Oh the places you'll go

Now that we have a car our options are endless. Well, not really because we only have 150 miles/day. BUT Monday night we made the drive to the west side of Glacier National Park. We camped out along Big Creek, a tributary to the North Fork of the Flathead River. EARLY Tuesday morning we (Lee, Jamie, Jon and Steve) headed into Glacier and over the Going to the Sun Road. Beautiful. The fires (way east of us) have made the air pretty thick but when you get up high enough it is spectacular!

We did a very short hike to the Hidden Lake overlook. Steve, a native to MT, thought it would be a quick in and out with a swim in Hidden Lake. The rest of us have been traveling for WAY to long, walk much slower and like to take pictures of EVERYTHING. It couldn't have been more than a three mile hike to Hidden Lake but we didn't make it. Lee's self propelled stomach took him back to the car and food. We did get up close with a number of mountain goats and some marmots. We also saw lots of mountain sheep in the distance. It's the more 'wildlife' we've seen since New Mexico!

We ate lunch in the parking lot right around noon. MAN was it packed! Thank goodness for hitting the road early. Traffic heading up the hill was bumper-to-bumper. We cruised down and stopped below a waterfall to swim. The water was frigid so we didn't stay long.

Before leaving the park we said good-bye to Jackalope Jon. He decided to take another day off the bike and hike up to one of the many glacial lakes in the backcountry. At a stop just outside of Glacier, we dropped off Steve and headed for Whitefish.

Today, Lee's attempting his first century on the ride. It shouldn't be too bad since he doesn't have a load BUT 70 miles are on dirt and he will have to climb over TWO mountain passes. The high today is 101. Can you believe that? I'm sure Lee will let you know who it goes.

jme

PS I am feeling better. Most of the time I can stand up straight. I do have some guilt about not riding. I was FINALLY able to stay up with Lee. BUT I'm also not very happy with there's stabing pain in my back. I am glad that I have had this chance and made it as far as I did. It the beginning I could not imagine making it to Grants NM and I made it to Morrison Lake MT. Pretty good for an overweight, out-of-shape girl! We have yet to meet a girl doing the whole route this summer :)