Biking from Seattle to Glacier National Park
More than a little bit has happened since I last blogged at the end of my 2019 cross-country bicycling trip. Personally, I have had surgery on my right knee to repair a torn meniscus. Also, I developed a blood clot in my left calf that took many months to fully dissolve. Globally, the pandemic shut down travel for a long time. However, I am finally off for another biking adventure. This time, I will be biking from Seattle Washington to Glacier National Park in Montana. I will try to post daily.
Above, you can see my bike bag and suitcase in the car as I get ready to fly to Seattle. Already the trip has been a bit of an adventure. Yesterday afternoon, I received a text from Delta saying that my morning non-stop flight to Seattle was cancelled. I was being offered a trip with a 5-hour layover and airline change in Newark. That left me scrambling since changing airlines is a big risk when bringing my bike. I was able to purchase the second to last ticket on Jet Blue's nonstop flight for today. Unfortunately, it does not arrive until 9:45pm pacific time. By the time I get to my room in my hotel in Seattle, I expect it will be around 11:30. At that point, I will need to reassemble my bike so that it is ready to go at 7:30 tomorrow morning. It is going to be a very long day.
Our bicycle trip will be 9 days excluding the travel at the beginning and end of the trip. After 5 days of riding, we will have one rest day before completing the remaining 3 days. Overall, we should cover about 700 miles during our 8 riding days. Tomorrow, we will be shuttled northeast of Seattle to Snohomish where we begin riding north/northeast to Marblemount. This will be about 80 miles of mostly flat riding. However, on Tuesday, we will turn east and bike over the Cascade Mountains.
I will be joined on this trip by 3 fabulous friends: Doug, Jesse and Ruth. Doug is the husband of one of our bridesmaids, and Jesse and Ruth are my most frequent bicycling travel companions. The 4 of us have ridden together in the past multiple times, mostly throughout New England. However, in 2018, we all rented a house in Gordes France for a week. Here is a photo from that trip with Doug in the lead followed by Jesse then Ruth. I am anticipating a fabulous trip.
As I look forward to 2023, I have signed up to bike across the country starting next August, this time a northern route from the coast west of Portland OR to Portland ME. Jesse and Ruth have also signed up for this trip. Biking across the country with them should be awesome.