Lethbridge Viaduct, Second Attempt, 11-12 Jun 2023

Having failed to reach my objective last September, it was an easy choice where to plan my first (and probably only) long bike ride for this year. This time, I had the luxury of an entire week to spend riding, if I so desired. This made it possible to stop in the Waterton Lakes Park on the way, and trim the aggressive 120 miles per day to a more manageable 80.

My initial plan was to stop at the Waterton Park Village after my first and third days riding, spending the second night in Lethbridge. I found that train fares were going to be cheaper if I left on Sunday, with the added bonus that going through Portland on the outbound leg would save me $50. I was happy to accept, so I could have the experience of riding the train up the Columbia River valley.

For my night in Lethbridge, I ended up booking a room at Enid's Bed and Breakfast -- the place I had had to cancel on my ill-fated trip last fall. I left open my lodgings for the return, considering a number of factors that might prevent me from staying in the same place on Wednesday night. Foremost of these was my biking fortitude, since I have been biking less during the past year than I would have. Concern for how Clifford would handle being left alone made me work from home most of the time.

With that all set, it was finally time to pour the sealant into the new tubeless tires I'd put on my touring bike. I wanted to ride on them for a couple of days to prove their road-worthiness, before taking them on the planned 320-mile ride. Checking the weather, I also found that rain was predicted during the week of my ride, so I spent a good part of Saturday the 10th moving the fenders over from my winter bike. I also packed extra clothing to ensure that I could stay warm in wet mountain weather. This caused my load to spill over from the usual trunk-only configuration to trunk-plus-backpack.

When I bought my train ticket, I was told that I would need to put my bike in a box and send it along as checked baggage. That later turned out to be untrue, but a condition that could not be counted on. I was given to understand that the Coast Starlight would not have a baggage car containing bike racks, and that was true up to a point. The National Park volunteer on board informed me that Amtrak has been experimenting with omitting the baggage car on some trains, using a lower compartment to store baggage instead. In the end, the train filled up to the point that they needed a baggage car anyway.

The Coast Starlight

Before boarding, I was assigned a seat. I could have figured that Seat 3 -- being neither 0 nor 1 modulo 4 -- was not a window seat, and asked for a different one. But that thought occurred to me to late to act upon it. No matter: As soon as the train was under way, I moved to the lounge car and stayed there for the trip to Portland.

In the lounge car, I sat across from a National Park Service volunteer, who was providing the Rails and Trails presentation that day. In addition to learning from him about the baggage car experiments, I also found out that two of the 3 people who had been killed in the DuPont Amtrak crash in 2017 had been good friends of his.

I was joined some grad students attending Berkeley who were traveling together.  The young man is studying Chemistry and the young lady English Literature (IIRC). They were riding the train down to Oakland, for the experience (their first time), so I indicated points of interest along the way, and also told them what to expect continuing south from Portland.

I met the National Park Service volunteer again, as I waited to photograph the Coast Starlight leaving the station. He told me that there were Navy ships tied up along the waterfront and gave directions on how to reach there. I went to see what I could see, but found it was not that exciting.

I had initially thought about spending my layover in Portland looking for takeout food that I could use for dinner on the train. But just before leaving home, I made two large sandwiches to use up some bread, so that concern was covered. Instead, I decided to visit a bike shop and see if I could buy some booties for my cleats, to make it easier to walk around -- on the train and later. I hiked first along the waterfront and then into the center of Portland, to a Trek bicycle shop.

Coast Starlight leaving Portland

They didn't have the booties I described. (Yes, for other kinds of cleats, but not for mine.) So I requested a junk inner tube that I could cut up and use to improvise a solution. After leaving the shop, I did just that, but my first attempt survived only a few blocks, Back at the train station, I came up with an alternate design. One of my makeshift booties lasted for most of the train ride out to East Glacier; what remained of it went into the trash there (along with the rest of the tube).

Lift Bridge across the Willamette River

About 20 minutes before the train was due to depart, I went into the station and found that boarding had not yet started. I concluded that the one agent at the desk was the only staff allocated to the tasks of issuing or changing tickets at the last minute, and of overseeing the boarding process. Signs indicated that the ticket desk closes 10 minutes ahead of departure, so I had a pretty good idea when boarding would start. 

 

Mount Hood

A number of people had started to congregate near the boarding door, and I found myself near the front of the line. It turned out to be open seating, so I had my pick. I determined that the best views would be from the left side of the train, so there I sat -- in the last row of seats in that car.At the start of the trip from Portland eastward, the train backtracks north to Vancouver WA. It then heads up to Columbia River on the north bank. The National Park Service guide said that there used to be a train called the Pioneer, that ran along the south bank, but that train has been discontinued.

Vista House at Crown Point

Multnomah Falls

Starting eastward, there were views of Mount Hood, which I tried to catch out of the train window. I also knew to expect views of the Vista House at Crown Point, and of Multnomah Falls on the south bank. The train kept moving through stands of trees, so it was hard to get a clear view. I ended up taking many shots, randomly timed, and then deleting the ones that contained just foliage whisking past the train windows.

Bridge of the Gods

 Between the bridge at Cascade Locks and Hood River, we overtook a freight train on the opposite bank. At Hood River, there was a nice view of Mount Hood that I was able to capture. As we passed close by Miller Island, I though its terrain and vegetation representative of the general surroundings.

I had expected the train to continue east along the Snake River after passing through Pasco. That would have taken us up the Palouse River valley next to Palouse Falls. Instead, the train headed north out of Pasco, roughly following the route of US 395. That route is relatively boring, and it was getting dark as well. 

After the train joined with with the segment coming from Seattle, the seat next to me remained empty. I able to snooze a bit, and finally woke at dawn as we were approaching the Flathead Tunnel.

As soon as it was open, I visited the cafe and bought coffee. A short time later, the diner car opened, so I went there for breakfast. I was seated with an elderly couple from New Orleans, who told me of their adventures touring the country by motorcycle. The breakfast quesadilla I was served was very large, so I said to myself that it would serve for both breakfast and lunch.

As we breakfasted, the train came to a stop. On the intercom, the train crew announced that a freight train had reported some rough track in the tunnel. They were waiting for an inspection car to come up from Whitefish and make sure it was safe to proceed. We concluded that we would sit there for about 2 hours.

The delay was only about an hour and a half, and the train pulled into East Glacier a little after 11. After I got the bike assembled, the station was already closed up, so I went across to the Glacier Park Lodge to fill up my water bottles. The weather was beautiful, with a clear blue sky and a light breeze and a temperature in the high 60s.

MT 49 at Jct. US 89

Just past the turnoff for Two Medicine Lake, MT 49 had a Road Closed sign and Jersey barriers across the road way. At that point, I was already almost 2 hours behind -- with the amount of time it had taken me to assembly my bike -- and concerned about arriving in Waterton Lakes while the motel office was still open, I really didn't want to make the 40-mile detour -- backtracking to East Glacier and then riding east to pick up US 89 in Browning.

So, I passed the barriers and went on. I was familiar with Looking Glass Road from previous trips. On the north slope, there are many places where the road cuts into a rock face. I figured that there were some rock slides that had closed the roadway, but figured that I could pick my way among the boulders -- carrying my bike if I had to.

About a mile up the road, I was passed by a front-loader and then by a backhoe. I looked inquiringly at the drivers as they passed, hoping that they would stop and tell me about the conditions that lay ahead (especially if there was a place that would have been impassible. But the drivers just smiled and drove on by. I took that to be a good sign, but I still had concerns that the bridge near Kiowa might be washed out. There was nothing to do but press on.

When I got to the exposed rock faces, I could see where the heavy machinery had been at work clearing fallen rocks off the roadway. The evidence suggested that they'd had heavy rains in the area recently, and that had caused some minor landslides. There were half a dozen places where the road had been cleared.

I used the brakes almost constantly on the downgrade -- regulating my speed in case I should come across some debris that had not yet been cleared. But I finally was able to conclude that the two machines were on their way back to the shops, having just completed their work a short time before I arrived. The "bridge" that I had recalled being on the road just before the junction with US 89 turned out to be just a cattle guard. That put me 14 miles closer to my destination shortly after noon. I took a picture of the barricades at the junction, to prove that I'd successfully navigated the closed roadway.

As I made my way northward, I remembered going that way with Brian in 2018. I recall that we walked a lot -- including on sections where the new alignment had not yet been paved. Still, it seemed like a longer distance than I recalled. My estimation of Brian's stamina went up by a notch or two. It is true that the new alignment has steeper slopes to reach St. Mary with a shorter roadway. But since a biker has limited output power, the travel time is about the same. (My first trip that way was on the old alignment, except for a section they had regraded just north of the junction with MT 49.)

I stopped only briefly in St. Mary, and continued on to Babb. There, I stopped at the general store and asked to have my water bottles filled. Continuing on, there was a slight breeze from the west, but it was not enough to impede my progress.

Turning on to MT 17, I stopped to hydrate and apply sunscreen. I was heading right into the afternoon sun, and the temperature had climbed into the 70s. MT 17 "the International Peace Parkway" does quite a bit of climbing. I was feeling the altitude as well as the heat as I made my way toward the border. I was still concerned about arriving in Waterton Park early enough to get dinner, so I was pushing myself a bit. In a few spots, as I crested a hill, I started hyperventilating from exhaustion. I had to stop and get off my bike on the downgrade to make sure I didn't faint.

The last mile to the border is a steep downhill, so I coasted up to the Border Station. I presented my Nexus card, but there was something wrong with it. So the border agent asked me to go inside so she could figure it out. Eventually, she found that the card had never been activated (though I'm almost sure I performed that step). I refilled my water bottles and went on.

The next couple miles are also a steep downgrade, which restored some of my strength. After following the Belly River for a few miles, the road (now AB 6) climbs over a ridge and drops down into the Waterton River Valley. Passing into the Park, a sign indicated that I had only 9.9km to go. "I can do this." The ranger mentioned that all of the hiking trails in the park were closed, since heavy rains over the weekend had caused extensive landslides. This confirmed my observation that it had rained a lot recently.

I checked into the motel, found a cafe and had my dinner and then returned to the motel. I slept until 7 the next morning.