some kind of wonderful

After over 1,000 miles of some of the most flat, desolate land I have ever seen in my life, we've finally come upon something pretty interesting...the Rockies.

But these past few days, I thought coming upon a huge mountain range would mean more interesting terrain. On the contrary, things just kept getting flatter, and I found myself more and more in the middle of nowhere than ever. We finally came over a hill yesterday, and in the distance (about 80 miles away) we could make out a very faint line of higher terrain. Upon entering Cut Bank yesterday, we came over another hill and saw them towering even higher, and my heart probably skipped a few beats.

The ride today was pretty miserable, but totally worth it. The first 50 miles were a big tease. The ground was flat uphill, we had a headwind, my body was exhausted from the previous 9 straight days of riding, and we couldn't see any mountains! They were hiding behind a mass of haze (smog?), and it seemed like they were never going to show. I was miserable, screaming aloud to nothing, trying desperately to resist the urge to throw my bike into a ditch. Around mile 20, a white patch near the horizon finally became a clear glacier, as the mountains finally showed themselves, and they were bigger than ever. But the wind still didn't let up. I think I averaged somewhere around 10 mph the whole day.

At mile 50, we finally entered a valley, the Rockies finally far far over our heads. The final 14 miles were hills....a lot of winding uphill on narrow, busy roads. But the scenery was amazing. The mountains here aren't as high as those down south (only up to about 11,000 ft) but they've been partially carved away by glaciers, so their rock formations are absolutely beautiful. At one point, the end of our final climb, we came over a hill at 6,000 feet and looked over massive peaks descending into a long lake (Lake St. Mary). We then descended 1,500 ft into it, and are now staying at a really tricked out campground in St. Mary. It has wireless (of course), lots of expensive RV's, and a $4 all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast. I'm totally there tomorrow.

Well, I have to run to dinner now, but once I'm in Whitefish, I'll write more about how amazing this place is. I have never been more excited about any day on this trip than I am about tomorrow. We're riding the Going-to-the-Sun Road tomorrow, a 50 mile, totally scenic road through Glacier NP. We'll climb up to 6,600 ft, cross the Continental Divide, and be totally distracted by everything around us. We're not allowed to ride our bikes on it between 11 and 4 because that is peak time for tourist traffic. So it'll be a long day, and totally the best day ever. I'm so excited.