Day 13 - Going to the Sun and beyond

Well, we just can't seem to get adjusted to the time zone changes. Today was no different with us awake before dawn. Breakfast in the hotel and on the road by 6:45 M! It was 51 degrees when we left so we had liners in but after we got out of Great Falls northbound on I-15 the temp dropped to 45! We did enjoy another full moon though.

Moon still showing in the early morning NB on I-15

We weren't on I-15 too long before getting off onto a nice 2 lane - US-89. We did encounter one 6 mile stretch of construction where the "road" as very poor. Larry's GS was right at home, but y ST struggled in the loose gravel and mud. After that section it was nice riding u into Browning MT where we stopped for a coffee break. Then we turned onto US-49 through the Blackfeet Indian reservation. This was a pretty twisty road though it did have a lot of cattle near, and on the road. At one point we had to stop to wait for some cows to cross in front of us, and a few times we were dodging fresh cowpies in the turns! (sorry, no photos)
Next thing we knew we were at the east entrance of Glacier National Park and the start of the Going to the Sun road. Despite getting there at 10:23 AM, there was already a lot of traffic on the road, and there was also a lot of construction on the eastern approach to the summit.

East entrance to Glacier National Park

Vier starting in the east side

One of th mny construction zones on the east side

Spectacular views

I have MANY more pictures but no time to sort them all out. Hope to post more later so stay tuned.

After exiting the park, we fueled the bikes and ourselves and headed south. A real treat was a long stretch of riding along the eastern shore of Flathead Lake. This is a HUGE lake (reminded me a lot of Lake Winnipesaukee in NH), but one difference was all the fruit orchards along the shoreline, especially Cherries.

Another notable item was the ever increasing smoke in the air as we worked our way south. By the time we got down to Missoula, the sky was thick with a haze of smoke from the several large forest fires in the area - including one that we found has caused the closure of our next assigned road - Lolo pass. As a result we have to re-work our routing so I am out of time for todays post.

Stats for today: 377 miles in 8:00 hrs riding time, 10:46 elapsed time.

Added GPS Track for the day: