*Blink*

Today held an important new first for me…traversing an international border on a bike! Pulling up to the guards on my bike in spandex gave me more of a thrill than it should have but that was a blast and, no, I wasn’t carrying any firewood.

We had to climb many miles of uphill to get to the border crossing. That’s a pain that’s gonna linger I must say.

I think there were two major hill sections with 10 miles of uphill combined and then various other hills. One amazing thing was a 5 mile DOWN hill ride where I maintained 40-45 mph for the duration.

Bugs hurt at those speeds. Also small potholes become … well they hurt a lot unless you get your butt out of the saddle in time! Zowie!

We had to fight a heinous headwind for the last five miles of the ride. Zoiks! We arrived at the ridiculously beautiful Prince of Wales hotel/lodge just before 3pm and have a few hours of down time.

My total ride distance was 52 miles with 3500 ft of ascent.

Biking with a van full of snacks and cold drinks following you around is a Good Thing ™. I could get used to it big time.

Tomorrow (Monday) is a day off where we get to choose our own activities and schedule. No clue what I am going to do other than SLEEP IN.

Actually, I do… there is a nice 10 mile uphill bike to a lake where you can rent Kayaks! Sounds perfy… with a downhill 10 mile return! Both Bill and I are very interested in that particular option.

We’ll see if I can drag my sorry carcas out of bed.

…to remove the smile from his face. Bill and I just returned fgrom our off-day activity. The 10 mile hill to a lake. Cameron lake.

Well we were a bit disappointed as we climbed the hill on our trusty Titanium steeds because after the first 5 miles it seemed that we started to go down hill. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem but we were looking forward to a 10 mile downhill blast when we were done.

Anyway, we got to the top and rented two kayaks and paddled around the ridiculously beautiful lake. In the rain. Sort of. It rained off and on on the way up the hill and while we were out on the lake, nothing major.

This was my first time in a yak and I really liked it-as I suspected I would. Bill and Michele can tell you that I’ve been ranting about trying or buying one for a year or so.

A single user boat is quite responsive and it was very stable.

We were forced to buy some hot chocolate to have with our bag lunch and Pie in a Bag ™ and then geared up for the half downhill ride home.

Well, I’m not sure what happened, but it really was downhill the whole way-with two or three speed killing dips, I couldn’t stop smiling the whole 10 mile blast and I still haven’t. It almost made me want to go back up and do it again. Almost.

:-)

Our first day of the actual backroads trip started at 8am outside the Grouse Mountain Lodge. There was a table set up with all kinds of food and a couple of vans with our bikes and trip leaders.

Our two trip leaders and the 9 participants are all great, which is a relief (see Tim Cahill).
We got a briefing about what to expect for the day and packed ourselves bag lunches for our 7 mile hike in the park.

Our group is sized small enough that we all fit into one van which makes it spiffy.

The drive up the “going to the sun” road was spectacular as expected and we got to Logan Pass around 10:30am to start our hike.

Our route took us above the road we drove in on for a total of 7.4 miles and just over a thousand vertical feet of ascent.

The weather was perfect and the views spectacular and clear. We timed it perfectly it sounds.

We just arrived at our furst lodge: Many Glacier Lodge which, like all of the lodges, is rustic. Ill leave it at that. However, the view out my window is devistating-making up for a lot. A glacial lake surrounded by mountains. Darn.

The lodge is location rich and grand in stature yet appalling in acomodation if compared to anything modern. However, if thought of as a cabin in an unbeatable location, it works. It is also packed.

Anyway, its off to a wine tasting and then a get aquainted dinner, although the hike and van rides already did that mostly.

Pictures will be added later as I’m posting these from my phone and am having trouble with them.

Tim Cahill wrote an essay regarding travel (what else) where he provided a set of travel rules. This set of rules is something that I’ve taken to heart to avoid bad travel situations where you end up across the campfire from someone saying “Lazlo, give me the gun.”

This trip is interesting in that I really had no control over who else is on the trip-something that never really crossed my mind during the planning phases. Mostly, I suppose because I didn’t realize how much time we would actually be spending together, which is a lot.

Happily, I am pleased to report that our small group rocks. Very fun and interesting people…3 couples and 4 solos. Apparently the trip before is (the same itinerary) was 19 people. I can’t imagine trying to manage that number of people.

I genuinely like everyone on this trip and will definitely be keeping in touch!

We made it to grouse mountain lodge at about 10:30pm…a couple hours late due to train issues.

There was a nice guy standing right where we got off the train with a sign with our name on it! Woo! he drove us to the hotel and gave a quoite detailed restaurant inventory on the way.

This hotel is the starting place of our expedition tomorrow morning bright and early at 8.

I have discovered that getting off the train is just like getting off a boat… Everything is still moving!

Ok, first class train travel does not suck. Bill and Michele have a room, I have a roomette-which means it is two seats facing each other with a door. The seats fold flat to form a bed and there is also a bunk that folds down.

This thing books. I turned on the gps and measured our speed at some points in excess of 80 mph.

So, here I am sitting here in the Empire Builder first class lounge in St Paul waiting for said train. Late, natch. Anyway, this is the beginning of our active vacation to Glacier national park.

Those of you who know me may be concerned that I’m posting something about dogs, but I’ll just say that nobody human can resist a puppy.
Take a Puppy Break!

Ok, now THIS is cool. You walk up to a coke machine and have no change? No bills? No problem. You have your phone, of course. So send a properly formatted text message to the address on the Coke machine to get your beverage!

You can SMS for taxi’s, radio station contests, COKE, and all kinds of things here. In the US, you are hard pressed to find people who can spell SMS.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!??!