kellita the señorita the ibby dibby dow: Going To The Sun

We woke up at 4:30 this morning to more temps in the 40s, and serious rain. But today we climb out of Glacier through Logan Pass, and then out the other side of the park. Nothing could get me down. The tent crew got up, and everyone had the campsite packed up by 6:30. Then it was go time. Then when we got 2 miles down the road, Denis and Sam were stopped short. I told them I couldn't stop, and Sam said I had better since there was a bear in the road. Seems we have a problem as a group getting out of national parks due to wild life. We got a big group and rode with a car, and made it safely. Phew!

It's hard on trips like this, specifically with scenery like this to really capture what it's truly like. I took tons of pics, but don't feel like anything can really do it justice. So I did some more videos. Here's the beginning of the day...

I climbed a lot of the way by myself taking it all in. Slow and steady wins the race. I videoed a lot of the steps of the way. Feel free to watch them all.

I finally reached the top around 10am. We went into the visitor's center, and a girl who did the trip last year and works there now was waiting for us with snacks. Luxury. It was pretty cold at the top, and I added a few more layers to my outfit before heading down the Going To The Sun Road. The downhill was AMAZING, and again, I rode with Michael. Going downhill at that speed is FREEZING cold. We had to stop every 5 miles or so to get feeling back in our fingers and toes. We had lunch at Lake MacDonald, and then shuttled down the last 8 miles of the mountain.

We can't ride it due to park rules as it's too congested at this time of day. What's interesting about this is that the shuttles can only take 2 bikes at a time. If we had waited for that, we would have been waiting for hours. After a long wait, and me trying to flag down any truck possible to help us, we finally got a Glacier van to pick us up. The catch? They wanted to charge us. Even though they made the rule that we can't ride. After some creative persuading, they waived the fee, and we got everyone down, and continued on to Whitefish.

I rode the rest of the way with Paul, and we had great chats and rolling hills. Whitefish is so great. I realized I want mountains in my everyday life. It's such a cute community focused town, and it is filled with the outdoors. I want to live here or somewhere like it. Also - huckleberrys are amazing.

The last 48 hours have been some of the best of my life. I am so proud of our team and myself for climbing the Rockies and getting out alive. We are badass. I hope some of these pics can do even a little justice to what we witnessed today.