. Menus all begin to look the same!

We are getting messages from some of you – so glad you are enjoying our photos and blog.