Day 18: To Logan Pass in Glacier National Park

Sat., Jun 10, 2017
Stats:  Today - 48 miles; 891 miles to date
  Elevation climbed: 3484 ft;  35,503 feet to date
  Temp. Low: upper 30's High: low 50's
  Mix of sun, clouds, wind, rain

Today was probably the most beautiful day of our entire trip.

Today we climbed to Logan Pass and enjoyed some breathtaking scenery in Glacier National Park.  We took a ton of pictures.  The climb was more than 3000 feet over twelve miles.  A sign at the top warned trucks that the grade was 6%.  Our understanding was that it would eventually get to about 10%.  The ride didn't seem that bad.  The sign explained it.  We also did the ride up and back to our campsite without our gear so that made it easier.

The reason we left our gear at the campsite was because the road isn't open all the way through.  There is a big drift on the eastern slope that they are still working on plowing.  Because the road isn't plowed all the way through the road is closed to vehicles.  Since they don't plow on week-ends they open the road to bicyclists up to the pass.  So it was nice to be able to ride this narrow road with no vehicles.  And there were plenty of bicyclists that took advantage of this opportunity that only comes in June.  We were fortunate that our timing was good to also take advantage of this.

There were many curves on this road and each curve meant a possible change in weather.  Though the temperature was constant in the low 50's, the wind was strong and cold at times or not much at all.  Although it was mostly just cloudy, the sun came out at times and sometimes we would have a five minute rain shower.  There was a strong wind at the top that made it feel like 30 degrees.

On the way down we ate supper at Lake McDonald lodge, then headed back to camp, wrote a blog and went to bed.

Near the top

The visitor center at the top.