The wind really picked up last night. It woke us all up around 4:50 and I had to put my steaks in the ground to hold down the edges. I was also on a lot of rocks so that wasn’t great but it was warm. Tom got up at 5 to try to get a pass for his trail but he still didn’t get it. I packed my stuff and decided to camp in Avalanche for the next night. I took the shuttle to the top of Logan Pass and didn’t feel like I cheated at all since one this isn’t on the Trans Am at all and two I had already done the harder side yesterday. The ride up was good and I could look around unlike when I was coming down yesterday. I also saw a black bear from the bus that was about 15 feet from the side of the road.
At the top of Logan there were no busses that had the rack for a bike and there weren’t going to be any for another 90 minutes so I decided to ride down. This side seemed a little steeper and there was construction going on in some places that made it hard to ride through. Plus there were grates where water passed underneath the road so you really had to be careful and hold the breaks at parts. But I made it down ok.
Doug, from a few days ago told me that the Avalanche trail was really good so I decided to do that one first. It was a 2 mile hike to the lake. The first mile or so followed a river then turned up the hill into a more forested area. The lake was incredible. You could see 4 waterfalls/ rivers feeding into the lake from unseen glaciers at the top of the surrounding mountains. The lake itself was also perfectly reflective of the surrounding mountains.
On the walk back I ran into a lady who said there was a bear with cubs about 100 feet ahead so I hurried to catch a glimpse. There were a few other people standing around and the bear was about 50 ft ahead and right on the trail. I never saw the cubs because they had climbed up a tree before I got there. But the mother was really close at one point. After a few minutes of watching I smacked my arm to kill a mosquito and the slap really got the bears attentions. She looked right at me and the two other people I was standing with and she took a few steps towards us. We immediately started to back up and give it some space. I let some other people pass in front of me to make sure the path was clear before I decided to go. On the walk back I met two kids from Spokane, WA who were starting college in the fall. They were asking me all about my trip and I tried to explain to them how great college is. I walked through the Cedar Train with them then I went back to my tent to get some lunch. Gary got to the campsite as I was finishing my PB sandwich. We talked for a bit about his climb over the pass from the east side.
I wanted to do the Highline Trail from the top of the pass but on the shuttle ride up the driver said that it would take 5 hours. It was already 3 by the time got to the top and the last shuttle goes down at 7 so there was no way I was going to be able to do it. So I decided to do the St. Mary/ Virginia Falls Trail. It was about 1 mile to St. Mary Falls and another 2 to Virginia Falls. St Mary was a two stager that was only about a 10 foot drop but was about 20 feet across so there was a lot of water. Some kids said that the jumped from the path into the water 20 feet below and I really wanted to do it but I didn’t see where they did it from and thought it would be pretty tough to bike with a broken leg. The walk to Virginia Falls was really cool too with a lot of other waterfalls along the way. One was pretty big and I actually thought it was Virginia Falls and almost turned around. Luckily it was still early in the day so I decided to keep going along the trail just to see what was there and kill time. I knew I reached Virginia Falls when I saw it this time though. It was a 40 foot drop into a pool of clear water. I actually waded into the pool to try to get under the falls. It really hurt though. The spray would actually knock you back as if you were walking into an 80 mph wind what had hail in it. The water from that height really pounded on you and stung but I just had to get under for a second.
On the walk back I thought about how Greg would have really liked a day like today. I was also thinking about how it would have been great to have spent the day with someone rather than by myself. It was a perfect day but would have been that much better if I had shared it with someone else.
I decided to get on an eastbound shuttle even though I was going west just so I could see the east side again. I saw a brown bear on the side of a mountain so that made three for the day. The general store I stopped in didn’t have PB so I got Tostitos and that was what I had for dinner. Back at camp another biker showed up. His name was JP, he was from New Hampshire, and he was doing the Northern Tier. He talked with no enthusiasm in his voice which was pretty strange but he was alright besides that. It was pretty comfortable ground so I should get a good nights sleep.
