Day 8 July 7, 2014

An overnight rain did no damage to the sturdy Eureka tent or covered motorcycle, and the partly cloudy morning turned into another warm, blue sky, puffy-cloud Summer day in northwestern Montana.

A visit to the ranger station at St. Mary Campground in Glacier National Park's eastern entrance, confirmed that I was being booted out of my present camp site and had to relocate to a different site at the opposite end of the campground.  After a nice hot shower,  I ferried the tent and all my camping gear via motorcycle to the new site and reset the tent; I convinced a friendly neighbor to drop off my blown up air mattress at the new camp site #C 119 for me.  After a super lunch at a café in St. Mary, I took off for my long-awaited tour of the Going to the Sun Road, a 50-mile roadway traversing Glacier National Park from east to west. 

There are no words in the English language to adequately convey the scope, grandeur, and magnificence of Glacier and especially, the views along the Going to the Sun Road. 

When I reached West Glacier, the western end of the road, I went into the visitor center and was suddenly struck in an emotionally surprising way as I soaked up what I had just experienced- I was lucky enough to have a perfect ride, on the best motorcycle human hands ever built for such a day, with perfect weather, with the support of a beautiful, wonderful, understanding and forgiving wife, a stable job situation that allowed me one full month to fulfill a dream, and to do it all in good health.  I became a bit weepy and brushed away more than a couple of tears before remounting the K 75 and heading back along the same road east bound to my campsite in St. Mary.  Back in the campground, I did laundry, made a freeze-dried dinner for myself, and quickly rushed off to a ranger program talking about the necessity of fire as part of the cycle of growth in forested areas of national parks.  This was surely a day to remember forever.