Montana – Page 2 – Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

Detour to Glacier National Park

Detour: Kalispell to Glacier National Park (33.2 miles)

All along the GDMBR, you pass world-class national parks and other natural recreation areas. Just riding through this incredible landscape is a wonderful experience, but it’s worth your time to take a few days along the way to explore what sites along the route have to offer.

For this reason, and to build in time for fun activities with our awesome support team (David’s wife and kids: Anna, Silas [2.5 years old], Eleanor [7 months old]), we planned in a 2.5-rest day detour in Glacier.

Early in the morning (campgrounds at Glacier fill quickly), David drove into the park to reserve a group campsite, where Anna’s brother, Abram, and parents, Steve and Betsy, would meet us later in the day.

When David returned to pack up the car, I headed out by bike, first to Columbia Falls and then on to Glacier National Park and Apgar Campground.

The ride was pleasant, albeit much flatter than our previous few days of riding. To Columbia Falls, I could follow minor country and residential roads. From Columbia Falls, I followed US Highway 2 to West Glacier. With the exception of a couple miles into Hungry Horse, the highway had a wide shoulder (from Columbia Falls to a point 2 miles before Hungry Horse) or dedicated bike lane (Hungry Horse to West Glacier). From West Glacier, you can take either the road or a bike path (turn sharply right, downhill toward the river after crossing over the river on a bridge to catch the path) to the Apgar Visitor’s Center just past the entrance to the park.

At or near the park, there are grocery stores in West Glacier and Apgar Village. To explore the park, shuttle buses leave regularly from the Apgar Visitor’s Center to various trailheads throughout the park. (The visitor’s center has more information on schedules.)

Once in Glacier it was time to relax! We planned a couple of days of relatively light hiking with friends and family and enjoyed some time relaxing by Lake McDonald, not far from our campground.

Silas learning to skip (and throw) stones.

Uncle Abe brings mountain goat from Utah.

Trying to keep babies, odors and bears separate.

Highline Trail from Going to the Sun Road.

Fire Detour #1

Day 5: Eureka to Kalispell (60.6 miles)

Originally, we had planned a 90-some mile day from Eureka to Whitefish, heading back into the mountains and the Flathead River, but forest fires southeast of Eureka had closed portions of the route.

Instead, David and Anna contacted some friends of friends, who lived just north of Kalispell (south of the official route) and who were gracious enough to host us; so off we went for Kalispell.

For the first 12 miles from Eureka, we followed the GDMBR from town along a minor road that ran south parallel to US93. We then joined US93, and shortly ahead where the GDMBR turned east and headed for the mountains—and a fire related road closure—we continued on US93. Certainly not the most entertaining riding of the trip, but we made good time.

At one point, when US93 turned east toward Whitefish before going back south toward Kalispell, we cut the corner on KM Ranch road. Eventually, we were back on US93 for a short while—and in riding in rain for the first time on the trip—before reaching our friends’ contacts, Barb and Jerry, thankful for the hospitality of relative strangers and the prospects of warm beds and warm showers.

A Slog, but We Made It

Day 4: Butts Cabin to Eureka (73 miles)

Today was easily our hardest day, to date—nearly our longest in terms of distance, with two significant climbs.

Thankfully, we were able to get off to an early start, but three days in and just getting my touring legs (and touring butt—I was starting to develop some major saddle-sore) under me, riding was slow going.

We started the day climbing to the top of Cabin Pass, where we were rewarded with some of the nicest views we’d seen all trip—majestic mountains on all sides of a narrow, flower-carpeted alpine valley.

A steep descent took us down a tighter valley and past a backcountry homestead on our way to Wigwam River.

After a quick jaunt on a dirt road heading south, we crossed to the west side of the Wigam River, on a dirt track for non-motorized vehicle use. From here, we climbed away from the river and traveled south, ascending away from and descending to a number of mountain brooks that fed into the Wigwam River.

Shortly before arriving back at the Wigwam River, we headed right on a narrow single track that ran south, parallel to the river. The fun ended when we reached an extremely steep section of trail that ran straight up ahead of us—up we went, pushing our bikes, hoping that they didn’t push us back down over the hill.

The hike-a-bike section was, thankfully, soon over, and we were back on a double track gravel road, which eventually intersected a road that took us up, slowly, 2500 feet to the top of Galton Pass. We bombed down the other side, descending 3000 feet in about 6 miles, before continuing, exhausted, to the USA/Canada border at Roosville and on to Eureka.