Day 5
Assemble, Ride Vans, Disseminate

Above Left: Early in the morning we had 2 cyclists ride directly out of the Prince of Wales Lodge to here (just across the Border, on the USA side), they were riding about 95 miles for the day. Three riders are starting here at the 80 mile mark. We are wishing them Bon Voyage!

Above Right: Here at the 70 mile marker, the remainder of the group will depart for the town of East Glacier Park (including Terry, Myself [Dennis], and the Bee [our da Vinci Tandem, not in the image]).

Above Left: A quick photo just before the first pedal rotation.

Above Right: We were moving reasonably fast.

Above Left: Riding SE on MT-17.

Above Right: This is where we intercepted US-89 (south). It was already getting warm and the sky had the haze of a far-away forest fire.

Above Left: We were now on US-89 which goes to Browning, but we will turn-off US-89 in Kiowa, MT, which is 9-10 miles before Browning.

Above Right: Southbound on US-89, about 3 miles to Babb.

Above Left: An interesting Ranch Gate-Archway. Later, we realized that we also had a similar photo from the other direction

Above Right: Babb Elementary School has an interesting Wild Bronc Ride Sculpture.

Babb

Above: Two views of the same Club and Cafe building in Babb, MT; it was the town's social center. This is also the turn-off for Many Glacier Lodge in Glacier NP (our home 2 days ago).

Above Left: St Mary in 8 miles.

Above Right: Crossing the St Mary River, still 6-7 miles to the town of St Mary.

Above: Lower St Mary Lake which we will parallel for about 6 miles.

Above: Native American Teepees near Lower St Mary Lake (also photographed from the other direction). It happens that the Blackfeet Indian Reservation is directly behind us.

Above: Native American Teepees near Lower St Mary Lake - A crop of Fireweed is blooming in the foreground.

Above Left: Looking SW across Lower St Mary Lake.

Above Right: Southbound on US-89 and loving it.

Above: All of it is called Flat Top Mountain.

The Town of St Mary

Above Left: Blackfeet - Inside Lake, English - Lower St Make Lake (on a lake access road).

Above Right: At the northern edge of St Mary was one of the Backroads support vans, we waved as we cycled by it.

Above Left: Until this point, we had already cycled the same route north bound, from here on we were to keep riding south on routes that we had never seen before. We were bypassing the East Entrance to Glacier NP.

Above Right: We rode parallel to an un-named creek while climbing out of St Mary. The last road name that we saw said Hudson Bay Company and that was interesting.

Above Left: Nice pond.

Above Right: We came across a combined rest area and picnic area that also served as an educational information center for the Blackfeet Indians (Native Americans).

Above: An educational information center for the Blackfeet Indians. We were riding through the Blackfeet Reservation, it butts up to Glacier NP on the east side.

Above: Southbound on US-89, the smoke haze got worse, Terry could smell the smoke and I could not. The smoke was starting to effect Terry's breathing and for a while there we almost signaled the support Van to stop but soon afterwards the wind shifted and Terry's breathing became OK for riding.

Above: Southbound on US-89 - Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Kiowa

Above Left: We were on Southbound US-89 but at the moment we were riding almost due east (which meant that our turn for MT-49 was coming soon).

Above Right: This may be called Kiowa Creek, there was nothing there, it was just a convenient name for an important intersection (US-89 and MT-49). US-89 bends almost eastward for Browning here (another 10 miles or so) but we turned south onto Montana Hwy-49.

Above: A composite photo of our elevated view to the west.

Above: Southbound on Montana Hwy-49.

Above: Ripening berries but we could not tell which kind of berry, they will be bigger than typical.

Above Left: Our first peek at Two Medicine Lake.

Above Right: Montana Hwy-49.

Two Medicine

Above Left: Southbound on Montana Hwy-49 - It is about 4 PM and the sun is about WSW for a direction angle.

Above Right: Two Medicine, Glacier NP.

Above: Dennis & Terry Struck, and the Bee at the entrance to Two Medicine, at the southeast corner of Glacier National Park, Montana (1 August 2018). I think that it was Jimmy who rode up and took this photo for us.

Above Left: Cinquefoil.

Above Right: Purple Asters.

Above: Geraniums, Purple Asters, and Indian Paint Brush.

Above: Terry Struck, Purple Asters, and Golden Rod (Roadside of Two Medicine, Glacier NP, MT).

Back to MT Hwy-49

Above: Daisies on Montana Hwy-49.

East Glacier Park, Montana

Above: We arrived at the town of East Glacier Park, Montana. Here, Terry and the Bee are standing in front of a reproduction Teepee. Traditionally, by Native American Custom, Teepees are setup to face the morning sun (which also faces them away from the typical direction of rain storms, from the west).

Above Left: We setup our room, performed our evening ablutions, and then met for cocktails and our special group dinner event (at a local BBQ Shack).

Above Right: Our ride awaited us (I think it was a 50's Chevy Stretch Limo reconfigured for group touring).

Above: This was our travel group, it was a most interesting collection of people and experience. We truly enjoyed everyone's company for the entire week and we made an effort to sit with each couple or family over the course of the week.

Above Left: Our ride in the old Tour Limo.

Above Right: Community Dinner in the open on a warm August evening. A good time was had by all. Tomorrow we Raft on the Flathead River near the Park's west entrance and then we head back to our pick-up point.

Except for five hearty riders riding 95 miles or 80 miles respectively, the remainder of us rode in two vans through USA Customs and then mounted the bikes to ride about 70 miles to East Glacier Park (in the SE corner of Glacier NP). We Cycled MT-17 through Babb and St Mary, US-89 to Kiowa, MT Hwy-49 to Two Medicine Junction with a side trip to Two Medicine (Glacier NP), and finally to the town of East Glacier Park. It was a long day and a warm day (80's F / 30's C).

That evening we rode a 1950s styled touring limo to a BBQ Restaurant for a wonderful dinner on a patio.
We all enjoyed each other's company.