Our Longest Ride for a Bear Claw

Inside North Fork Road

Our annual trip to Glacier National Park came during some incredible weather. At least it started out with bright blue skies once we were well past the Canyon Ferry fire. Yes, it is once again fire season in Montana. The summer had been fairly cool with clear skies until the end of last week when a fire started northwest of Bozeman. On our way to Glacier National Park the hazy skies got quite a bit worse until we were well north of the area. Our fingers were crossed that the Park would be mostly clear of the smoky skies. We were lucky...sunny skies for much of our week. Although it did hit the mid-90's during the day our evenings cooled to the mid-50's which was quite pleasant. 

We decided to do our big bike ride on Day 1 along the Inside North Fork Road. It is a beautiful ride on a gravel & dirt road. The last few years it has been closed to cars for bridge work. The Ranger claimed all the bridge work had been completed from Logging Creek to Quartz Creek & the road was completely open to bikes. A decision was made that we'd see if we could ride to the North Fork Entrance Station and make our way to the Polebridge Mercantile for a bear claw...honestly more like multiple bear claws. 

Cindi on the road

In the past we've left our Fish Creek campsite and rode along the Inside North Fork Road until we'd had enough then turn back toward camp. Last year we rode ~15 miles before discovering a group of riders with a flat tire & no gear to fix it...which still seems dumb to us to be so unprepared. After Bill fixed their tire for them we rode for another 2 miles or so before turning back to camp. Wish we'd known just how close we'd come to the North Fork Ranger Station we may have pushed all the way to Polebridge, MT. 

Bill at Anaconda Creek

This year we started the bike ride at the 1st gate closure at Camas Creek. It shaved ~16 miles off what would have been a pretty long 56-mile bike ride. Neither of us thought a 56-miler was something we wanted to try that far out in the wilderness. It turned out to be ~20 miles to Polebridge Mercantile & another 20 miles back to the truck...our longest ride to date at 40 miles. When we reached the Ranger Station we stopped to make sure that if we rode out that we could return to the entrance without the pass required for cars/motorcycles. She assured us that yes we could ride back in & get back on the road to camp...thank goodness since the other road has a good deal more traffic & is exposed to the hot sun.

The Mountains at Polebridge, MT

Wouldn't you know that we ran into road construction over the last mile from the Ranger Station to Polebridge...you could smell the bear claws, but had to wait for the pilot car to get the bear claw. An unexpected surprise waited for us when we finally got to the Merc...the sign behind the counter said 'if you've hiked or biked ask for special'. Bill asked about it, but was told it was for those from Whitefish, MT to Polebridge, MT...47 mile hike one way, wow! 

After eating our fruit fritter & the BEST flathead cherry chocolate bear claw a decision was made to get a huckleberry claw. As luck would have it I mentioned we'd biked 20+ miles and needed another claw to insure we had enough energy for the return 20-mile ride back to camp. She asked if I had received my free fritter for biking to Polebridge! Ahhh, no...so in addition to the huckleberry bear claw we got our free fritter. If only Bill had gotten his we would've been in a huckleberry food coma!

North Fork of the Flathead River

It took quite a while to get through the construction zone on the return trip back to the North Fork Entrance...thirty minutes passed at the end of a long line of cars before we could enter the gate. Funny thing was out of the huge line of cars only 2 had the proper passes to actually enter the gate. Waited all that time in the construction zone and then were turned back...poor Ranger had to keep explaining that passes were required & they must turn around. Evidently no one paid any attention to the requirements for pass entry. Thankfully we were able to enter on bikes to continue our ride back to camp.

Curious white-tail doe

One does get a bit nervous along this road in those sections when you spot fresh bear scat along the road, but we didn't actually 'see' any bears. Managed to spot a white-tailed deer who was pretty curious and spent some time watching us. Otherwise we just heard various birds singing...warblers, thrushes, & western tanagers. A western tanager flew right in front of us & disappeared into the woods. Early in the ride a pileated woodpecker passed overhead. Otherwise nothing but wildflowers along the roadside.

The Inside North Fork Road crosses several creeks... Dutch, Anaconda, Logging & Quartz Creeks. As you head toward each creek the downhill was quickly followed by a rise in elevation. In some cases quite substantially for over a mile give or take five. Proving yet again why I LOVE MY E-BIKE! We both used the full power on the elevation climb from Anaconda Creek heading back to camp...a very long & hot climb especially after you've been riding 30 miles. The last climb out of Dutch Creek wasn't quite as long, but we still had to use "more power"...because we could & by that time we'd hit 37 miles of riding. Our bottoms were kind of 'over it' too!

Thinking tomorrow will be a Going-to-the-Sun-Road driving day...if I can manage to snag a pass so we don't have to get on the road before 6:00 AM.

Stats for this ride: Distance- 40.04 miles, Moving time- 3:47, Total time- 5:48, Calories- 696 calories per Specialized/1718 calories per Fitbit, Elevation Gain- 3593 feet, Elevation Loss- 3471 feet, Battery Used: 84%, Average Speed- 10.6 mph. Max Speed- 21.0 mph, Average Cadence- 68 rpm, Max Cadence- 118 rpm. 

Fireweed

Sasquatch at Polebridge Mercantile

Orange hawkweed