BRO QUEST 2009

We made it to North Dakota.

The above photo was taken at a state line bar/casino by the lovely bartenders, who, in their effort to do a great job, totally overserved our greedy beer eyes/stomachs.

We basically celebrated another state about 20 miles too early and disaster soon followed.

The fellow in the CRAFT shirt is Zach, who has been riding with us since Saco, MT. Dude is genuinely cool as shit, and also just got his architecture degree (aaron, check him out). Unfortunately, upon exiting the bar/casino after too many drinks apiece, Zach realized that he had lost his tent poles somewhere in the last 25 miles... So he rode back and looked for them with only an hour left of daylight.

Bummer thing is he didn't find them and now has in his posession a pretty much useless MSR Hubba Hubba tent. I hope he can get his poles replaced. He got a ride to Willison, ND and is now couchsurfing with us. At least he isn't spending the night in the worst horde of mosquitos that I have EVER experienced (yes I've been to AK in the summer).

Anyways, we are going to try to leave ND in the dust like so many Twisted Tea glass shards.

Keep reading the blog folks, it's supposedly interesting.

-cameron

Starting just East of Glacier National Park, BROQUEST has encountered a large number of other touring cyclists, all totally awesome people. Here's a list of who we have met:

Russ, from Boston:
Russ is a former lawyer who now does web programming/design. Russ decided to ride from Vancouver to Portland, Maine. We met him at a campground in Browning, MT and helped him fix a tire. We were originally going to ride with him but it turns out he spins about 25 mph all the time and does like 100+ mile days, forever. Way more hardcore than us. Good luck, Russ!

Dave and Pat, from Louisiana:
We met Dave and Pat while riding from Browning to Cut Bank, and repeatedly ran into them over the course of three days. We camped with them in Shelby, MT, and Pat, a retired Psychiatrist, checked out Stuart's brain. Dave was a retired lawyer who currently manages a family manufacturing business, and is touring on a Trek Madone (an extremely high-end carbon fiber racing bike) and a one-wheeled BOB trailer.

Pat is a retired psychiatrist and also a serial entrepreneur, running several extremely interesting, extremely diverse business interests. Pat is on a Cannondale road bike also carrying a one-wheeled BOB trailer.

Interesting story: Pat and Bob were camping S of Glacier Park and their campsite got attacked by a bear! Pat's trailer got attacked by the bear but somehow escaped any damage. Pretty amazing. Pat and Dave were really funny guys, it was awesome running into them in towns across Montana.

Dave and Pat are also blogging their trip, the website is http://patanddavesbiketrip.blogspot.com They've got some interesting (and unusual in this day and age, extremely well-written) articles, if you're interested in reading other perspectives on cross-country touring or just interested in reading excellent prose, it's worth an hour or two.

The Canadians
In Shelby, MT, we met a group of four Canadian bicyclists who were riding from Edmonton to Guatemala, where they were planning on spending six months working in a free clinic that they help support with a charity they founded. It's always amazing to meet people who are spending their "wasteful" years for the betterment of humanity, especially when they are doing so on a larger-than-usual scale.

Their website and charity is located at http://pedal4pasos.com, and the work they have already done is ASTOUNDING--$10,000 raised last fall!

The Magnificent 7
While looking for a new tire for Cameron in Cut Bank, Stuart found an unattended touring rig with an Oklahoma flag. After searching the area liquor store (without success), Stuart found the owner in the neighboring Radio Shack--a lady from Stillwater, OK! She was riding with a group of 6 other cyclists, including three other cyclists from Oklahoma--two from Tulsa and one from Oklahoma City. They were a really fun crew, planning to pause their ride for a week to participate in RAGBRAI, a 20,000 person rolling bicycle party all the way around Iowa. They are blogging at http://c2c4500miles.blogspot.com, and they referred to us as athletic/racer types--we somehow convinced them we weren't out-of-shape blobs that decided to get our bike on!

Gordon and Dave, from Washington
Gordon and Dave were retired and from Washington. They were also in much, much better shape than we were and were traveling lighter. We met them in Cut Bank, camped with them in Shelby and then again in Havre. They were really awesome!

Zach, from Rhode Island
Last but not least, we met Zach in Havre, MT. We ran into him again that night in Malta, and then the next afternoon in Saco we ended up riding with him. After two days he isn't tired of our stench/profanity, and is crashing with us at a couchsurfing location in Williston, North Dakota. Zach decided to ride along the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route about 10 days prior to leaving, and will be returning to help teach at the Syracuse School of Architecture. Ace!

We've got photos/stories about these great people, will tell them when time permits!

Heading out of Glacier, we rolled through some pretty awful foothills (as mentioned) and ended up in Browning, which is on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. Browning was fairly chaotic, with lots of stray dogs and derelict buildings and not much economic activity/healthy lifestyle options. We also saw a gigantic bald man on an ATV (with snowplow attached) ride from the casino to the subway, presumably for a $5 footlong, talking on his bluetooth headset the whole while.

Welcome to the Rez.

Most of Montana (read: white people) warned us, repeatedly, about the rez. The warnings always took a sort of circumspect "I'm trying not to be a racist, but..." tone, with people telling us "x town is awfully sketchy, I wouldn't go there" etc. There was a lot of insinuation that basically every pale-face ever would be immediately scalped/eaten upon setting foot in an Indian Reservation, and pretty much even looking in the direction of a reservation after nightfall was an open invitation for a circle-the-wagons style raid.

As one might guess from the tone of the above post, most of Montana is full of bullshit re: reservations. The owner of SPORTS CLUB (see photos later) gave the only grounded-in-reality summation of the reservation situation, saying that "honestly it's not that bad, but some of the tribes don't really like white people, because honestly, we screwed them over. In any group of people you'll have one or two assholes that make everyone look bad, but everybody's just trying to live their lives."

The real problem on the Rez is the real problem in most troubled neighborhoods/ghettos: poverty. It has nothing to do with a culture's "moral superiority", "in-built work ethic" or their supposed genetic weakness towards alcohol/drugs--if you have a cloistered group of people of any ethnicity/culture and put them in an area void of gainful employment/avenues for economic advancement, you're going to get malnutrition, crime and violence. This has been proven time and again through both scientific and anecdotal studies. The only real solution is not enforced morality or increasingly severe laws, but economic opportunities. Deep down, everybody wants to own a home larger than they can afford filled with stuff they don't need--but everyone is willing to settle for less. The trick is to provide an engine for economic advancement that allows people to achieve anything at all, never mind the American dream.

Didn't mean to get too preachy, we're currently in North Dakota and getting close to wrapping up all the stuff that's happened in the preceding days for your reading enjoyment. Next blog post from me will be lighthearted fare concerning bike wrecks, mosquitos, beer, etc.

During the day, I sometimes listen to my Microsoft Zune on shuffle. Today, I'm going to let you know what comes up on my Zune when I play it.

1. Everything Counts (live): Depeche Mode
2. Protect Ya Neck: Wu-Tang Clan
3. 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong: Mogwai
4. Da Mystery Of Chessboxing: Wu-Tang Clan
5. I Gotcha Back: GZA
6. Dragonfly: Dead Meadow
7. Dirt Clot: Leechmilk
8. Hopeful Spiders: The Bananas
9. --: Isis
10. Good Friday: Why?
11. Doom-Mantia: Electric Wizard
12. Gung Ho: The Black Lips
13. Cody: Mogwai
14. A Sky for Shoeing Horses: Why?
15. Train Lady Blue: Pearls & Brass

So there you go, I told you what I listened to. I'm a complete asshole.

Up later:

-Gear reviews
-more photos
-Montana in retrospect
-A social critique of white Montana in respect to the Indian Reservations

BTW: WE ARE LEAVING MONTANA TODAY.

To expand upon the recap:

We got to Glacier National Park on Sat, June 20th. Glacier National Park sits on the Rockies and has a pass over the Great Divide at 6700 feet. The pass opened for hiker/biker usage on the morning on June 21st. Also, WE SAW A BEAR!

She was totally chillaxing, watching her cubs goof off in a tree. Which was a problem, because she was basically sitting on the bike path between our camp and the small base camp area where we planned to spend our afternoon.

We headed up towards Avalanche Creek campground with the intent to cross the pass early in the morning on Monday, June 22nd. At 10pm, it started raining. And it kept raining all night, and all next day. We sat in our tent for almost 30 hours. It finally stopped raining at dawn on Tuesday, June 23rd, and we headed for the pass. It was worth the day we burned waiting for the rain to stop:

When we got about 2 miles from the pass itself, the road was closed due to some construction on the other side. Since we had heard the pass was clear (and didn't want to take a detour), we pressed our luck, jumped the gate, and kept pedaling.

It was worth it: The landscape was breathtaking, and we cleared the pass at about 11:30am. Rolling down into the Eastern Rockies we got pulled over by Park Rangers, who gave us written warnings. Whoops!

After that we rode through a seemingly endless ruined forest/blasted grasslands over too many hills to count. Also, this kitten tried to adopt Pat and I:

We camped in Browning, which is a pretty rough town on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. I'll discuss that in my next post.

P.S. NOGGIN IS OK, I HAD ANOTHER TOURING CYCLIST WHO IS A BRAIN DOCTOR CHECK ME OUT. PLEASE TO QUIT WORRYING, OK?

US ACTUALLY CROSSING THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

BIG SKY COUNTRY: NO TREES, NO HILLS, JUST A LOT OF SKY TO LOOK AT. PS: IT'S GOTTEN WAY MORE DESOLATE SINCE THIS PHOTO

...ESSENTIALLY

To everyone that has been wondering what we have been up to, it has been the usual: riding bikes every day, breaking laws, drinking beer, and swiftly moving eastward.

We are hoping to make Minneapolis by July FOURTH, and if we do, we will BE EXTREMELY PATRIOTIC.

Until we hit another internet spot, just trust that we are living out your wildest dreams.

-broquest

WE SLEEP IN THIS THING

I know it's been like a thousand years since you heard from us, but I promise all is well. Except for the last 25 miles, which have been HELLRIDE--Cameron is riding on the world's shittiest tire and I might have a little bit of a concussion. We'll talk about that later. First, it's time to talk about...

GLACIERS!

Glacier National Park is in NW Montana and is quite possibly the most beautiful country I have ever seen. Though "Going To The Sun" Road is closed for all but three months (July to September), it is not to be missed. The west side climbs from a massive, greenery-filled glacial valley along ever-steeper mountains, eventually crossing waterfalls, hanging valleys and eventually plunging one into an alpine landscape of fog, snow and ice. Logan Pass sits at only 6600 feet, but looks like the North Pole. We're still trying to get pictures up and I apologize in advance for not being a great photographer.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about photography, mostly in the context of landscapes. It takes a truly great photographer to capture the "nothingness" in a landscape--the true eeriness of the countryside when one eliminates the foreground forces the viewer to project themselves into the space, and that's what makes photography an artform--not a stylized and/or idiosyncratic reproduction of a subject, but a reproduction in the viewer of a feeling or reaction to the subject that is presented. Ansel Adams is probably the most famous example of a photographer who could capture "nothing" with such drama and poignancy that it reduces some people to tears. Henri Cartier-Bresson was another, whose portraits can force an empathic bond between the viewer and a complete stranger.

Anyway, this isn't PHILBROSOPHY QUEST, so I'll just recap some quick stuff: Sat in a tent for 30 hours, illegally rode over Going To The Sun road, got busted by the Park Rangers, did not get tickets, rode on this narrow-ass windy-ass road bordered by young aspen groves, almost adopted a kitten, camped in Browning, met hella bicyclists, two flats, bike wreck, BLOGOTHON.

Will flesh out the recap when photos/time are available.

Stuart wrecked the HELL out of his bike right before this video was made. For no reason also: his bike just kind of flipped out from under him at a high rate of speed. He slammed into the ground like a BOMB.

Previously in the day, I had two huge blowouts on my bike and had to replace the 'high end' rear tire with some WALMART cheng shin BS. My bike is now known as the 'B2P CRUISER' and earlier today it 'FINISHED OFF A COUPLE OF 26 INCHERS'.

The bros rolled in to West Glacier Saturday night and were impressed by the beauty of the park. Since they cut out Yellowstone from the BQ, they decided to spend an extra day in Glacier since it was the raddest park any of them had ever seen.
Going to the Sun Road was opened officially to hikers and bikers Sunday afternoon. There was much rejoicing. The bros ate some amazing blueberry pancakes and gallons of coffee. There was more rejoicing. The bros hung out at West Glacier and drank $1 Miller High Lifes with some really awesome people who knew all the ins and outs of Glacier. There was too much rejoicing. They then camped at Avalanche Creek where they thought they would make a good crack at Logan Pass in the morning. They were mistaken.
Sunday night, the rains moved in. And they stayed. For 30 consecutive hours. The bros spent much of Monday sleeping, reading, and freezing in the tent. They also ate cold cans of Chef Boyardee and pop-tarts in the park bathroom and mourned. The tent smells really bad now. A park ranger told them that since the roads had been opened, there's really no going back on the policy and that the Sun Road should still be open the next day.
On Tuesday morning, the rain let up and the bros were determined to conquer the mountain. They broke camp and set out in wet clothes freezing in the morning hours. By the time they reached the gate to the Going to the Sun Road, they saw signs that it was closed. The bros were perplexed. Was the road open? Was it closed? It didn't matter. There was no going back on a 50 mile detour through dangerous, muddy construction zones.
The bros moved their bikes and trailers around the gate and climbed the rest of the pass. Construction workers along the way waved at them. The bros pulled up to Logan Pass, their highest summit, and rejoiced. Now they had to get down. The roads were icy. The slope was scary. They braked the entire mountain. Eventually the bros pulled up to another construction zone. The construction workers were upset to see the bros at this point. But since they had made it this far, the workers said they should make their way safely down the rest of the pass. "Watch out for those trucks down there," the worker said. At this point, there was a clattering on the rocks below. A bighorn ram jumped the road barrier, leaped over the highway, and jumped 15 feet up the mountain. "Watch out for those big guys too." Patrick's jaw dropped. They made their way to the end of the Sun Road and again crossed their bikes over barricades. The bros were overjoyed by their success. But not for long.
On the way down to St. Mary's two park rangers pulled over Cameron. Then Patrick. Then Stuart. The rangers informed the bros that they had violated park regulations. The road was indeed closed to hikers and bikers. After checking the bros' identification, the rangers determined that they had received conflicting information and did not give citations for their offenses.
The bros left the park, ate lunch in St. Mary's and continued heading east. The hills are leveling out, the wind is at their backs, and there are many more miles to ride. The bros have plenty of adventure ahead...