Total miles biked: 20
Total miles to date: 2456
We decided to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast. We cooked in the hostel and somehow several hours later we had not gone anywhere or done anything and it actually felt nice. We managed to agree on a plan and motivated ourselves to bike towards the Glacier National Park entrance. We came to a group agreement that we were not interested in paying the park fee for a couple hours of riding around. The cost for a hiker/biker is $12, so for the three of us it would have cost us $36 to get in the park. They charge $25 per vehicle so it would have been cheaper if we were in a car together. We thought we would bend the system and flagged down a truck one mile outside of the gate. When our new friend agreed to get us in the gate with threw our bikes in the back of his boat, jumped in the truck and rode a couple of miles and escaped the steep entrance fee. For the record, we support and do not mind paying entrance fees but we were only going to be in the park for a couple of hours and we thought we could think of better ways to spend $36.
Biking with my two girls, on a sunny day, with perfect temperature, with only a handful of visitors (as this was the first day of the season for this park entrance to be open) in such a glorious park is impossible to describe. The lakes, rivers, steep walls and intimidating mountains all around us brought smiles to us all around! After a 20 mile bike ride without Bob Sr, Jr. and Baby Bob we made it back to our hostel and cooked a quick and healthy lunch.
After lounging and again discussing our afternoon plan to death we pulled ourselves together and went for a hike. The four mile hike we went on was the most I had walked in 49 days. (The following morning my walking muscles even felt a little sore). The walk was short and quick, but memorable because of the beauty of the scenery. When we returned to the hostel we sat on the porch and shared a beer between the three of us, showered up and headed to town for dinner.
The con of traveling with more than 1 person: Looking back on this story we three girls find quite a bit of humor in our evening behavior, but at the time we all three grew increasingly frustrated with one another. We chose to eat out instead of cooking because we thought it would be easier to decide on a place than to decide what to cook and what ingredients to buy etc. You would think with 4 restaurant options how difficult could it be for three girls to pick a place. Nearly an hour and a half later after visiting all 4 restaurants, and some even twice Gretchen finally spoke up and said, "I know I don't want to eat at Serranos." Nicole and I said, "Great, then you need to decide where we are eating." She responds, "But, I don't want to make the decision." For the second time that evening Nicole walked into the Main Street Grill, seated herself and made the decision we would eat there unbeknownst to Gretch and I. Gretchen and I continued to discuss outside the grill and we came up with the decision to eat at the Lodge. When Gretchen and I walked into the grill to look for Nicole, we saw her seated reviewing the menu and she said, "I have decided this is where we are eating!" At the same time Gretchen and I informed her that we had decided on the Lodge. I know this story was a bit dragged out, but you can only imagine how many times this type of scenario happened over the week with these two girls. Nicole won and we ate at the grill.
It was a sad night because Nicole got into our biggest fight that night. We argued about money which is an important and tricky component when traveling with others. We had a long heart to heart and finally worked things out, but it is the nature of the best. We love each other dearly, but just like relationships, they do not always operate as smooth as butter. The three of us turned in early that night because we made plans to wake up early to tackle a big day of riding the following day.
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