Travellers’ tales: Prairies, parks and peaks

Where: United States
Who: Steve Carr
When: Summer 2024

It had been a hot day of cycling in Illinois, with high humidity and a boiling sun. Along with my friend Guy, I was slumped in the shade outside a huge Walmart in Kewanee. My phone said it was partially shutting down due to the heat.

A tornado warning then appeared, recommending a building’s lowest floor or basement for safety. We opted for a one-storey cheap motel and watched the storm darken and build. Cycling in ‘tornado alley’, part of our Northern Tier route across the northern states of the USA, was living up to its name.

Cyclists that we met as we headed west enthused about the Glacier National Park in Montana. They also mentioned meeting bears, the park being known for its grizzlies. The route follows Going-to-the-Sun Road, named after the eponymous, 9,647ft mountain.

We climbed Logan Pass (6,646ft), amazed by the rock walls rising sheer out of huge forests, topped by glaciers stretching between summits. We saw only one large bear.

Traffic slowed down, we stopped and away into the undergrowth it plodded, heading towards Saint Mary Lake. Given the traffic levels, being a grizzly in Glacier looked challenging.

From there to the Pacific is still almost 1,000 miles. Our final col was a classic climb: the Washington Pass (5,477ft). At the summit the temperature fell to 7ºC. At Rainy Pass, just after the Washington Pass, steady rain duly started. But it was downhill all the way to the blue water of Puget Sound.

You can read more on Steve’s blog, Wuthering Bikes.