Great Divide - Whitefish (Ted)

July 17 - Whitefish, MT

View of west side of Glacier NP

The last couple of days have been off the grid.  After leaving Eureka, MT, the route turns east toward the west side of Glacier National Park.  Beth and I did some riding in this area a couple of years ago, so I knew this would be a pretty area.

It was a big climb up to Whitefish divide.  I met a cycling club from

Time trial viewing stand.

Calgary which included speed skaters who were doing time trials up the mountain.  I had been on the road for a while so I set up my chair (1 lbs.), made some coffee and watched them roll by.

After climbing over Whitefish divide, I passed one of the most unique springs I have ever seen.  It looked like someone had built a water feature into the mountain side.  A little further down the valley I entered an area where the fire had burned both sides of the valley.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and the wind whistling through the trees was very eerie.  Almost like wails and faint screams.

Natural spring gushing from the mountain

Burn area where the sound of the wind in
the trees was pretty eery. 

My campsites the night was Red Meadows Lake.  The final 2 miles was a was a steep 800' climb which was a tough go after riding 60 miles and the welcoming committee were clouds of aggressive mosquitoes.

There were a number of other divide riders in the campground.  One group of three women from Australia are in their final leg to reach Banff. They had started in mid-May from Antelope Wells, NM.  Some how Russ and I didn't run into them when we were riding south from Cuba.

And to prove the world is a small place, a guy and his son in the campground were from Edgewood, NM just east of ABQ and another guy worked at Sports Outdoor as a bike tech (now Sports System) for 6 years in Abq, but now lives in Kalispell, MT.  Now this is a really small  NFS campground with 8 campsites, 25 miles down a dirt road in every direction.

After a chilly night, it was back on the bike for a fairly quick 30 mile ride into Whitefish, MT for a night in a motel, laundry, shopping, and planning the next leg of the trip.

Three Australian ladies heading to Banff.