Team 1 Day 15 (Kayla)

 Today we woke to a chilly morning at Chuck and Rita’s, our lovely warmshower hosts in whitefish, MT and were treated to a breakfast of yogurt, granola, fresh fruit, and oatmeal. It was the perfect healthy fuel for a day of biking. From their house we headed over to the local market to pick up food for the next 2 days (an easy 1mi jaunt). Since we had less than 40 miles to bike we were operating at a leisurely pace and were happy to loiter in front of the grocery store (for an hour - oops!) packing our bags and getting organized. Okay then we were finally on the road, or well sort of… soon into biking we realized that we needed to change our layers, since there was on and off rain that had us feeling cold and then hot again. So that required another stop. Basically we weren’t getting anywhere fast, but we didn’t mind. The outfit changes were getting a bit ridiculous though so in order to streamline them Keelin and Liz decided to put their rain jackets over their helmets to add extra protection with the option of quick removal. I tried to follow suit, but since my rain jacket is not cycling specific I was left looking like I was a stealth-mode blue gortex blob (see Instagram for a visual). I was left with only small slits for my eyes and could barely see out so I decided that it would be best not to cycle with that look, but it was worth a try! Just outside of glacier we decided it was time for a lunch break, since it was 2 o’clock and we were all super hungry. Luckily we found the perfect spot, a grassy park overlooking the mountains of glacier National park. We enjoyed our pastries that we had picked up from the whitefish farmers market the day prior in addition to some delicious PB/Honey/banana bagel sandwiches. Then laid on the grass and tried to soak up the little bit of sunshine that was peaking through. A few miles of biking later we were in west glacier village where we stopped to regroup to figure out a plan for getting to our campsite. We had heard from our warmshowers host that the 9 miles of road between the entrance to the park and our campsite were under construction and that the road was in rough condition, however there was apparently a shuttle we could take instead. While I did some quick google searches about the shuttle (with no solid answers), Liz and keelin went inside the cafe to get us all some hot chocolates to warm up our cold bodies! After finishing our drinks we headed through the entrance of the park and were shocked to find that we would be charged $20 per person to enter the park on our bikes (when it only costs $35 for an entire car full of people)! I considered backtracking us though the woods to enter, but I wasn’t sure how we would manage that with out being super obvious once we were already at the gate, so we just forked over the $60 and tried to move on. Next stop was the visitor center where we found a park ranger to ask about the road conditions. Her response was that they were better than they had been a few days prior but probably bad because of the rain and she wouldn’t recommend biking it. We asked about the shuttle, but she said it wouldn’t start running until July 1st, to which Liz’s response was “I guess we’re biking it then”. So off we set down the 9 miles of road that people didn’t recommended biking! Of course because it’s us it started pouring rain as soon as we started and the dirt road turned to bumpy mud filled with potholes. We pedaled along as fast as we could, eager to get out of the rain and mud spray and stopped only to remove the rocks and mud that were getting lodged in our brake rotors. While it could have been a miserable experience as cars drove past us I couldn’t help thinking about how badass we must look, out here pedaling in the pouring rain with our bikes loaded with gear and covered in mud. The more I thought that, the more I started to believe it. We are some crazy, badass women! Finally we made it to the camp site, just in time for the sky’s to clear up. We used our bike bottles to give our bike a through wash, set up camp, then went for a lovely stroll along lake Macdonald. It was arguably the most stunning lake we had been on, with crystal clear waters and the beginnings of mountains rising up on the other side. We sat by the lake and enjoyed the last bits of sun sinking below the mountain before curling into our tents for an early night in preparation for Logan pass!