glascow montana,friday and sat june 27 and 28

 

 

Wow!! what a week we’ve had!! we cleared the contential divide and ridden over 300 mi in the plains…in three days!! we had a hellacious tailwind and rode 114,104,114 miles . we were flying!! but before I forget…glacier park was outstanding!! even though the going to the sun road was still snow packed and unpassable. they were predicting a july 4th opening. which even by global warming standards is pretty darned late! they’ve only had one later opening , on july 11th. the park was as pretty as can be. loaded with waterfalls and lush vegatition. AND BEARS!!! I was absolutely thrilled that I finially saw my first real live bear in the wild. I suppose if it had been under different circumstances,like at night, I would have been petrified. but as it were , while riding the going to the sun road after the car traffic was banned from the road and only cyclists and hikers were allowed, it was a walk in the park!! this little bear, well young bear by the looks of him. was just ambling along the road eating whatever green stuff he or she could find. just as unthreatning as can be! so I passed by and snapped as many pics as I could and keep from falling off or steering into its path. so that explains the fuzzy nature of the pics. also go to the pictures under “blogroll” and it will lead tou to the complete set of flickr photos , if you navigate directly to flickr look for telfordspics. there is a video there as well of an outstanding raging river, avalanche creek, SOME CREEK!! also avalanche lake, where seth and patric actually swam!! SHRINKAGE!! thats snow melt boys!! after leaving glacier park we rode one more pass, although not the going to the sun, but a lessor pass to the south, we crossed into east glacier and the entrance to the plains. with the snow capped peaks fading behind us we rode for 3 days and over 300 mi. now in glascow montanta. debbie has joined me for a couple of days off the bike and taking care of laundry and updating the blog etc. everyone is doing great, although we have become seperated from carolyn and greg and jerry. they are not too far behind, so not to worry, one short day on our part or a long wind aided day on theirs and we should be all together again! we have also accumulated another father son team heading across the plains, so we are looking at a group size of about 14 when we all camp for the night! looking forward to a visit to the roosevelt national park later today, and a new patch for my national park patch collection. the bike is now in top form, after 3 days without a front derailer , the nice folks in whitefish fixed me up. and deb brought along a replacement just incase that one doesn’t work out. there have been few other mechanical problems within the entire group. with the exception of a couple of flats on a particular rough gravel construction zone on route 2. its time to hit the trail, so I hope everyone is great!

eureka montana , friday!!

 

 

 

    as you can all see, I’m seeing some pretty exciting scenery!! we went into a stand of old growth cedars called the ross cedars, and they were fantastic!! and only 4 uphill miles to get to them. of course I dropped my bob bag and was easily doing 15 mph up those little bumps. the bod is doing great…wish I could say the same for the bike!! I lost my front deraileur due to a pivot bolt failure. its not too bad, except I try to push my middle ring too far before manually reaching down and putting it down to the granny. my knees and quads are all fine. only 57 more miles to the shop in whitefish montana and hopefully they will be able to fix me up with something. we are still looking forward to going into glacier park for a couple of days R+R . maybe do some hiking and stay in street clothes for a WHOLE DAY!!! what a novelty!! but too soon we will be heading out of the mtns and into the plains, where there will be wind and sun galore!! not much in the way of scenery, but that depends what you’d like to see going by your bike for endless hours. I think I’d rather stay here and see more of this beautiful place. I can see canada from here. pretty cool huh?? hope you are all great, I’ll have a day or two to catch up next week…promise!!

last day in anacortes

 

This picture was in sioux falls with jim and nancy and cynthia in a little pizza place up the street from the house. just now got it . well, today is our last in anacortes. michael has arrived and we are now ensconced in the cap sante inn. nice location as we went down to the boat launch/ferry landing for our wheel dip. back wheel in the pacific, front in the atlantic. sort of like how we do ragbrai, back wheel in the missouri, front in the mississippi. just a symbolic start. michael brought a rock from maine that someone gave him to place on the shores of the ocean. for some reason they thought in the future someone will find it and think it quite puzzling!! And of course I DID!! jerry and I have had a day or two to dink around and settle into a routine. but all thats about to change as we head off into the great unknown of cross country bicycling.

 

here we are at the dip. was a challange to find a place that was paved (sort of) enough to get us to the water line. everywhere we looked it was a muddy mess and not very likely we were going to go waist deep in mud just to take a picture. two nice fellows were nearby and offered to take our pic. they were heading south for a couple of weeks , heading down the washington coast to oregon. Bikers everywhere!! several others have been met and are now on their way. a couple from san diego with an RV driven by a son. a couple on a tandem will be a day ahead of us. a father and son leaving right now. we will have loads of company, as soon as we catch up!! we will stay over one last night and soak up the night life!! that means tankards of moose drool and conversation. we’ll probably head out tomorrow morning after a hearty breakfast and a stop at the post office. michael is pretty tired from the ordeal of flying here from 3 time zones away. eastern time to pacific. and has had only 3 hrs sleep. so he’ll likely have one beer and nod off at the pub. everyone we’ve met is either envious of our endeavor and wants the amount of time we have to do something like we are attempting, or thinks we are nuts. either way we are beginning an adventure of a life-time. maybe not anyone elses idea of what a vacation is. but to the three of us, certainly a physical and mental challenge. we are going to have a blast!! we will have good days and bad, wet and cold, but beauty and adventure always. we are going to ride our bikes for many miles. how many? we don’t know, don’t want to think about that. but I’m sure it will be fun.

 

anacortes washington,friday and sat june 6,7

 

coming into seattle, looking for the salvation army

 

 

I don’t know what to make of this thing in south dakota!!

 

the ferry landing where we are going to dip on sunday (tomorrow) whenever michael gets out of detroit. I heard its been stormy in the midwest!

 

 

jerry and I visited mt rushmore and badlands on the way across SD stayed in custer SP, where I and sent for my zero deg sleeping bag.

 

 

here we are by the harbor in anacortes

had lunch at the brown lantern, fish and chips and MOOSE DROOL!!!

Jerry hands over the van!!!

 

the space needle in seattle

the cabins we are staying in tonite at pioneer trails campgrounds/RV heaven!!

 

30 miles from seattle

hey guys!! we’ve been on the road for 4 days now. stopped in sioux falls and had a great visit with jim and nancy and cynthia. then we went on to rapid city to see mt rushmore and the badlands. look at the pictures!! a stop in missoula, its still snowy in the mountains. I had to get deb to ship my zero deg bag to anacortes for me. it was a cold night sleeping on the ground in custer state park. we are sitting in a lib in snowquamie falls or something like that. we are about 30 mi east of seattle. tomorrow we are heading to the salvation army to drop off the van. then up to anacortes wa for an over night in a state park cabin fri and sat.

two days on the road

so far its two days of fun. one day at the waterpark in rockford, and a day driving with new friend jerry. we drove from rockford to sioux falls SD via Iowa. lots of nice scenery in Iowa. its the home of my favorite party, RAGBRAI. which is the last full week of july. I have some picture to post but have not been able to get them up. its late and jim wants to have a sit by the tv for awhile. I should visit some. he told me his band is going to open here at the music fest in august for , get this, CHICAGO!!! what a riot! way to go jimmie!! jerry and I are getting along great (so far) , he’s about 59 and was a vietnam vet, one that actually saw combat. and is a decorated (purple heart) army veteran. not like me, a swabbie that saw danang harbor through a port hole with a mop or a broom in my hand. ms cynthia came from sioux center and had dinner and drinks, she only drinks water but always is fun to talk to. we have yet to meet our third member , michael from bar harbor. he’ll join us in anacortes after flying to seattle. not much else to report, except everyone seems to think we are crazy for trying this, I don’t know about that. well maybe. I’ll know more about that after the 30th day on the ride. then I’ll know for sure.