Day 40: Bigfork, MT – Sprague Creek Campground, MT

Another day of rain. A heavy storm was moving through the area so we waited until a little later than usual to hit the road. Despite missing the heaviest of the rain, it was still pouring a few miles after leaving.

The route today had a mix of highways and rural side roads, with the latter being much nicer to ride on. The highways here all have speed limits of 70 miles an hour, and with the wet roads the cars flying by are a constant loud drone. Much quieter once you get onto the side roads.

A couple hours of riding in the rain brought us to the town of Columbia Falls where we stopped for a late lunch of Chinese food. Another heavy storm rolled by while we were inside so we waited it out before getting back on the road.

More back roads as we headed north of the direct route – US 2 – and took a state highway then quiet roads through pine forests and by log cabins until the entrance of Glacier National Park.

We got pretty lucky with the timing of our arrival in Glacier. Every year the iconic road in the park – Going to the Sun Road – gets covered in heavy snow and needs to get plowed then repaired. There’s a period of a few days to a couple weeks where bicycles are allowed on the road but cars aren’t, but you can only go as far as the plows have cleared, and you can’t pass any road crews repairing the road. They finished plowing the road all the way through just two days ago, and we’ll be riding on a Sunday so it seems like we’ll be able to ride it all the way through!

We found a campground in the park with hiker/biker sites and set up camp just in time for the rain to start once again as we took shelter under a tree while eating our dehydrated meals.

Notes from Donald: “A few days ago plows broke through the ‘Big Drift’ so I’m really excited that we can bike the full distance of Going to the Sun Road. Today we are in Glacier National Park!”

Today’s mileage: 61 miles

Total: 2075 miles