Tuesday 23 June
Stanton Creek to East Glacier, MT
The next morning we packed up and took off at 7 am to find breakfast which, we'd been told, was just seven miles down the road. But when we got there, we found that the breakfast place didn’t open until 9 am so, ironically, we went on to Essex and the Izaak Walton Hotel, which had been our destination the day before.
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| We cyclists execute an about face after finding that the intended breakfast restaurant is closed; Tim's photo |
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Diane and Susan on the hill to the Izaak Walton Hotel with a sunlit valley in the background.
That's a cloud, not water between the mountains in the background. |
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| My little camera just could not capture the beauty of the sun shining only on this valley |
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| Diane, about to execute a star jump in the IWH parking lot |
We got IWH to find several other Northern Tier cyclists eating breakfast also: Pat and David from Louisiana had been there three days. They were riding new carbon bikes and pulling two-wheeled Burley trailers. A white-bearded guy and his wife were also eating breakfast. They were riding a Bike Friday tandem.
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| Santa and Ms Claus . . . a Bike Friday touring couple we met at the Izaak Walton Hotel |
The miles to and at Marias Pass were beautiful, many of them along rushing Bear Creek. The sun was peeking out between the clouds in places and highlighting a mountainside here or a peak there, too, and the bear grass was profuse.
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| Road near IWH along Bear Creek |
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| View from MT-2 Marias Pass climb down into the milky blue Bear Creek |
The climb to Marias Pass and over the Continental Divide was gradual and quite easy—almost too easy to say that one had crossed the Continental Divide—but it is the lowest crossing of the Continental Divide in Montana. Bill U. and I again rode together. Diane has put on muscle and speed. Bill and I joke about having peaked. Diane beat us to the top. When we got to the top, we took the place of a passing motorist Diane had corralled to take her photo with the Marias Pass sign, and we all took photos of one another.
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| Kevin at the bottom of Marias Pass |
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| Our cloudy but beautiful day |
“The name "Marias" was first mentioned by Captain Meriweather Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition in his diary of 1805. It is believed he named the Marias River after his cousin, Maria Wood. Headwaters of the Marias River are on the pass. This pass over the Continental Divide was later identified as Marias. Before ‘white men’ set eyes on this area, local Indians used the pass to cross the mountains onto the plains to hunt bison. The pass has also been referred to as ‘Theodore Roosevelt Pass.’”
Another Memorial located at Memorial Square is the John F. Stevens Memorial Statue (above). John F. Stevens was a civil engineer for the Great Northern Railroad. He was charged with finding a suitable rail route across the Continental Divide. In December of 1889, Stevens located and recorded the pass which had been used by area Native Americans for many centuries. Keep in mind that the Transcontinental RR was completed in 1869 so this is 20-years after the first RR crossed the continent.
And finally, there is a memorial to William “Slippery Bill” Morrison, a mountain man who deeded his land to the railroad at his death.
After we explored Memorial Square and had used the restrooms, we three trundled off to West Glacier. We found a general store in W Glacier and I bought a drink and a candy bar. Rick was there and he told us that Kevin and Tim had ridden north to see about camping. Soon word came that we were to ride under the RR overpass and about 2 miles down the road to the campsite, which was opposite a hostel/grocery/bakery, and two clicks from a restaurant.
We set up our tents in tall grass between two homes and behind an RV, took turns taking showers in the small single shower, and then Tim, Kevin, and Rick enjoyed some beer in front of the hostel while Diane, Bill. and I admired the collection of motley dogs wandering about, and even explored a shop billed as having the largest wooden spoon in the world. Indeed it did, painted purple and just outside the shop, which specialized in funky wooden spoons and wizard wands.
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| Sign says it all |
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| Woodcrafter and owner of the Spiral Spoon |
Supper this evening was at the Whistle Stop Restaurant. Cannot now remember what it was. After supper Bill and I walked down to the East Glacer Nat'l Park Lodge and shopped a bit whilst the guys again sat at the picnic table in front of the hostel and relaxed witih a couple more brewskis.
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| Bill snapped a photo of me posing with one of the park's tourist buses |
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| The huge tree-like supports in the main lobby of the East Glacer Lodge |
Tomorrow we're headed for Shelby, MT. Tune in.
