Thank the Lord for small Blessings! The roads were clear,
the Montana Big Sky was cloudless, the planes were all on time – and thus we
all arrived at approximately the same hour at our base camp, the Grouse
Mountain Lodge in Whitefish Montana. Circled by mountains and nestled at the foot of
deep blue, sparkling Whitefish Lake, Whitefish is the penultimate tourist town.
Its western motif contains Outfitters, boutiques, cowboy brewpubs and
intriguing restaurants like Tupelo – a Cajun joint we plan to check out.
Leaving the longsuffering Curt to clean the multitude of
dead bugs from Vanna and other nasty chores, Charlie, Richard and Peter decided
to take a tune up ride to get the kinks out – both of us and our cycles.
We set out in search of a bike path rumored to run along the
Whitefish River and up to the lake. We eventually found it, only to discover a
critical section closed due to railroad construction. Montana still has its
logging priorities, it seems.
Running out of bike path after only nine miles of flat
riding, Richard brightly suggested that we ride up Big Mountain Road to
check out the view of the valley from the ski area perched atop the mountain.
Only a rookie would ignore the portent of that road’s name. And on a tune-up
ride, when we really don’t need to.
Not wanting to appear faint-hearted, Charlie and Peter feigned
great interest in this idea, and so up Big Mountain we started. For the cyclists reading, Big Mountain proved
to be five miles of unrelenting 8-9% uphill grade. Or so we were told by
someone who actually did the whole thing. We quit half way up. Nonetheless,
even halfway up we were rewarded with an outstanding view of the lake below.
The ride back down was much more pleasant.
Monday we plan to ride from Whitefish to the gates of
Glacier National Park, about 30 miles. We will then shuttle back in Vanna to
Whitefish, as our Park lodging is unavailable until Tuesday, when the REAL
riding begins!
No comments:
Post a Comment