After a 760-mile day, it was nice to have one a bit shorter, even though there was still lots of time in the saddle.
We got a reasonably early start out of Great Falls, Montana. Glacier National Park was beautiful on Monday morning, if a bit crowded. What can you expect on Fourth of July at one of the major parks… (As a side note, I’m really sorry I didn’t get any photos of the people lining up for a Fourth of July parade in small town Montana.) But even with the crowds it was still really gorgeous and fun. Howard has never been to Rockies before.
Me with my bike near the summit of Logan Pass.
Howard with his bike. It was cool up there!
Then we took back roads up to the Canadian border crossing. Very quiet station! Asked how long we would be there, where we were going, and did we have any weapons. Easy Peasy.
We then rode across some really flat open plains and then turned toward the mountains again after having late lunch at Tim Horton’s. Ride toward the mountains was beautiful, but the temperature kept getting colder and colder, and there were deep purple clouds over the mountains – it was obviously raining. We stopped, got closed up for rain, and I plugged in my jacket… And we had a beautiful ride through the mountains. Cold! Dropped down into the low 40s. And while the pavement was wet enough that we both were kicking up spray, there was no rain.
Storm clouds over the road through the mountains. (Photo by Howard Koontz)
So we got off easy.
Tomorrow we’re going up to Banff and Jasper, and riding the Icefield Parkway. Going to just take it easy tomorrow – only about 200 miles to go. Will spend time being tourists.