Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Going to the Sun Bike Run

Going-to-the-Sun Road

If you ever get a chance to do ride this road, then do it.  It is unbelieveable.  If you happen to have a bike, leave the car/truck at home and get out on the bike and ride this road.  It is well worth it.  It is well worth the wait at the border, the wait to get into Glacier National Park, and the wait for traffic and construction on the road on both the way up and the way down.  It is worth the rain and snow, and the narrow, single lane, dirt pathways on Logans Pass.  Everything I've mentioned is inevitable and you're going to have to deal with it.  Just be prepared.  But it's worth it.

I did the ride my my buddy Matt Jordan.  Matt rides a Kawasaki Ninja 250, yes a 250.  The kids got balls. Respect. (Jamaican accent).  We met in Cardston at about 11:30 on Thursday, July 1.  We got to the border around Noon, and we waited for almost 2 hours.  Funny how all the Canadians were lined up at the American border for miles to leave Canada, on Canada day.  We stopped for a quick fill at the St. Marys gas station and then paid our $12 toll to ride the Sun road.  On our second corner we encountered a big black bear off the side of the road.  Cool beans.  We had to wait for traffic on the way up for a few minutes, due to construction.  We stopped at the summit and snapped a few photos then continued on our way down.  We managed to slip back into traffic rather easily on the way down.  If we would of waited any longer we probably would of had to wait for the one lane traffic that had to come up as well, which was well over an hour.  About half way down the rain hit us hard, very hard.  I had a brand new rain-suit in my back pack, but I had no where to pull over and put it on.  Which would of been pointless anyways as both of us were soaked instantly.  The Sun road runs about 77km from start to finish and took us about 2 hrs to ride.  I'm sure if you get caught at the wrong end of the construction lines this could easily take you 3-4 hrs.  We were lucky that we didn't have to wait to long on the way up or down.  The road is open from mid-June to mid-Sept, I'm hoping I can do it one more time this Summer in some better weather.


2hr wait at the Carway border.

Going-to-the-Sun road map.

1 month ago - and still clearing snow...

On the way up...

At the Summit, 8000ft , lots of snow.

Quick stop for a drink and a piss, we didn't have time to do either...

Where there's snow there's...

Lots of construction on the way down the back side...

The road got narrower and smaller...

We were going slow enough that I put the bike in neutral and glided down w/camera in hand...safe

Stopped for a pic on the back side once we got through construction.

At the base, near West Glacier.

On the way home, came back through Eureka, Roosville, Fernie and Sparwood, Rained the whole way.  At least I wore the rain suit this time...

Finally home, great ride there and back. Thumbs up.


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