Aug 26: St. Mary to Kallispell 139 Km 1167M

We were up at 5 am this morning and all set to start at 6 am.  Unfortunately it was a little dark at 6 am and we didn’t get underway until 6:15.  I had registered and paid the entrance fee the night before, but the ranger had told us portions of the ”Going To The Sun” road were closed to bicycles between 11am and 4pm.  This road goes through Glacier National Park and goes over Logan Pas at 2025 M.  We started early to avoid any problems with the road closures.   We pedalled along a lake for 12km and then started up the “Going To The Sun” to the pass.  The road was a steady 5% climb and we weren’t having any problems going up – the problems was the photo stops along the way as vista after vista opened up before our eyes.   We reached the top after 3 hours of steady pedalling.  The downhill run was long and fast.  There were no stops for photos, just one stop to let the cars get out of the way.  We were descending faster than the cars.  At the bottom of the hill we made 2 stops to check out Lake MacDonald.  After an enormous ice cream we got back on the bikes for the final 40km stretch.  Immediately on exiting the park we both stopped to strip off all excess clothing – the temp had risen to 36 C.  The final stretch was hot and difficult as we stopped often for liquid breaks.  We crawled into the hotel at 6:45.