Visiting Glacier, part 2

Another pass, another rainy day.  We rode 55 miles from West to East Glacier, over Marias Pass, which is the lowest crossing point of the Continental Divide in Montana.  After Stevens Pass and Thompson Pass, we found this one almost easy.  Given that the day was wet and chilly, I was welcoming the uphill stretches, as they warmed me up.

East Glacier is very different from West Glacier, fewer big, fancy motels and more hiker hostels.  We are staying at something in between, a motel made up of individual cabins which I can't quite date.  Someone commented that the shower felt like being in a big tin can.  Hot water is plentiful, which is more important.

Today is a rest day.  In addition to doing laundry, cleaning my bike, re-organizing my gear, and relaxing a bit, I switched to a new mode of transportation and took a trail ride up into the hills for a couple of hours.  It was nice to let the horse do the work going up hill.

I've driven across the Divide, hiked it, and ridden a horse across it.  This was the first time on a bike.  

East Glacier village is on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Spotted Bear looks like an Indian pony and may well be one, as the outfitter is run by a Blackfeet family.  The patriarch of the family told me about being taken to a boarding school for eight years as a child, where his braids were cut off, and he was forbidden to speak his language.  When I asked how he felt about that, he was quite philosophical and said that the closest school to his parents house was 35 miles away.  If he had lived at home, he would have had no education.  Quite a life.