Part Five - Waterton to Whitefish via Glacier National park - The "going to the Sun" highway.
Get comfy - Lots of pics in this episode...

Awoke in Waterton to a beautiful day, bid farewell to our still-smirking clerk, and headed towards what was to be one of the highlights of our trip. Crossed the border back into the U.S., no hassles, no issues, except as I was waiting for my partners to go through the checkpoint, I felt an uncomfortable sensation on my right forearm - Ow! I put down the kickstand and proceeded to do the, " There's a bee in my jacket " dance. Stubborn thing too, clinging to the mesh. I got her, though.

Cruising in the sunshine, in this pic you can see the Chatterbox mounted on the left side of the helmet. They'd work for about 2-3 hours, then be useless. By the end of the trip we simply went without, relying on good old hand signals.

Just after paying the park fee, the road follows this little lake for a while...

Before beginning to climb up the sides of the valley...

Traffic was heavy here, so I simply hung out, cruised, and took pics instead of trying to make time or challenge the road. Hence the many photos. Scenery...

Everywhere..

Third shot, third direction, bike positions are unchanged...

Climbing higher. Picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture of... It was around this area where the advantages of a neck strap illuminated....

BIG grin and a thumbs up. Wonder why?...

My baby...

According to some fellow bikers we met, this road had only recently reopened due to huge landslides. Several places were like this, waterfalls running down onto the road...

This was by far the ugliest, though. The muddy rock and gravel carrying stream spewed onto the road, coating the bikes and making me nervous, as there were recently deposited decent sized rocks lying on the pavement, making me wonder if I'd have to test the impact resistance of my helmet as I rode on through. No worries, though...

Nearing the top...

Looking back the way we came...

After a quick break at the top with it's packed visitor center, we continued on, descending down the pass. The roadway...

Poor scenery, terrible weather...

Still at a cruising pace as traffic was heavy, I continued taking pics...

Imagine being Lewis and Clark and seeing this landscape laid out in front of you...

Was it much work to put a road through here?

Look at the scenery! Stay on the road! But look at the scenery! Just stay on the road! (My internal monologue.)

Saw a lot of these buses. My riding bud said he'd seen a docu on them, they actually were the original bodies of the first buses over the pass, the fleet has been updated with new frames and drivetrains. Windowless, every one was full of smiling gawking tourists. Pretty cool way to sightsee without the monologue above.

I think it was pretty impossible to take a bad shot here.

The boys...

Just one of the many valleys...

Stepped waterfall. This one had it's own under-roadbed drain installed, though.

Roadwork. They get in the cage, go over the side, and do their thing. "It puts the lotion in the basket!" Just past here I turned off the engine, put it in nuetral, and coasted most of the way down, until I had to start it to get around some traffic. Had so much fun I turned around and did the section again heading uphill. When I passed the guys coming down, I turned around again and got to play catch up one more time. Nice road.

Tunnels. I like pulling in the clutch and revving here, listening to the motor echoing off the walls. Juvenile? Hell yeah.

Got to the valley floor, ended up following a river for a bit. Around a bend, there was a pulloff area with 30 cars and bikes, people lounging in the river and on the rocks. We stopped, I found a way down, and put my feet in. Glacial meltwater is cold! But it felt good after a day in my still slightly damp boots. Apologies to any fish I killed with the toxic runoff.

The bikes, resting. Are you used to it yet? Bikes and scenery? More to come.

Pretty. Two guys were leaping off the rounded rock face in the pic center, I don't know how they dealt with the cold shock. We met a few riders here as we were gearing up, one a Texan living in Seattle, just like my bud. Everyone happy, friendly, helpful. The biker culture, once you step out of the suburbs/cities where "image" is a big part of riding, most are just happy people.

Followed a lakeshore out of the park. Smooth pavement, sweeping turns, nice. My detector picked up the one cop long before we passed, but it was superfluous as we were in cruise mode anyway. We were headed for Kalispell, which was a bigger city on the map, but three separate people had told us to go to Whitefish instead. They were right.

More boring scenery...

Saw this and had to take a shot. Huge. I didn't know if it was tacky or cool. When this happens, I just choose. It's cool.

The view from the hotel in Whitefish. Air conditioning is a wonderful thing. Met some Harley dudes in the lot, one ended coming out to a bar with us( Another Texan!). They were headed north in the am, to ride the road we just did. We ended up giving them our park passes, we talked for an hour or so in the lot about the harley vs sportbike thing, it was all good.