Early May: A little route checking.

(David)

My last surviving uncle who I was pretty close to, died this past Friday.  Born in 1929, John Hoover Wiegand had a good, full life and was a pretty successful Wheat & Barley - yes, malting barley - farmer.  As such, the Wiegand homestead is still going strong after 100+ years of dryland grain farming.  This is where I spent my summers growing up, and learned how to drive truck at 12 - long before my city peers.  😉
I have many, many fond memories of this place and this man;  R.I.P. Uncle John.

My Grandparents original 12x15' Homestead. [click to enlarge]

I made arrangements to fly in to Great Falls Montana, rent a car, and drive up.  But this also presented an opportunity to scout out some of the roads we would be travelling in about a month (around the beginning of the 2nd week of June).    I was concerned about the amount of shoulder and short sight lines on these 2 lane highways, and wanted to refresh my memory.

Our route options from Glacier to Shelby

Some of this hinges on whether or not Logan Pass (the high point of "Going to the Sun Road") through the heart of Glacier National Park will even by open by then - but if it's not, we'll simply divert south of the park and take Highway 2, which has decent shoulders and easy grades.

As I drove north on US-89, my memories were confirmed - little to no shoulder in spots, and the rolling hills presented some blind spots just over the crests of them.  In some places the sightlines weren't as much of an issue, though:

I drove as far up US-89 as where we would be camping our first night out of the park, and got a good view of the eastern slopes of the still very snowy mountains of Glacier Park.  At this lower altitude (from my vantage point), there were still snowbanks lingering too!

Another memory that was confirmed: the WIND!!  Omigosh it blows here in the foothills!  Fortunately for us, it will be primarily a TAILWIND (good), with some occasional crosswinds (not as fun), but very little if any of the dreaded Headwinds. 😄

It was fortunate to get this preview of our ride to come, and sobering really, at the scale of it all.  Today in 3 hours I drove what will take us 3 days or more to traverse...  Lots of time to enjoy the scenery, for sure.