Shelby, Montana -West Glacier, Montana 1 25 miles

Ate breakfast at the "Griddle" with a contingent of local farmers/ranchers having their early morning "coffee klatch(sp.?)  This seems to be the local custom. Two mornings in a row there has been a group of eight to twelve men having breakfast and discussing their fields, crops, cattle, etc. As we were leaving a woman wanted to know where we were biking, and when I said Seattle, she asked if we were Mariners fans. Of course I said yes, and we had an immediate connection. :)

It was rather windy as we started out biking, and it never let up for the whole 25 miles to Cut Bank. In fact it got worse! We found out later that there were 20+ mph winds with gusts up to 30! It was difficult biking to say the least, but we were up to the challenge! I'm feeling much better now, and my stamina was more what I am used to. During our last rest and snack stop just 3 miles from Cut Bank I called Margit and she was in Browning, which was going to be our destination the next day. It is only 34 miles from Cut Bank. We couldn't believe we were so close. Well, you can probably guess what happened next. Yup, another ride in her RV! As a result, we were able to ride up to St. Mary, which is a little town near the east entrance to Glacier National Park. It was a pretty ride, and the mountains were spectacular!! We camped there for the night. The wind howled all night, rocking the RV, and it was cold, but the trip up there and being able to see this mountain grandeur was worth the side trip. This is something we would not have been able to do on the bikes, of course. This morning,(June 25th) we drove six miles up into the park, which was as far as we could go in the RV. The Going To The Sun highway is not open yet, and may  not be until the middle of July! The road to Jasper and Banff is not open yet either. We heard there are 30 to 50 ft. snowdrifts there still!
We then drove to West Glacier where we are in a very nice campground for the night. West Glacier is at the southwest corner of Glacier Park, and about 100 miles from Cut Bank. Once again we feel fortunate that we ran ino Margit, because today would have been another day of the same strong winds, and we didn't think we could bike in that kind of headwind two days in a row. Also, there was four miles of construction on Mariah Pass that would have been uncomfortable to bike through. I guess we're just not up to big doses of adversity that we may have been able to handle in our younger days.

Anyway, the weather this evening is quite nice, and the wind is gone (thank goodness!) Tomorrow we hope to continue cycling and end up in Kalispell.

Carol

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A sign outside Malta, Montana



self=explanatory!