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.