Lisa and I enjoyed a delightful day off on our own today to usher in the month of July. We were warned that temperatures can change quickly here in Glacier National Park, but little did we know seasons can change just as quickly. As the calendar moved to July 1 from June 30th, the weather moved from early spring to mid-Summer overnight. We had mid-80’s weather today which was totally unexpected as we have been riding in 40 and 50 degree weather in the Park the past few days. After an early morning of catching up on paying the bills, writing the blog, cleaning the bike and so forth, we headed off to explore Glacier National Park from the West side entering “Going to the Sun Highway” from the town of West Glacier. Only the lower levels of Glacier were open as they are still dealing with a snowstorm from three weeks ago that left the Logan Pass visitor center under snow. We managed to drive up about 16 miles in really warm weather and captured a few shots.

On the way back down we stopped at the Lodge on Lake McDonald and took a boat tour with a couple park rangers.

The lake was formed by a glacier, about 500 feet deep and green in appearance caused by colloidal material left behind by the glacier. Homesteaders who planted themselves on the north side of the lake back in the early days before it was a park, are allowed to stay there and pass the homes down through the family, but they cannot sell them except back to the park. For you fisherman, Lake Trout have taken over Lake McDonald. The indigenous species were cutthroat trout and bull trout. However, apparently 2-3 pounders weren’t enough and folks wanted larger fish so they seeded the lake with Lake Trout. Well, they have taken over. Every action causes a reaction in the ecosystem. We got some great shots of the lake. The mountain in the background is at the continental divide. Water on the west side flows to the Pacific Ocean. Water on the east side flows to the Hudson and Gulf of Mexico.


One of the park rangers was a man named Bill Schustrom. He was a delight and full of tidbits about the park. He is 76 years old and has been working there for about 40 years. At his age he works 6 months at the park and then lives in Whitefish, Montana the rest of the time. His enthusiasm for what he does as a park ranger and wants to continue doing was really encouraging.

After our Lake tour, we stepped inside the Lake Lodge to a pub populated with soccer fans and cheered on the US in their game against Belgium. I assumed the game started earlier than it did and expected we would have no chance of seeing it, but both Lisa and I were pleasantly surprised to be able to enjoy the game. We had a blast meeting some really interesting people. I talked a lot with Loren, a twenty something from Northern California on holiday, who had 4 Ironman contests under his belt. He was impressed with our ride. However, I told him that swimming 2 miles, riding 112 miles and then running a marathon is real work and quite incredible in my mind.

Tomorrow begins our final leg. We may or may not take one more break depending on the weather, the hills between here and Seattle, and our bodies. I wouldn’t say this is the final push, but we are getting close. LOL, I can’t believe I just wrote that and we still have 588 miles to go. 🙂