Road to the Sun - Avalanche Creek Campground to Saint Mary (36 miles)

6-29-2010

What a day!  Strenuous yet a gorgeous ride.

After a nice nights sleep, I was up before dawn at 4am to pack up and eat breakfast.  The goal was to be on the road by 6am, which was when it opened for cyclists.

Tom and Jeff, rather surprised by the flash first thing in the morning. 

 The ride started off calmly.  It was cool, but not quite cold.  However the climbing, 3600 feet over 16 miles, started right away.  My knees started hurting shortly after.  The next 14 miles were a struggle, but after frequent rests to take pictures I made it to the top of Logan pass.  Yet another pass to add to my collection.

That's where we're headed this morning!

Beautiful!

We made it!

After a quick photo op at the top of the pass, we started another super down hill. After only a few miles we stopped for construction.  While we were waiting to be let through, we noticed that the tandem had a flat tire.  Everyone pitched in and completed a 5 minute tire change, just fast enough to make the pilot car.

Once down the mountain I stopped for a burger and fries at Sun Lake, before riding 5 more miles to the campground at St. Mary's.

Once we got all set up, most of us headed into town for some dinner and to see what was there to see.  After hiding out a nasty thunderstorm, we headed back to camp for bed.

There will be many more photos of Glacier on Facebook in a couple of days if you're interested.