Day 10

Miles: 115

Mileage from start: 889

Today was the longest miles combined with the hardest hill so far. 

We got started at a reasonable time for us: 8:30 a.m. It was still chilly and we delayered as the sun warmed us. After some fairly straight forward riding through horse pastures and over gravely pavement. 

We made it to Whitefish in time for lunch at the Naked Noodle. We each ate two meals and then stopped at the grocery across the street for more provisions before leaving town. 

From there it was another forty miles to Lake McDonald Lodge inside Glacier National Park. We got there around 5 p.m. without a reservation. We considered a zero. We considered getting up super early to cover Logan Pass. And then we decided to just ride the pass that evening and find a place to camp on the other side. The weather forecast looked like Tuesday would be a better day off than Monday anyway.

The pass was hard and long and absolutely beautiful. It took about 2.5 hours to get to the top and each foot was fought for. I was already tired before we started the climb. The evening light was lovely and it kept us warm until nearly the top. 

There we put on all our layers and let gravity take us the 12 miles to Rising Sun campground where we stuffed our faces with food and collapsed into our tent.