Glacier - Day 6

From Kalispell, MT to Columbus, MT: about 400 miles

This day was another one of those travel from point A to point B to get ready for the next day rides. Not terribly exciting and not that picturesque as we headed south on a nice two lane road choice (83) towards Garrison, where we'd pick up I90 and head to Laurel. Initially we thought we'd head to Laurel, but looking at the map, a better, closer choice would be Columbus. That allowed us to pick up 78 south in the morning to head to Red Lodge and Beartooth Pass/Highway. We knew there was excitement waiting for us if we could just get there. It was cold that morning and trying to rain. I started out in summer gear, but switched to winter gloves and fleece liner when we stopped at Swan Lake, MT for my brother to capture this shot for our mom, who loves swans.It think she would have preferred to not have the Motorcycle in the picture, but Kevin thought otherwise. I was the 'bad son' and did not get a picture at all. Sorry mom.

It must not have been too exciting as we traveled from Kalispell because I've checked my pics and I did not take a single picture on this day. Fortunately I was traveling with my brother and he did.

We left the Motel 6 in Kalispell and said goodbye to our neighbors. This little guy was securely fastened to the wall not far from our door and I felt compelled to take his picture. Fortunately I didn't disturb him and he was not too thirsty that morning.As we headed over to pick up 83 my brother snapped these parting shots as we rode out of Kalispell.Further on down the road he snapped a couple more pics when the weather started to behave a little better, but it was still cool.As you can see the roads had a sweeping elegance to them that provided a lot more fun than we had anticipated when we left out that morning. Definitely recommend 83 as a preferred route to Kalispell should you find yourself motoring that direction.

We jumped on the interstate at Garrison and started slabbing it down the highway to Columbus, through Butte, Belgrade, Bozeman and must have been a couple of other 'B' cities before we got to the 'C's.

About an hour outside of Columbus, while we were slaving over the super slab my brother and I traded bikes. Let me tell you, he looked really good on the Valk, but I was questionable on the V-Strom. It's like a Valk kinda, just add a 3 foot lift kit, remove the handlebars and slice 4 cylinders of the engine as well as take away the nice comfy seat and replace it with a 4x4 piece of wood. That's how to turn a Valkyrie into a V-strom. Okay, okay, it wasn't that bad, but after being on the Valk for 2500 miles straight, anything else just felt wierd. I could have used some training wheels though... that thing was really tall compared to the Valkyrie.

So we change bikes and head back out on the interstate and wouldn't you know it... the first sign on the highway cautioned about 'gusty winds'. Great here I am on this super tall bike with me acting like the sail and we head into the gusty wind area. Well, I could certainly feel the wind whipping me around. It was one of those times when you lean just to ride straight, which is always a strange feeling. He and I had been there before in the Southfork area of Colorado, but this time I got to see how he felt when battling fierce crosswinds. Let me just say I was glad to trade back with him after that. Nothing better to fight gusty winds with than a low-slung cruiser with over 1500 CCs in the palm of your hand.

Columbus proved to be pretty small but did have two Hotels... a Super 8 by the highway and another further in town. We hit up the Super 8 first. Kevin strolled in to check the rates and room availability. Seems the had one, but they quoted a rate of around $88. Kevin just flatly stated, "That's too high". Caught of balance by his response the two girls behind the counter started naming possible discounts should he belong to triple A, AARP, and various others to which Kevin kept replying no. Exasperated they asked him why it was that they should be giving him a discount. In perfect straight face Kevin replied, "because I'm cute". At this point I wish I could have captured the girls reaction, but they were so doubled over with laughter that I couldn't have taken a good shot. I was pretty cracked up as well. I'd expect that from my other brother, but never Kevin. It was a bit before the laughter subsided. They admitted that was the first request like that they had ever received.

With just a bit more work, Kevin whittled about $20 off the stated rate and soon we were unloading our gear into the room. I'm beginning to think he should negotiate the rates from now on, he did much better that I had so far. Here's a pic of our parking area out back the next morning.
Checking with the front desk and asking about recommended eating establishments, they only came up with two. A bar and grill down the street and a steak house just past the railroad tracks. I don't know as either of us were up for steak that night, but with a name like, Whitlock's Steak House, it was a place we just couldn't pass up.We cruised on down and had a couple of, as it turned out, very large steaks. I don't think we'd eaten that much since we started on the trip. We talked briefly with the owner, who was not named Whitlock, and found that she just liked the sound of the name and decided to use it. That's not so funny, we like the sound it if also.

With that we headed back to the Hotel and caught up on our notes and phone calls and hit the sack fairly early as I recall. Tomorrow would be a day full of riding challenges as we headed toward Buffalo, WY with only a small 11,000 ft pass between us.

Glacier - Day 5

From Kalispell, MT to Kalispell, MT: about 200 miles

This was the day we’d been riding for; taking the ‘Road to the Sun’ through Glacier National park. We headed north out of Kalispell to get to West Glacier, the entrance to the park. The day was only slightly cool and the weather promised to be outstanding. Someone had told us earlier that the entrance fee to the park was $25. That seemed a bit high for just being in the park for one day, but we’d traveled about 2000 miles to get to this point so we weren’t about to let some extravagant fee prevent us from riding through the park. Here’s the sign at the entrance to West Glacier; the location was not conducive to placing our bikes in front of it for the obligatory sign shot.

Entrance to the park was cheaper than anticipated as the cyclist rate was only 12$. I was already prepared to pay $25 so I covered Kevin's. Soon we were cruising beside Lake McDonald lake on our way to Logan pass.We took most of our pictures on this day so I’ll try to skip some commentary and allow the pictures to do the talking. Of course, the lens is so limiting when trying to capture an area so expansive as this park. You just can’t get the whole thing.

These are some of the scenes you’d encounter as you enter from the west side of the park.

Then of course we had the roadblock situation one more time. This was a timed blockage of 30 minutes… at 1pm they would be letting us travel up the road to the pass. So we took a few pics while we waited and talked to the trio of Harley riders from Montana that were touring the park as well.

Soon they allowed us to continue on our journey and we commenced with the photo taking. It’s so nice to have bikes with automatic transmissions and cruise control so we can take pictures while riding, don’t you think?

Then we finally reached the pass and had magnificent views of the mountains all around us. Being the end of the summer season the glaciers were kinda small and dirty… but there was some snow that had still stuck around.

I was quite surprised at the overall elevation of the pass being only 6646 ft., quite low in regards to some we’d traversed in Colorado as well as the one we would be tackling on the way back into Wyoming – Beartooth. The weather was quite warm and we hardly saw a cloud in the sky all day.

There was a short hike of about 1.5 miles to an observation area higher up the pass that provided a view of Hidden Lake. I decided that this would be a good change of pace for us. However, Kevin felt that such an endeavor would not be good for those that might be ‘faint of heart’ or ‘large of body’. He, being the latter, opted out of this little venture and found another trail that led to some mountain goats hiding from tourists.

There was quite a long boardwalk that started the trail before it dumped you off to the rock/dirt around the top portion of the mountain. But it did allow for some great shots of the rock that tops the mountains.

Captured this shot of the moon hanging out by the rocky tops.

Once on the top of the pass you still had a ways to traverse to get to the observation point to see the lake. On the way I came across this guy, resting in a grove of trees close to the trail but pretty much undisturbed by everyone else walking by.

Reaching the observation point gave these great views of the Hidden Lake and the surrounding mountains.

Further up the trail I found these two guys, also trying to hide from the tourists.

As you can see from the pictures below, the hike up to Hidden Lake Pass is certainly more than a few steps and I think it’s an elevation change of about 800 ft. as well. Click on the map below to enlarge it.

On the way down I met my brother close to the end of the boardwalk, carrying some water that he shared with me thinking I probably needed some. After a brief rest we ran into this fearless little guy that felt he owned the place.

For you older folks that might be contemplating a trip such as this, on the east side you can catch these nifty little open air transports that will shuttle you too and from the pass. We saw numerous elderly types taking advantage of this service. If you don't don't pack so many in there you don't have to poke your head out of the top.

We still needed to get the sign shot, but still couldn’t get our bikes by it so you have to settle for me and Kevin standing by the sign. Proof we were actually there.

While we were there a couple came up and asked if we’d take their picture as well… so we did.

Ooops… I wonder if I was supposed to use their camera? If anyone knows this couple please let them know they can find their picture here.

Well, here it was, 3pm and we’d gone a whole 50 miles so far out of the 200 we had planned. We decided we’d better get mounted up and headed out if we were going to make it back to the Hotel that evening.

On the way out there was a free car wash offered, but we opted out of that one. The water looked like it was just shooting out of the mountain.

Kevin watched me stumble a few times as I walked down the road with my helmet on trying to get some waterfall shots. Thinking I might tumble down the mountain, and what a great shot that would make, he was already snapping pics of me.Overall the park was very impressive.

On the way out on the east side you cruise beside St. Mary Lake. And the time of day we were leaving gave us opportunity for some great shots.

Then finally we found a park sign that we could place our bikes in front of:

We hadn't traveled too far out of the park when we ran into a new kind of road block. Livestock on the road that weren't in a hurry to move for anybody. We finally squeezed by. Fist time I had to share the road with a single horsepower vehicle.

Soon we were out of the park and headed south on US 89 working our way around the south end of the park. This ended up being a great road with super sweepers and a high speed limit… what more could you want?

Before reaching Browning we turned right onto 49, also known as Looking Glass Hill Rd. This proved to be a great road for twisties as it went up and over a mountain and then connected to US2 which led us to the small town of East Glacier.

We followed US2 all the way around the southern tip of the park and then back to West Glacier where the road turned south allowing us to return to Kalispell. But by this time it was we were due for gas… at least for me anyways. We ended up pulling up to gas in Martin City, where lo and behold, someone was interested in the Valkyrie. Usually in these parts of the country it’s Kevin’s V-strom that gets all the attention. But this guy had one out in California that he put 100k miles on before he sold it. We talked for a short bit and then Kevin got some eating options from some locals and we headed down the road in search of eating opportunities.

Soon we were pulling into the Elkhorn Grill in Hungry Horse, MT.

Neither one of us had Elk, or horse for that matter... but there was this little guy what was mesmerized by the motorcycles once he saw them. Kept hanging by the window looking at the bikes. Both his parents were in the Air Force, stationed at Mountain home and were out for the day. Kevin offered to let him sit on his bike and after placing it on the center stand, his father set him on the seat. Not sure he knew what to think of that.

He either got it out of his system, or he’s now ruined for life. Not sure which, but either way it’s Kevin’s fault. After that we rode back to the Hotel and put the bike’s up for the night. Tomorrow we have a long haul with some slab riding to put us in position to ride Beartooth highway the next day so we needed some rest. Plus we did a lot more walking than riding, and you know how that walking tires you out.