Day 1: August 22, 2004
Warm-up: Two Medicine Lake, out and back
22.8 miles, 1,020 feet

Glacier National Park
2004

It all starts here on our first day. The guides met us at the Kalispell Grand Hotel for our private shuttle to Glacier Park Lodge.

After a private shuttle (1.5 hours), we arrived at the Glacier Park Lodge. Our group consisted of 15 riders and 3 guides. The participants and guides come from all over the North American continent: AZ, IL, CA, NY, NC, GA, VA, VT, TN, NJ, PA, WI, and TOR.

Introducing the Trek 5200 OCLV, our “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” We all gathered together after lunch for our first ride and to get familiarized with our bikes.

We are on our bikes heading to Two Medicine Lake after a brief period of hail and rain. Mountains are notorious for changing weather conditions. The Rockies of Glacier and Waterton National Parks are no exception.

Our route: straight up to the mountains and back.

The road at Two Medicine. We witnessed another change in weather condition in less than 20 minutes, this time: dry and sunny.

A view of the alpine mountains at Two Medicine.

Arriving at Two Medicine Lake with a view of Mount Sinopah. I tried to get adjusted to the altitude in Montana on our first ride. I definitely felt the strain of acclimatizing to an average altitude of 5,175 ft. on this ride.