Day Twenty Seven, Friday, September 8th
Just watch the review vid for descriptions. I was running too short on time this day to add typed narratives.
[I did come back and edit this to add photo comments and some narrative further down]
The lower portion of Daniel's exhaust had come loose. These guys got us fixed up and back on the road in 20 minutes for under $50!!
They were in Southern Kalispell.
Gloomy and rainy the direction we are going to be heading... Just waiting on the kids to find what they need inside the store behind me.
There were a TON of people crammed all around the entrance waiting to get in all at once at 3:00pm because they had no day permit
It was probably 15 minutes or so before we got in because we had been able to get ahead of most people by being on the bikes.
I didn't get any pics of the 8 or 9 miles of dirt road that was under construction because the traffic was heavy and there were no safe places to pull over. Also, it was quite muddy if we ventured out of the wheel tracks from the cars and trucks.
Saw this dude while stopped at the Lake Mcdonald Lodge Loop in front of Jammer Joe's (which was closed already
).
Like so many places, it was already closed for the season even though the place was PACKED!
Mcdonald Falls
Can't really see them here, but there were 4-5 guys in wet suits down in the rocks on the far side of the river. I'm not sure what they were doing.
Parking area for the falls
Mt. Brown I think? Just over 8600 feet at the peak up there in the clouds. Could be one of the other nearby peaks though
Just north of Avalanche Campground I think. There were lots of raised boardwalks going out into the trees. I had communicator issues here and had to hook up an external battery to keep it going. This stop would be the last time we saw Sarah until we reached the far East side of the park!
We weren't ever really rained on and the low hanging clouds made everything look ominous and dramatic. The sun would occasionally peek through the clouds to add to the dramatic views.
A break in the gloom!
Starting to climb up higher
Just after a short tunnel
Keith's advice to wait until after 3:00pm was good. The lighting for the pics was great!
You can see the waterfall here, left side below the glacier. I think that was Bird Woman Falls.
Kind of a crazy looking mountain... Heaven's Peak or Glacier Wall maybe?
I think the falls you hear are the Haystack Creek Falls and the falls way off in the distance are Bird Woman Falls
Near Haystack Creek
Haystack Creek Falls?
That little sliver in the high valley under the snow is Bird Woman Falls
Almost to the top, just before Logan Pass
I saw a bear here, across the valley, right below the right end of the tree line below the left side of the peak in the middle. There was a creek running down right there and the bear ran through the creek to get up the hill. There were loads of people on the side of the road pointing cameras at it
Good thing it ran away...
Even with her fear of heights, Sarah rode all this by herself as we still had not caught up to her yet.
They are hard to see, but there are people up there! Look straight up above my seat, those little dark dots are people. Apparently, there was a hiking trail up there from the Logan Pass parking area.
Heading East down from the top just after Logan Pass
Another tunnel
His commentary in this place was non-stop. He REALLY liked it!
We finally found Sarah coming back through the park to look for us. She had been waiting at the bottom of the mountains for around 20 minutes. She didn't stop for any of the overlooks and we stopped at almost all of them! We were all relieved to be back together. We rode the rest of the way out the East side of the park. We actually passed two different groups of people doing wedding photography. The first group was near a waterfall coming right out of a rock face and they were parked in the road and standing in the road to take their pictures even though there was a lot of traffic!
We got around them and then saw another group that at least had the courtesy to not block the road. As we dropped out of the mountains the road started following the North side of St. Mary Lake, which was very pretty. I had already taken so many pictures though and didn't really feel like stopping now that we were all back together. So we just rolled into St. Mary hoping to find a place to stay... I called Keith and he mentioned a few cabins and possibly the KOA. I checked the KOA and their cabins were basically boxes with no bathrooms for a lot of money! I ended up going into the St. Mary Lodge and asked if they had anything. She said they had ONE cabin left, a handicap accessible cabin, for something like $350/night
"I'll take it!" The campgrounds were all full again and there just weren't many places to stay here. I checked to see how long the lodge restaurant would be opened, made sure where to find the cabin, and then suggested to the kids that we run up the highway to see Many Glaciers since we still had a few hours of light and would not need a permit for that. They liked that idea so we didn't even waste time unloading the bikes. We just headed straight up the highway to Baab, where the Many Glacier road started.
Lake Sherburne, quite low. The haze in the distance is road dust. When the sun hit it, seeing the road right in front of us was very difficult. The road was loose gravel and rough washboards.
Daniel and I pulled over to check out a cool waterfall
Had to do a little climbing/hiking to get to them
Once again, a long way down if we made a misstep
Swiftcurrent Creek Falls
Have to climb back up that to get to the bike...
We found the famous Swiftcurrent Lake and Many Glacier Lodge, but Sarah had ridden past it. So Daniel and I kept going. Just beyond the lake there is a camping area. As we got close to that, Sarah came back on the communicator and told us she was somewhere in the campground. We we drove up through there, found her, and then went back to the lake and lodge to check that out. The came ground was CRAMMED full of people. Reservations have to be made way way in advance. I can't imagine wanting to camp in such a crowded place. The sites were right on top of each other! No thanks.
Swiftcurrent Lake and the Many Glacier Lodge
Some nice folks shot this for us at the bridge over the start of Swiftcurrent Creek
Other side of the bridge looking out over the lake
The sun started going down quick. We got back on the dirt road and made for the highway. It also started getting cold as soon as the sun dipped behind the mountains. As we were bouncing along, Sarah casually mentioned that she found this road to be easier than the road where we turned around at the Kolob Reservoir way back on Day five or six I think? That was a nice smooth road with a little bit of gravel. But, it was also the day after she had just fallen on Sky Line Drive in the mud and whacked her already injured shoulder. Now she had almost three weeks of riding behind her on far more technical roads and her confidence had come back. She was amazed at the difference in how she felt between then and now. I told her I wasn't the least bit surprised. Hitting the ground hard, even once, can really rattle a rider's confidence. Hit it twice in a few days, especially right at the start of a massive trip where you are planning to ride a lot more dirt in the future and that is enough to shake anyone's confidence! So I was really proud of her for sticking with it, fighting through the fears and doubts, focusing on what she KNEW worked, and getting her confidence back. Daniel was gone in a cloud of dust in the distance...
We made it back to the highway and stopped for a minute to zip up vents and collars. It was now quite chilly! We blasted back down the highway to St. Mary as the daylight was fading. Rather than go to our cabin, we went straight to the lodge. I wanted to make SURE we got there before they closed because there were no other dining options. We got there in time and they seated us in the far back corner... We were still in full gear and looked like spacemen, and we were a bit on the dusty/dirty side. When the waitress brought us the menu, we kind of looked at it, looked at each other, looked at it again, and I knew that there wasn't anything on there that any of us would eat or want to pay for!! When she came back Daniel asked her if he could just get a burger because there wasn't one on the menu. "Oh sure! I'll get the burger menu for you!" She came back with a menu that was far more "normal" for the kind of food we would generally eat or be able to afford. She laughed and mentioned that "Corporate" likes us to hand out the other menus first. Sure, I bet they do with those prices! We were actually able to get really good food at reasonable prices given our location. We even got ice cream!
After dinner we found our cabin just around the corner behind the lodge. It was very nice. The bathroom was HUGE with rails everywhere. The cabin heater worked very well and we had the place nice and toasty in no time at all. It was after 9:00pm by the time we got the bikes unloaded and settled in for the night. I sat out side to star gaze for a bit, but it started getting cloudy and drizzly, not to mention COLD. So I wandered back inside and we called it a night. Keith had texted and mentioned coming by in the morning to visit. I reminded him we were not morning people, so don't come to early or we would not answer the door
It was a great day! The scenery was beyond description. The photos are a pale representation of the reality of Glacier NP. You REALLY just have to visit and see it for yourself to truly grasp the nature and scale of it all. It was totally worth the effort to get this far North to see it. The whole permit thing really had me stressing for a while before we got here. This was to be one of the highlights of the whole trip and I did NOT want to miss it! I was beyond my expectations and this day did not disappoint!