More Places

St Mary - Arrived in town after our first day back in some hill country. Sure does make riding your bike more fun when you get to climb some giant hills. Also I could definitely tell that I was breathing harder due to the thinner air.  My reward wad getting to go down the backside of the mountain once I made the summit at the protest of my legs and lungs. I think I topped my bike out at 48mph on the 3 mile descent into town. I wrote about the rest of our experience in Generosity of Strangers

Many Glacier- read Crown of the Continent

St Mary- Hiked in the morning and then rode 25 miles back to St mary to get ready for Going to the Sun Road.Planned on getting up at three to summit logans pass and watch the sunrise on the sun road. Apparently the weather had other plans. When we woke it was raining and windy with a temperature somewhere around 45. Pretty hard to talk me out of a sleeping bag when those conditions are what awaits me.

West Glacier-We did end up climbing it later in the morning , and we did end up cold and wet. As we were descending the west side of the mountain we passed HUNDREDS of cars on their way to the top stopped due to construction in the road. Many of the trapped yet still picture happy tourists took photos of us as we bombed the hill, which I found highly amusing. Mikes friend Hannah , who works for the park housed us for the evening and took us to a free dinner. If you are ever in west glacier on a wednesday check out the dew drop inn. They do whats called "game night" and we are not talking monoply. Mystery meat and sides are served, and once it is gone it is gone. I am pretty sure I ate elk with tater tots , but it could have been anything really, I barely even chew my food anymore.

Kalispell- started the morning by making a great breakfast at hannah's, where Mike had been in contact with the charity he is riding for.  Chuck Ludden the father of the founder of the charity took us into his home, drove us out to a First Descents camp, fed us and allowed us to participate in a night of camp activities. It was awesome to get to be a part of and if i ever do something like this trip again I would definitely try to raise support for FD

Near Condon , on the Swan River- stayed at one of the FD campers place. Amazing log home built on the swan river. Incredible views of  the river and mountains.

Bonner- Nothing special about bonner, excpet for we found out that they set their sprinkler system in the public park to go on at 4am. Woke up convinced it was raining only to be more horrified that we were being routinely sprayed with the high powered water dispersion system. Needless to say, everything that was not in a dry bag looked like it had been pulled out of a lake. I found the situation funny, but only becasue I knew that later in the day I would be in a hotel in Missoula.

Missoula- Brewery tours (Big Sky & Kettle House). Bike rides around the city. Went to the headquarters of the Adventure Cycling Association (see picture) Coffee. Thoughts of the ever closer end of the trip. More brewery tours. Getting some groceries and prepping for the last two weeks.