7 hours ago
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“There are only two rules today,” says guide Dave Moench during the pre-tour safety briefing. “We can’t bike past 3pm and no one can die.”
If I hadn’t already read the advice on the National Park Service website about cycling the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Montana’s Glacier National Park, I would have thought he was joking. But it seems there’s an alarming number of ways in which we could potentially perish.
Thanks to Glacier’s “rapidly variable” weather, the temperature at Logan Pass, the ride’s 2025-metre summit can be 10 degrees cooler than where we’ll start, so cyclists sometimes catch hypothermia during the long, chilling descent. Other challenges include slippery road conditions, rock falls and plunging 600-metre drop-offs. Oh, and did I mention the bears? Glacier has the highest density of grizzlies outside Alaska.
But we’re in safe hands. This is Moench’s sixth season in Glacier and our other guide, Tom Matelich, grew up here. “I love being in the park,” he says, grinning. “Every day is different.”
That the Going-to-the-Sun Road even exists is frankly astonishing. Snaking east to west for 80 kilometres through the heart of the park, it snakes up and over the Continental Divide, squirming through an Alps-like scrum of soaring peaks and steep-sided glacial valleys. It took 11 years to build in the early 1900s; much of it hand-excavated by Italian immigrants.
Every winter the pass has to be cleared of 20 metres of snow, a 10-week process that begins in April. During this time, cars aren’t allowed on the upper sections of the road but bikes are – a precious window of glorious, vehicle-free cycling. Unfortunately, due to an unseasonably warm spring, the road opened earlier than normal this year and I missed it.
Thankfully, Glacier Guides has a plan B. Rather than start on the west side of the park and cycle east, we’ll do it in reverse, beginning on the less-visited east side and cycling west. Not only does the eastern section have more pull-outs to let cars pass, we’ll be on the opposite side from all those nerve-fraying drop-offs. The only restriction is that we have to finish by 3pm as that’s when the park’s vehicle reservation system ends and there’s a surge in traffic.
To reach the eastern side, we drive the entire Going-to-the-Sun Road first, an unexpected bonus that allows us to admire Glacier’s dangerously distracting scenery without worrying about cycling off a cliff or being chased by a bear.
From our start point at the Saint Mary Visitor Centre, the road climbs almost 700 metres during the 29-kilometre ascent to Logan Pass. Ordinarily, this would be a concern, but all three of us on today’s tour have opted for high-spec e-bikes. “Your butt will probably be the sorest thing after the ride,” quips Moench.
We depart under grey skies with a splattering of rain skirting Saint Mary Lake before we stop at Sun Point to visit the remnants of one of the park’s historic chalets.
As the road climbs, the cloud descends, and we’re soon engulfed by a bank of swirling mist. Cars appear eerily out of the gloom, passengers shaking their heads in disbelief at the three rain-soaked cyclists taking selfies by the roadside snow drifts.
Eventually, we reach Logan Pass, where on a clear day we would have been treated to a mesmerising montage of sky-piercing mountains, cascading waterfalls and snaking glaciers. Instead, we warm up in the gift shop until a woman inadvertently sets off a can of bear repellent, accidentally spraying her young son in the process (“No Johnny, you can’t have a souvenir”).
The original plan was to cycle down, but because of the deteriorating weather, Moench suggests we jump in the van instead. The relief is palpable. No one fancies flirting with rule two today.
THE DETAILS
TOUR
Glacier Guides’ Going-to-the-Sun Road e-bike tour costs $US290 ($445) and normally runs from early May until late June. Park entry is an additional $US35 ($55). See glacierguides.com
STAY
A former railway hotel, Belton Chalet, in West Glacier, has characterful accommodation and a fabulous restaurant. Rooms from $US180 ($275) a night. See glacierparkcollection.com
FLY
United Airlines flies to Glacier Park International Airport via San Francisco. See united.com
The writer was a guest of Western Montana’s Glacier Country. See glaciermt.com
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