SEPTEMBER 2, DAY 1 Ridge of the Rockies Ride (and "unofficial" days 1-3 August 30-Sept 1 on pre-event preparation)

AUGUST 30 (un-offical day 1) . Arrived and put bike together, always takes longer then you think. Went to bed early, but excited to start this journey I trained so hard for!

AUGUST 31 (un-official day 2) 5 of the Pac Tour riders  had decided the night before that we would ride to West Glacier Park and back about 75 miles. We left at 7:00 AM and  arrived at the park entrance at 9:30 am, biked some of the park and headed back to Kalispell at 10:30 am planning on stopping for lunch on the way back. Much to our surprise the wind increased to about 20mph and unfortunately it was  a head wind. Just as soon as that happened it started to rain (same system that hit seattle the day before) by now what began as a easy training ride became a very challenging ride as we were in the rain and wind for the next two hours!  Needless to say by the time we got back to Kalispell we were cold and very tired. We had a great day though and loved every minute of it. 

I AM LIVING THE DREAM!!!

KALISPELL, MT to BUTTE, MT : 148 MILES 

SEPTEMBER 1 (un-official day 3)
Four of the five people from yesterday's ride decided that we had so much fun the day prior  that we would go back to Glacier National Park and ride  to Logan pass. Its a  35 mile ride to the pass with an elevation gain off 5,000 feet in 32 miles. We took a shuttle service to the park entrance left our motel at 6:00 am and were on the road  riding by 7:00.  It was still  dark . The temperature was a chilly 48, but ok  for biking if dressed properly. The first 20 miles were very flat with only a 500 feet of elevation gain, then the real climb started;  in the next 12 miles we gained 4,600 feet with an grade of 6 to 10 percent (similar to cayuse pass on Mt  Rainier) with about a mile to the summit we were completely embedded  in the clouds and our visibility was reduced to 50 feet or less. It was getting super cold and we were very wet from sweating that clim!  At the summit (6450  feet) the temp had dropped to 38 and the wind was blowing 20 plus mph.

We could not ride down the mountain as bikes are not allowed in the park after 11 am and it was close to 10 am by now, so we shuttled back down to the park entrance (free) however we needed a shuttle bus with a bike rack so we waited, freezing and wet  just short of one hour. By the time we got back to the park entrance the temp had gone up to a nice 71! We had a great lunch and dessert homemade blueberry pie biked back to Kalispell for total of 70 miles. 

Living the dream!  My Lesson learned from the last  two days is this time off year WEATHER CAN AND WILL DO ANYTHING! 

SEPTEMBER 2, DAY 1  Today marked the  OFFICIAL START  and DAY 1 of Ridge of the Rockies ride put on by Pac Tours. www.pactour.com . It's  a very mountainous ride with long climbs and deep desents! I have trained all year for this event having logged over 8,000 training miles to be sure I can do it! There are  31 riders, I learned I am the oldest rider here! There are  10 support people and they do a great job… but, more about them later. Today's ride started in Kallispell, MT  and ended in Missoula (151 miles) distance of Seattle to Vancouver B.C. The weather was perfect. Cold in the morning but 75 by mid afternoon, the wind was a factor but tolerable the skies were a deep blue with puffy white clouds.in the last 3 days we have sighted 5 brown bears. Tomorrow we are headed to Butte Montana 137 miles. 
Today's miles 151
Total miles 300 ridden so far
Today's climb 4500 ft 

SUSAN CALDERMAN ; Co-owner PAC TOURS 

Total climb. 11000 ft. 

Felt really good… ALL OF MY TRAINING IS PAYING OFF!