Climbing To The Snow

Like most of my grand adventures with John, this one got started late. We orginally had decided to leave around 9am. I called him at 8 and we moved it back to 9:30 - I think we got going by around 10:15.

I hate climbing the south hill right off the bat when I haven't had a chance to warm-up yet. After we got to the top I started to feel some real pain in my right achilles tendon. Oh oh - I've had my achilles blow up on me before, and it's extremely painful, and it sidelined me for about a month back then. I locked my ankle into place rather than letting my foot "ankle" through the pedal stroke and the pain eased up. I was sure hoping that this would be a temporary thing, but with my leg being pretty tight from my hamstring pull, I was a little concerned.

John and I decided that this was not going to be a hammer-fest (okay, I decided) and that we'd stop and enjoy the ride like we rarely do. So, here's a couple of photos from the first few miles.













Arrival at the border




I've never seen the line at the border this long - it stretched all the way past the Canadian customs side and started down the hill. I'd have taken a picture to show you, but John just kept on riding. Yup, he free-wheeled right past everybody. Being about 20 feet behind him I could hear the comments as people saw him go by - we weren't making any friends! We rode up to the front of the line, John's intent was to see if they'd wave him up. As we got to the front, a couple of kids from Cardston were sitting in a little blue truck. I chatted with them for a minute and then got this great idea. "Hey, is it alright with you guys if we jump in the back of your truck to cross the border?"

So we do, as we pull up the border guard looks at us and says "how do you know these guys? Did you just jump in the back of their truck to try and avoid the line? 'Cause that's not happening." I replied with - "we know them" - and she asks the driver how - he explains that we're all from Cardston. She lets it slide.

John mentions to her that it sure is busy today and she says, "yeah, seems like you Canadians have a holiday and everybody evacuates the country!" She waved us through and we jumped out to continue our ride.

I've never stopped here to take a picture (though it seems like everybody else always stops there.) We didn't stop here this time, either - just pulled out the camera and snapped a photo as we went by.






Did I mention that the ride all the way to the border is mostly up-hill? It took us an hour to cover 25km. But, there was NO WIND! (How often does that happen in this country?) Well, that all changed from the border all the way to St Mary's - we got to fight a head-wind all the way. A wind that consistently blew at about 30km/hr and there were places it was upwards of 40km/hr! YUCK! Being the kind, out-of-shape guy I am, I let Johnny pull as much as he wanted.

Here's a favorite photo I took as we got nearer to St. Mary's.



Finally, we arrived in St. Mary's - we'd been riding for awhile, so we decided to stop and get some lunch and refill bottles. The Cafe was pretty busy, so we had a bit of a wait, but the Turkey Sandwhich I had was excellent! We decided we'd be stopping on the way back for a piece of PIE!

The entry fee for cyclists going into Glacier National Park has gone up - it's now $12!! So, John and I both decided to purchase seasons passes for $35. The lady working the booth didn't have much of a sense of humour - so maybe I shouldn't have let John do the talking. He was trying to convince her that he was "an American with disabilities" so that he could get in free. I was bowled over laughing, but she didn't seem to see the humour in it. Oh well. 5 more miles to the beginning of "the climb"

Finally got past the boat docks. This is where we will often start our rides of Logan's Pass. From this point to the top is 12 miles. It's mostly all climbing (there are a couple of breaks in the climbs.) It's not steep - average is 7%, max is 10%. But, I'm overweight and out-of shape.

The hard part was keeping my heart rate in check - especially given where Johnny was today. My HR averaged 172 for the climb - John was around 150. We're usually within 10 of each other, but not today!

We continued our little stops along the way to enjoy the views and take some photos - which also helped to keep me from going too deep intot he red zone. Here's a classic photo of Goose Island.



This one here is a view I grew very acustomed to on today's ride:



This is one of the many waterfalls we pass on the way up.



Our last stop was one of the most entertaining - two young couples from Checkaslovakia. They thought we were crazy and were very impressed with how light and "cool" our bikes were.



Finally we reached the top. The last 500m were especially tough - I was tired and there was a fierce headwind blowing at the top. Finally got there, though - and there was lots, and lots of snow! (And alot of people. Normally we hang around up there for awhile, but there were so many people we just took a couple of pictures and headed back down.)





The ride down was ugly - the road had lots of gravel (which wasn't too big of an issue climbing, but going down...) and so lots of brakes used on the way down.

I learned an interesting lesson on motivation - as tired as I had been, and as bad as shape as I was in, after we got to the bottom and had 5 miles left to town, my stomache was giving me troubles and I needed to get to a bathroom - I pulled ol' Johnny at 40km/hr for 5 miles to get to town fast! I'd rather find a different kind of motivatioin, but...

A nice stop for something to eat and a piece of pie and we were off for the border and home.

All in all, a great ride, was good to get 105 miles in with some good climbing, and it's always a pleasure to ride with John! Next week's adventure will be with Steve (also known as BowWow) and a little road trip down to Flagstaff Arizona to ride with some friends. I can't wait!