Ride the Sun

@sawatdeeka had some pictures of Montana recently. By coincidence I recently upgraded to a new phone after milking the previous one for years. There's a backlog of old photos there that I had to transfer over. Scrolling through reminded me of a motorcycle tour I did some years ago. While still in Canada I ran into a couple of uncharacteristically friendly Quebecers riding too. They had come back from Glacier National Park in Montana, and they showed me some videos and pictures they had taken. I was sold. From this little encounter I altered my route going back into the States to include Glacier Park and its featured route: Going-to-the-Sun Road. It was worth the ride. Thought I'd share.

The time of year was September. Past peak season, and when the weather can start to become unpredictable in the Rockies region from Canada down into the USA. You never know if an early snowfall could hit, but it worked out great for me. Minimal traffic was hoped for and found.

As you can see the road is either cut or laid directly into the side of a mountain. There are multiple tunnels and the road is quite a narrow two-laner in spots. There are some selected pull-off areas. Of course on a motorcycle things are a lot easier. Among the many perks of riding it rather than driving is that you experience considerably more sensory input. You can feel the temperature changes and variations in wind more. Riders enjoy an open feeling with a wider range in their field of view. You even get a bit of water splashed on you from the runoff coming out of the main tunnel where the valley opens up and announces that you've arrived.

But I inevitably run out of sunlight on the Sun Road and need to find a place to hold up for the night, hopefully after getting a drink and something to eat. The motorcycle I rode had great spacious side cases where you could store a pair of hiking boots and a mini pack for exploring areas off the roads that go into the park. Glacier has some rather long hikes that wind back for the ambitious. Just know that there are Grizzly Bears and wildlife in the area. I saw one bear on my ride in the lowlands area. He did not share the high road riding or taking pictures. He probably gets to see it all the time, so maybe nothing special for him.

By the time the sun had fully set, I had found a place with food and drink just outside the park grounds and socialized with some strangers — sometimes one of the highlights when doing things like this. I discovered that young Europeans would come over to do seasonal work amid the native Montanans. This was perhaps before the great migration of many Californians to Montana too. Another traveler gave me a tip on where to stay the night. He was a helpful "dirtbag," his preferred term for a certain type of adventurous, drifting young man who simply liked living life doing outdoors stuff on a shoestring budget and would not pursue the predictable planned life. He had ridden a KLR long distance and gone to Mexico, where I'm told you can flip them for essentially the price you paid or even for a small profit. Attuned to frugal living, he mentioned a close camping ground a short distance away. He said the gate was closed, but the shower/bathroom was still open and operational. So when I was done at the bar restaurant, I headed out to the place where the dirt bag tipped me about in the dark. He didn't lie. It was there. Getting the bike around the gate was not difficult.

Being late in the season, facilities were closing. In the dark I pitched a small tent close to a dark area, but a relatively short distance from sanitation. The next morning I woke up with the sun. I heard some noises outside. While getting a bottle of water and a snack amid the groggy first exertions of the day, I stumbled outside to see the following.

The deer hanging around munching didn't seem concerned that I was there. Business as usual for them. An empty black void turned out to be a lake in the sunlight. Not bad. The facilities at the closed camp I was squatting at were still open and worked, just like my trusty dirtbag friend told me. A morning shower felt good. Helps wake you up too. On a bike you get used to temperature changes, so the nippy air didn't bother me at the time. I follow the rule that what you take in, you take out. So, in that ethos, even if you squat, one should leave everything in good order and not trash the place.

Well, it was about time for me to ride on to the next location on my eventual trip back home. The images here are only a few views of shots of the sites you might see in Glacier National Park. But just as I had to ride out of there that morning onto the next location, I gotta end this post. So let's go out with a sunset from riding the Sun Road.

For anyone who still rides a bike… the season still isn't over.