A Road to Remember

Stoker is going on a bus trip with Setness Tours at the end of August. She and my sister-in-law Jeannie are going to see the sights of Idaho and Montana, including a red tram ride up Going to the Sun Road to Logan Pass. But Stoker has been there before…

Back in 2012 we brought our tandem on a Cycling Escapes Tour of the Canadian Rockies. On the second day we faced the longest and hardest ride we had ever attempted: from West Glacier Montana to Many Glacier Lodge over Logan Pass. The route was 72 miles, with 5,500 feet of climbing, most of it on the 10 mile climb over Logan Pass on the Going to the Sun Road.

We knew this day would be a challenge, but we were well prepared. Prior to the trip we did quite a bit of riding in the hills, including Stoney Creek Road and Ram’s Horn Grade. We also rode from Sunol to Milpitas on Calaveras Road and did the infamous “Wall” on the return. All of these roads were steeper than anything we would face in Montana and into Canada. Not as long, but steeper. And on the tandem ‘steeper’ is really, really hard.

We were up early on the morning of July 23, and at 6 am we were enjoying a continental breakfast from the Cycling Escapes support trailer. The official ride start was at 6:30 am, but Stoker and I were nervous and got rolling by 6:15. The reason for our apprehension, besides the nearly 11 mile climb in front of us, was because there was a time constraint. We had to get to the summit by 11 am, which was when the road closed to cyclists until 5 pm. The rational is that there was too much afternoon auto traffic to co-exist with cyclists. I was certain we could do the climb in 2 hours of riding time, but we wanted to have plenty of margin.

The climb is long, but the gradient is remarkably steady at 5 to 6%. I’m pretty sure it never goes over 7%, but I know it never gets below 4% either. It is a long slog. There were several places where we had to stop for construction, and long stretches of the road were unpaved hard packed dirt, which added to the difficulty and made the bike quite dirty. After each of the construction delays we were passed by a long line of cars. Most people were quite nice and gave us a thumbs up or a friendly wave. One woman shouted “You guys are awesome” from the open window of the passenger seat. I had to agree with her, what Stoker was doing really was awesome.

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We were all smiles at the summit and got someone to take our picture at the sign marking the pass. The 6,646 foot elevation was by far the highest the tandem had ever been, although we would top that a few days later on Highwood Pass in Canada. That one was 7,250 feet above sea level.

I was sure the rest of the ride was going to be a waltz. It turned out to be a death march. The descent was a bit breezy but with our new rear disc brake it was easy to control our speed and we made it down without incident. After lunch we had 10 miles heading north, followed by 12 miles heading due west to Many Glacier Lodge, where we would spend the night.

But when we turned left onto the final 12 miles, we got hit by a headwind that approached 40 mph with gusts even higher. I had expected this part of the ride to be a relaxed and triumphant spin, but it was actually worse than the big climb. It got so bad that our speed on flat ground dropped below 7 mph and I had to shift into the granny gear, which is unheard of when we aren’t going uphill. Later I learned that a couple of riders were actually blown off of the road, including our guide Eric. He had been a professional rider in Europe and his bike handling skills were off the charts, as he demonstrated later in the tour by doing one-wheel bunny hops. If he got blown around imagine what fun I was having trying to control the tandem.

That last 12 miles took about 1-1/2 hours instead of the 45 minutes I thought it would. We arrived tired and battered, but after a hot shower I gave Stoker a reviving leg massage and told her how proud of her I was. It wasn’t an easy day and her pilot was nervous, but she rode strong the entire time and never complained once. I couldn’t have made it without her.

So when Stoker returns to Logan Pass this summer, I hope she thinks back to that big ride and feels a little proud of what we did together. She will be the only person on the tour who made the climb under her own power instead of in a tour bus. A real Rocky Mountain High…