Reflections - By Curt Johnson

Horace Greely once said “Go West young man, go west.”  So, off we went.  First it was Curt, Vanna, and Benny -  soon joined by Charlie Potts on the way through the congestion of Chicago, past the Wisconsin Dells, into the windswept prairies of Minnesota, North Dakota and on into Western Montana where we met Peter and Richard at the Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish, Montana. 

Having gone west on several occasions over the years,  I can attest to the beauty and draw of places like Colorado Springs, San Francisco,  Klamath Falls, Eureka, the Black Hills, Devil’s Tower,  Santa Fe, Sedona… the list goes on.  However, the majesty of Northwestern Montana and the Waterton-Glacier National Peace Park is a destination not to be missed by anyone who wants to say that they have seen the best of America.  Not only is the Park breathtakingly scenic, but there are many wonderful man-made attractions such as the Red Busses, various golf courses, hiking trails, boating options, bicycling paths, and best of all, wonderful old lodges where one can spend time resting and relaxing in grand style, having high tea while overlooking a lake, enjoying a libation while recounting the day or being served a beautiful meal in an elegant dining room.

Our group enjoyed the Park at the pace of a bicycle, which provides more opportunities to capture the scenic wonders in one’s mind and in one’s camera.  We all have a significant quantity of pictures to share with anyone who might show the least bit of interest.  One can hardly be bored by photographs of such magnificent scenery be they flora, fauna, geology, hydrology or glaciology.  In addition, there are stories to go along with many of the photographs that include interesting places where we relaxed for lunch or stopped for Huckleberry this or Huckleberry that. There were stores and diners that were nothing like what we have in our Eastern cities. Variety was limited…we couldn’t have anything our hearts desired.   We could have what they had to sell.  Amazingly, we survived!  And, I might add, we survived very comfortably.

The Going to the Sun Road was the most spectacular piece of road we had the pleasure of encountering.  We did ‘go to the sun’ as we drove west to east in the morning.  Interestingly, it had only one switchback from the west end at Apgar Village to the Logan Pass.  The only curves in the road were due to staying with the topography as the 6% grade continued from beginning to end.

It was easy for us to understand why the Blackfeet Indian Reservation was adjacent to the Park as the Native Americans, too,  loved this area for generations before America existed.  We enjoyed a lunch on their reservation near Browning, their “capital city.”  It was bustling with activity as the Blackfeet went about their day.  Waterton-Glacier National Peace Park is not to be missed, and seeing it with friends at a slow pace is most special.

Continental Divide Redux

You would think climbing over the Continental Divide once on a bicycle would be enough for one week. But not for us. Our final day we crossed over it in the opposite direction, from the East, in order to return to WEST GLACIER, the village where we had started our climbing five days ago.

Our route took us over Marias Pass, a trail that had been known by the Blackfeet as an excellent route across the mountains, but which they had sucessfully concealled from whites until the late 1800's. The Blackfeet were prescient - as soon as the whites learned the location  of this low and  gentle pass they built a railroad and then a road through the Bleckfeet hunting grounds. True, the discovery of the pass led to the formation of Glacier National Park, but  it pretty much ended the Blackfeet way of life. Now they subsist on their reservation and sell crafts in the park to the tourists.

Our reward for climbing the pass was the most marvelous of final day treats - a twelve mile downhill run! Imagine not pedalling a lick for twelve whole miles!  We wound through forests of Ponderosa Pine, we raced the freight train going down the mountain - and won. We took dramatic S turns until our eyes watered. We  followed the rapids of the Flathead River. It was divine. At the bottom of the downhill, we all stopped for a picture.

The rest of the day was tamer, as we followed the river through rolling terrain with some hills, but overall more down than up. We watched kayakers  on the Flathead River and just plain enjoyed being on a bike in God's country. 

About 3 PM we rolled into the railway station at West Glacier where Curt, Vanna and Benny were awaiting us with libations. We had done it! Over 300 miles of steep riding in six days. Two countries, two Continental divides, one bear and a million precious memories.

Finis! For now......

EFI - Saturday's ride

Last year on the cross country ride, we met some veteran cyclists who asked us if we were into EFI. “What is that?” we asked. “You know - guys who have to bike ‘every frikkin inch’”.  We declined to be EFIers  today as we contemplated  of a ride of 77 miles over extremely hilly terrain returning from Waterton Park in Canada to East Glacier.  As we had already covered 30 miles of the route entering Canada, we decided not to retrace those miles. The fact that these miles were mostly uphill for us was not, believe me, a deciding factor.

Our new route took us out of the park into the Blackfoot Indian Reservation.  This entailed 30 miles of prairie and horse farms, with the Rockies looming to our right as we headed south to our destination of East Glacier Village. The sky was blue and cloudless, the prairie grass golden and waving gently in the breeze. Were it not so dang hilly, we would have been in hog heaven.

We had lunch at the Blackfoot “capital” of Browning. It is a sad place. Junk everywhere, half-finished buildings sitting in overgrown fields, and hungry dogs, eying us as potential meals.  It is an all too familiar site on reservations in the west.

Our destination today was a beautiful glacier fed lake called Two Medicine. Tim Geisse had told us it was a not to be missed destination, Tim claimed that the strong winds off the lake blow cyclists up the hill without having to pedal. In fact, we found that the lake was UP hill from the main road, and that the wind would not blow even a thistle back to the road. But none of this mattered, for Vanna arrived and our ride back was assured.

To cap off a tiring yet wonderful day, Richard dove into the 55 degree waters of Two Medicine Lake. “It’s really cold!”  he exclaimed.  Go figure.

Waterton wanderings

Commentary by Charlie

Today was our off day.  It was a very welcome sight; the chance to do nothing and catch up with ourselves.  For me, I took the day reading and walking around the village of Waterton.  We had a delightful breakfast during which we spoke with a very engaging young woman from Toronto, Erin, and a young Frenchman named Pierre, who I complimented en francais on his English.  He was delighted, as I would have been, to have his linguistic efforts acknowledged.

After breakfast, I walked down into the village where I found a pathway along the lakefront.  Very pretty and quiet, except for an occasional boat cruising through the beautiful blue waters of Lake Waterton with a majestic view of mountains on either side.  After sitting lakeside and reading, I found Peter and Curt re-hydrating at a pub after their golf game and we shared lunch together.  I went with the buffalo burger on the premise that there are not a lot of buffalo roaming the Indiana plain.  And by the way, I am finding that this part of Canada is a delightful place.

But one more thing, our waitress at lunch showed us photographs from last winter of our restaurant completely covered with snow up to the roof.  Yikes!!!  Guess it’s a good thing we came in during the summer which is, indeed, still is in full bloom. Today was sunny and 80.  Perfect.  As has been our trip and the friendships we are making.  Thanks to all for making it so. 

Commentary by Curt

It was a chilly morning in the mountains but it felt wonderful.  After a great English breakfast, Curt and Peter were off to the local golf course called Waterton Lakes, designed by Stanley Thompson, constructed during 1927-28.  The course was in excellent condition with two interesting exceptions.  It seems that the local Elk are in the habit of wandering over the golf course in the evening and at night.  They enjoy walking on the greens for some reason and during the fall rutting season they seem to enjoy rutting on the greens.  Sadly, their activities left the greens a bit rough for putting. Peter and I had many birdie putts destined for the hole knocked off course by Elk ruts, which explains our scores.  The other exception was the prairie dogs and their abodes.  The greenskeepers work hard, a la Caddy Shack, to keep the little rascals out of the fairways.  Those of us who occasionally miss the fairway soon find a prairie dog hole to stumble in or over as one would search for a ball. At one prairie dog hole we found 4 golf balls that the animal had apparently pushed out of its hole.  One ball was a 1960’s vintage Macgregor.  We surmised that this particular prairie dog was a golf ball collector and was simply getting rid of duplicates.   Peter and I both played well but the mountains and vistas of the Canadian Rockies trumped our games.

Commentary by Richard

Red Rock Canyon

Free day.  What to do?  Get up and have leisurely breakfast, a room with a view.  I made a few phone calls and checked on e-mail since we now had phone reception.  The world has survived without me just fine over the past few days so it seemed a waste not to fully absorb this amazing place.  I decided I wanted to do a relaxed solo ride with no time table so I could see more of the lake and its surroundings.  The concierge men dressed in kilts were very helpful and suggested a ride to Red Rock Canyon which was only about 11 miles one way.  The road was winding and very desolate.  Along the way I saw plains, moraines and mountains, lots of mountains.  We are in the Canadian Rockies and they are a sight.  Half way to the canyon I pulled over and took my first tumble on some gravel and learned about how toe clips work when falling down.  A friendly Austrian couple driving behind me stopped and asked if I was OK.  The wife was driving and wanted to put a bandage on me but the husband knew I didn’t need it and politely encouraged her to get along and let me be. So many nice people who travel and love nature.  

 Once at Red Rock Canyon, I learned why it’s named that way.  Lots of red rock very similar in color to the rock in Nevada’s Red Rock Canyon.  The star attraction was a beautiful winding river surrounded by stunning red and blue grey rock carved smooth by millions of years of water.  Lots of people were here quietly enjoying the beauty of God’s creation.  

Commentary by Peter: 

We had agreed to meet after our peregrinations at 4PM in the Prince of Wales Hotel for High Tea. Well, in this part of Canada, High tea means HIGH-way Robbery. $39.00 EACH for a cup of tea and a 3 tiered plate of scones and pastries!  We can’t even benefit from the exchange rate anymore – they are offering us 90 cents for each American dollar.  The revenge of the Canadians – eh?  So, in good American fashion, we retired to the bar. As I looked wistfully at the High Tea Room, I noted that the patrons were all couples, sipping tea and casting doe eyed looks into each other’s eyes while daintily nibbling their scones. Maybe a table of four grizzled guys in hiking shorts would have destroyed the ambience.  

 The Prince of Wales Hotel is staffed by fresh faced Canadian twenty somethings all dolled up in skirts and knee socks. I’m talking about the guys. In kilts. (As are the girls.)  The pattern of the kilts they wear is Royal Stuart, the tartan of Queen Elizabeth II. She has given the Prince of Wales Hotel permission to use her colors in honor of their homage to her uncle, the Prince of Wales, Edward the VI. We also learned that kilt tradition stipulates you are to wear underwear under your kilt unless in the presence of royalty. Then, underwear is omitted. Go figure.

O Canada! - by Peter and Curt

From Curt: The sun rose behind Many Glacier Lodge giving rise to a dramatic photo of the mountains reflected in the early morning still waters of Shelburne Lake.  We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast as we shared our most poignant memories of yesterday’s ride and magnificent scenery.  The Going to the Sun road was indeed breathtaking.  I am thankful that Peter decided that he and I should drive Benny from West Glacier to St. Mary’s Tuesday evening so I would be able to drive Vanna over that spectacular piece of architectural and engineering mastery. 

As we left the Many Glacier Lodge, we re-traced our route back to US 89 where we turned north toward Canada.  I stopped in Babb, Montana at a quaint general store in the middle of nowhere to pick up a few supplies.  We stopped for a break where US 89 intersected the Chief Mountain Highway.  There was an Osprey aerie on top of a pole just across the road.  As the Osprey’s cheeped away, we enjoyed a snack and some re-hydration.  Charlie was eager to get going as we were looking at some significant climbing road from where we stopped.  It was a climb indeed, but what goes up comes down so there was a reward as we headed for the Canadian border. 

We were about 4 miles into Canada when I found a nice spot along Crooked Creek to stop for lunch. This made for a 32 mile morning.  After lunch we had 16 miles to go to the Prince of Wales Hotel on Upper Waterston Lake with the mountains in the background.  It was decided that I would go on ahead to check in to the hotel and to pick up information about possible dining opportunities or other activities in or around the hotel.  I had ample time as the terrain involved another climb before the long decent into the valley of Wharton Lakes.

From Peter:

At the mid-stage of the week, we are beginning to feel the accumulated toll of daily riding. Posteriors in pain, aching arms, numb knees and leaden legs distract us from the otherwise magnificent scenery. We wonder just how many more hills we have to climb. We have been buoyed in our journey by the interest of the other folks touring the parks. We seem to be a favorite topic of commentary by the driver/guides of the Big Red Busses of Glacier Park. (These busses were made in 1936 by Cleveland’s White Motor Company, and are the longest lasting fleet of busses in the world. The White Company made the bodies out of aluminum and white oak. The engines, drive trains and chasses were replaced by Ford in 1995, but the bodies are original.

The jammers – the name given to the Red Bus drivers, describe us cyclists as “Meals on Wheels”, referring to the hungry bears who are often seen on the Park Roads.  We had a chance to consider these words this afternoon, when suddenly some roadside workers started yelling at us and pointing. “There’s a bear on the side of the road! “ Richard, in the lead, immediately turned around. “No! He’s behind you!” they shouted. Well, as we circled our “wheels” in dismay, a black bear ran out of the bushes and across the road, not 50 feet from us.  It was impressive to see how quick he was. I guess he was between meals.

Back to Curt: As I waited for the “meals on wheels” to arrive I began the blog and listened to a harpist while some were served high tea in the hotel lobby.  The Hotel, by the way, looks a bit like a Tiroler Hof.  It stands on a bluff over-looking the lake and is 5 stories tall with a 16-12 roof pitch.  There are many with a similar appearance in Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland.  It is indeed a grand old lodge which can be seen clearly from miles distant.  We learned that the lodge was built by Great Northern Railroad Company which was an American company.  It was the only lodge not built by the Canadian National or Canadian Pacific Railroad Companies.  The lodge was built in 1927-28 and is still used for four months every year by thousands of visitors to the Waterton Park section of the Glacier-Waterton Peace Park system which occupies space overlapping the National Border of the United States and Canada. 

According to a publication we found in Waterton Village we learned that for more than 10,000 years travelers have made their way to this special place. Over 300 archaeological sites reveal the activities of the first people.  European explorers and settlers also left their mark.  Lt. Thomas Blakiston, a member of the famous Palliser Expedition, was one of the area’s earliest explorers.  He bestowed its current name in honor of the 19^th century naturalist Charles Waterton.  In 1895, Waterton was designated a National Park thanks to the efforts of local ranchers including Fredrick Godsal.  John George “Kootenai”Brown, the Park’s first European settler, became the first Park supervisor.  Around the turn of the 20^th century, the discovery of oil in the Park led to the drilling of Western Canada’s first producing oil well.  The discovery led to the establishment of the Waterton community in 1910.  In 1928 the Prince of Wales Hotel was built and contributed to the evolution of tourism in the Park.  According to one of the bellmen at the hotel, the hotel boasts the oldest still functioning elevator “lift” in Canada.   Both the Prince of Wales Hotel and Oil City are designated National Historic Sites.  Today over 400,000 visitors come from around the world.  Unfortunately we each had to pay a price for each “peace” that is envisioned in this International Peace Park.

From Ohio to Montana - by Curt Johnson

It was early on Thursday September 1^st when the adventure began.  Vanna and Benny were eager to depart Ohio for Montana.  Off we went at 6AM to meet Charlie in Gary, Indiana at noon EST.  Due to a detour in the last 5 miles we were 15 minutes late.  Charlie loaded his gear into Vanna, kissed Meg good-bye and off we went to Madison Wisconsin.  The weather was great and the beautiful scenery rolled past.  We enjoyed a great salad at the Great Dane sports bar as we watched Wisconsin cinch their football season opener at Camp Randall field.  It was a great way to spend an evening as Charlie’s friends, Sue and Slate Havens, came into town from their farm to spend some time with him and to catch up. 

Friday morning we were off to Menomonie, Wisconsin where Charlie had applied for a job at UW Stout. He wished to scout out the area.  Menomonie is only a few miles from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birthplace and not far from Fairmount Minerals’ Maiden Rock location.  We enjoyed a nice walk and lunch before leaving for Fargo ND.  It was in Fargo that we learned about the importance of rail service in the west.  I had forgotten what it was like to hear trains rumbling through town.  While there, Charlie and I asked the locals for a good place to go to dinner.  We were directed to a local hamburger, fries, and beer place----that’s literally all they offered.  And the place was packed and the food was great.

Our Fargo to Great Falls day was the longest but the most spectacular.  It was interesting to see forests turn into prairie with the added dimension of giant rolling hills and valleys with huge agribusiness in every direction. It was indeed awe inspiring.  Great Falls was a beautiful city but sadly we were too tired to enjoy much of it. 

We were off to Whitefish via Kalispell on Sunday morning with hopes of meeting Peter at the Kalispell airport.  As is so typical of airline schedules, Peter called to say that his flight would be arriving an hour and a half later.  He suggested that we go directly to the Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish and get checked in.  By the time we had most of the details with checking-in taken care of, in addition to unhitching Benny, Peter and Richard arrived.  The adventure began with a planning session, included a physical exam of all of the equipment, and ended with a lovely dinner at Craggy’s in downtown Whitefish.

Going to the Sun - by Charlie Potts

An early morning departure from the Apgar Lodge took us to the historic Lake McDonald Lodge just down the road.  We embraced the breakfast buffet knowing that we had a long day of biking ahead of us.  We were served by young lady from Clarion, PA who was a delightful personality and a fervent Pittsburgh Steelers fan.  For the Browns fans in our group, that was a downer.  However, as a lifelong Green Bay Packer fan, reliving our most recent Super Bowl win (over the Steelers) was a big upper.

We left the hotel full of food and anticipation of our long climb of 3200 feet up to the top of Logan Pass.  We attacked this slow, steady climb with determination and persistence.  A few short hours later, we stood proudly atop the mountain.  Curt was there to greet us and proudly took each of our pictures next to the Logan’s Pass sign.  We made it!!

Along the way, Peter struck up a conversation with a Native American of the local tribe, known as the Flathead.  We enjoyed each other’s company while we were stopped along the road due to some construction going on.  He generously called us “some OK white guys” and so we left feeling that we had made a friend.  Richard did a great job of taking pictures of us with our new friend as well as alongside of one of the famous red busses that transport tourists around the park.

Curt once again found us a great spot for lunch along one of the rivers leading out of the mountains.  We met a local lady on Monday who told us that the ride up the Road to the Sun will take you three hours to bike and then about 20 minutes to get down.  We found that to be pretty true, even though we were all braking most of the way down because it was both steep and a little stony on the pavement making it dangerous if we went too fast.

Once we got down the mountain, we made great time along one of the local highways compliments of a strong tail wind.  However, once we got to the east entrance of the park in order to make our way to the Manny Glacier Lodge, the tables were turned and we had to ride into that same wind.  At the end of a long day of riding, which part of the trip seemed MUCH farther than it really was.

 We got settled into the hotel, three very tired pups.  We showered, cleaned up, and headed right for dinner where our waitress was from France.  I spoke a little French with her and the rest of the guys peppered her with questions about her country, the food, and the beer.  She did “fantastique”.

Sleep tonight will not be a problem!!!