Author: Greg Pezoldt

When I was going to school at Montana State University many years ago, there was an annual bike event called The Tour Of The Swan River Valley or TOSRV. I never rode this event or even have driven the highway but I have always wanted to do so. Well, today I will get to find what the big deal is all about.

The weather promised to be sunny in the afternoon with temps in the high 70’s so there was no hesitation about riding today. I headed out of Whitefish on the Edgewood road (the 3rd time now I ridden this road on this trip). I rode to Big Fork where I saw Flathead Lake but just for a few miles. I had lunch at the local brew pub and then headed out to the Swan River valley. The riding was pretty easy without any real big climbs or wind. I ended up camping at the Swan Lake FS campground. It was located just north of the town of (get ready for it….) Swan Lake.

It was really nice to get to my campground at a reasonable time today. It was about 3:00 and I had plenty of time to explore the area and even go soak my feet in the lake.

It was a really nice campground and lake. I am beginning to understand what the big deal is!

What is it about Whitefish? Today it is raining again so I am off the bike for an unscheduled rest day.

I thought I would take the opportunity to give a summary of the trip so far:

Miles Traveled: 1045

Miles on Gravel Roads: 10

Major Mountain Passes: 7

Crossed the Continental Divide: 2

Highest Point: 6646 feet AMS

National Parks: 3

Mechanical Issues: 2 (bike rack, derailleur)

Flat Tires: Zero (knock on wood)

Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be nice and I am looking forward to riding the Seeley- Swan valley to Missoula over the next 3 days.

Did I say I was looking forward to a nice night’s sleep? I seemed to have forgotten about the trains that run up an down Hwy 2 through the canyon. They were loud and came often. Oh well, life on the road.

I was going to be able to continue the down gradient slope today into West Glacier. The scenery was dominated by the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, a beautiful river by any measure.

Getting to West Glacier was great. It was lunch time and I finally was going to get off of Hwy 2.

That left 28 more miles into Whitefish to finish the day. I arrived at my friend Joe’s house at 2:30 after 49 miles. Actually a fairly easy day with the general downhill following the river.

Today’s ride marked a major milestone for several reasons. First, I went over the 1000 mile mark for the trip. Second, I would be turning south and following a completely new route- The Great Parks Route from Columbia Falls to Yellowstone Park. The Northern Tier route was great. This new direction should be equally rewarding.

Today’s ride was going to be interesting! For the first I would not have any information about my route except for the road number and distance. I was freelancing since I was doubling back to Whitefish before heading south.

Still, I was a little surprised when the road out of St Mary’s immediately pointed upwards. A nice 4 mile climb really gets the blood moving in the morning.

I was also on my own again. Geo was heading north to see more of the park and then possibly into Canada. He was a great camping partner and a heck of a nice person.

The road after the initial climb was up and down for the rest of the morning. I had some lunch at the turn onto Hwy 49. Right after lunch, the road again pitched up for a considerable climb. At least I was rewarded by more views of the Glacier NP mountains.

The climb topped out at an overlook of Upper Two Medicine Lake. Then it was downhill to East Glacier. There I stopped for a Coke but also had some huckleberry pie too. Just because!

After the break, I had another climb up to Marias Pass. This was a very easy climb for a change.

Then it was downhill for a long descent. 17 miles later I pulled in to the Historic Isaak Walton Inn. It is an old train station Inn and very fancy. I had dinner and a beer there before heading down the road again for the last 6 miles of the day to the campground.

All told, it was my second longest day having pedaled 68 miles. No worries though. It was the summer solstice and I still had plenty of daylight. The campground had hot showers so I was really looking forward to a comfortable nights sleep after a big day.

I really liked my plan for today! Since I knew I would be waiting for the upper gate to open in the late afternoon I slept in a little bit and really took my time leaving the campground. I wanted to leave at 11:00.

I ended up leaving around 11:10 only because Natalie showed up in the campground just before 11:00 and I wanted to check in with her. She would ride the pass on Friday after exploring the park with her friends for a few days.

I could not help but notice that the weather was perfect as I headed up the road. Today, the name of the road going to the summit was going to live up to its name: The Going To The Sun Road.

As advertised, I encountered the first gate at Avalanche Creek where the road was closed to all vehicles. With the nice weather, the road was still crowded with cyclists and hikers of all persuasions. After the first 4 relatively flat miles, the crowd thinned out to the more serious hikers and cyclists.

The next 4 miles is where things got more serious and the road gradient started pitching upwards. I got up to the Loop (which is the first big switchback) at 1:00. Taking 2 hours is a bit misleading since I stopped a lot to take photos of the fantastic vistas.

At the Loop I ate lunch and began the unknown wait for the upper gate to open. As time went on, more and more people arrived to join the crowd waiting. Finally, right at 3:00 the gate was opened and at least 50 people began the ride up the last 8.2 miles to Logan Pass. After 1.5 hours I got to the top and it was worth all the effort to get there.

I stayed on top for a while since it was so incredibly beautiful there. I was just getting ready to leave but I casually congratulated another rider for getting to the top. It turned out that this person knew my brother Doug! So I ended up staying for a lot longer yet since Dave Dorsett was such a nice guy (and knew my brother)!

At long last, I headed down the east side heading for St Mary’s. The descent was fast and fun except for when I came to a tunnel. It was a little dark inside so I slowed way down as I entered. All of a sudden the whole inside of the tunnel started moving. There were about 6-8 big horn sheep in the tunnel and they spooked a bit as I entered.

I basically herded them out the other end to continue the descent.

Just outside St Marys the USNP campground was full to my great disappointment. The ranger at the entrance said another cyclist got the last site. I thought this person might have been a guy I had briefly met before so the ranger said it would alright if I asked if he would be willing to share his site. George Spalding was more than willing to do so. Then Geo (as he is known by to his friends) and I headed for town 1 mile away for a real dinner. We were in a celebratory mood after our great ride up and over Logan Pass and I had salmon!

When I say it was a great ride I am not exaggerating. Over 30 miles of great scenery and the road all to ourselves. Add to that the perfect weather and you have a great ride. One I will never forget.

Today, there was no putting off riding to Wast Glacier. But not until Joe and I went out for breakfast.

The weather wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t supposed to rain so off I went right at noon. The route was good since I did not ride on the Hwy. And when I did get to the Hwy, there was a nice bike path that paralleled it. Sweet.

The park service was striping the roads so they had long lines of traffic stopped right at the gate to the park. For this reason, they did not charge park admission.

I took a swing through the Apgar campground which is the first campground as you come in. I was looking to see if any other cyclists were there. I didn’t see any. Plus it was my plan to ride further up the road to Sprague Creek CG anyway. I wanted to get as far up the road as possible to shorten tomorrow’s ride up to Logan Pass.

Next I went to the visitor’s center to get the lowdown on riding up the Pass. They gave me the same information that Matt had given me two days earlier. That the roads would be closed at Avalanche Creek to vehicles but bikes and hikers could go 8 miles up the road to the “Loop”. Then we would wait for the park road crew to finish their work for the day and they would open the upper gate. It was an ideal situation even thought I did not plan it that way and it was plain luck it was going to play out that way.

At Sprague Ck, there were two other cyclists there so it was fun to share stories with them. They were going in different directions than me so I would not see them after tonight. I went to sleep that night thinking of nothing else besides the climb tomorrow.

Someone we met had said we were going to have 4 days of sunny weather. He was wrong. Natalie and had planned to ride into the park but not until later in the morning. So we went to breakfast. The sky was already clouding up so I thought I would give it until noon to see if it was going to rain. It did!

Natalie decided to take off for the park since she was going to meet some friends. I decided to take a rest day instead so it was the end of the fellowship of riding together. Natalie was a really fantastic riding partner. Most of all, I never heard her complain about a single thing. Not hills, not rain, not even hail storms. I really do wish her the best and that she finds some new riding partners.

The rest of my day was spent catching up with Joe. He says he is getting antsy for some new adventures and maybe doing something altogether different. It was fun talking with him about all of the possibilities that are out there. I feel certain that he will figure it out and it will be exciting.

The weather is going to be better tomorrow so I am almost sure I will be back riding tomorrow. Glacier National Park and the Rocky Mountains await.

The day started rudely. The city park in Eureka had a sign that the sprinklers came on at 7:30AM. We were assured by a fellow camper that the sprinklers had not come on the previous day. Well, the sprinklers did not come on at 7:30. They came on at 5:30!!! This was a major bummer since the day was sunny and we could have packed the tents up dry. Oh well.

We did let the tents dry as much as possible before we left. We started on a nice side road which let us skip an 11 mile section of Hwy 93 which was great. We did encounter some road congestion, Montana style. A herd of cattle decided to cross right in front of us. I gave them a wide berth after remembering a similar encounter my friend Matt had when a cow took issue with his bike and trampled it into submission. Yes, a wide berth indeed.

We eventually had to return to Hwy 93 and had to ride on it for about 30 miles. We took a lunch break in Stryker, MT population 26! There wasn’t much there but they did have a Post Office which is where we had lunch.

About 6 miles past Olney, we again were able to finally get off the Hwy again. The back road into Whitefish was nice and we had the added benefit of running into some local cyclists. Matt and Anise gave us the low down on Glacier Park and cycling over Logan Pass.

Once in Whitefish, we ran a few errands. Then we headed to my friend Joe Lichatowich’s house where we were going to stay at, get a shower, and wash clothes. The shower at Joe’s House was FANTASTIC! Almost a religious experience. OK maybe that is an exaggeration but it really was great.

We went to dinner at Bonzai, a local brewery. Good food and better beer. And then a good nights sleep….. not in a tent or sleeping bag.

The morning brought the prospect of rain with it. Linus and Katie never showed in the campground the previous day so Natalie and I were on our own again today. We were ready to ride ride at 9:00 when Natalie noticed she had developed a flat tire over night. She replaced her tube and we again were ready to ride….. at 9:30.

Today had the potential to be a harder day than the previous few. We were expecting more hills and that proves to be true. Our progress along Lake Koocanusa was slow but steady. It was overcast with occasional drizzle and a developing headwind. But the promise of little traffic was also true. it took a while to travel the remaining 37 miles of USFS 228 but we made it fine. After a total of 47 miles we had encountered exactly 16 cars and 2 motorcycles.

We stopped in Rexford briefly to get some water and I also had a coca-cola. Then it was on for the last 8 miles into Eureka. We got here at 4:00. We camped in the city park with a couple of other cyclists who are traveling the Continental Divide Mountain Bike route. And I thought my bike was heavy! I am not complaining anymore.

Natalie and I had dinner at the Front Porch restaurant. Normally I wouldn’t mention dinner but the Eureka burger is worth a mention. It is sausage and shrimp on a regular hamburger. It was awesome I have to admit. If you ever get to Eureka, give it a try. Mmmm.

Tomorrow it is on to Whitefish. Glacier National Park is coming up real fast and our thoughts center on the big climb up Logan Pass 6664 feet high and the continental divide. But is a story for another day.

Leaving camp around 9:00 Natalie and I set out ahead of Linus and Katie hoping see them in Libby, Mt for lunch.

After about 14 miles we were sorry to have to turn off of Hwy 56. We turned onto US Hwy 2 and followed the Kootenai River. We stopped to see the Kootenai Falls which were impressive. After a good lunch in Libby we headed out on Hwy 37 towards Eureka. We continued along the Kootenai River and the day was proving to be another fantastic day of riding. As we got close to the Kootenai dam we had to make a choice on whether to stay on Hwy 37 or to take the west side road option of Forest Service rd 228. USFS 228 was promised to have little to no traffic but was longer and more hills. We did not hesitate to take 228. We had to climb above the dam but reached our campground without further difficulty. It was the McGillivray campground located on Lake Koocanusa. Lake Koocanusa gets its name from Koo(tenai Tribe)- Can(ada)- Usa (as in USA).

Put another nice day of cycling in the books.