Glacier's new bike shuttle starts Saturday
<p>Bikers take a break while biking the Gong-to-the-Sun Road in this file photo.</p>
Glacier National Park will start a new bike shuttle service Saturday, with a shuttle running bikers and their bikes from parking areas at Lake McDonald Lodge to Avalanche Creek once the parking area at Avalanche fills up. The Park opened the Going-to-the-Sun Road to Avalanche Creek to motorists last Friday afternoon.
The shuttle will run from the lodge to Avalanche from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, said Park spokeswoman Margie Steigerwald. Steigerwald said the shuttle during the week will run about every 35 to 40 minutes on weekdays and every 20 to 25 minutes on the weekends.
The service, which was paid for by a grant from the Glacier National Park Conservancy, will not run from other regions of the Park, like Apgar. The shuttle is scheduled to continue through June 26 or when the road opens completely to motor vehicles, whichever comes first. The shuttle is designed to ease parking congestion at Avalanche Creek.
The grant paid for the shuttle operation and for two bike trailers that will also accommodate child carts.
Glacier has several other roads open now as well. The Two Medicine, Many Glacier and Chief Mountain Roads are all open on the east side. The Quarter Circle Bridge and Camas Roads are open on the west side. The Inside North Fork Road is open as far north as Doverspike Meadow, but it’s not open south of Polebridge or to Bowman Lake.
Park plows were pioneering near Triple Arches and are down to pavement at Big Bend. They were clearing about 20 feet of snow.
Triple Arches is less than three miles from Logan Pass.
Hikers and bikers during the week can travel as far as the Loop while plows are working, but can go beyond that after plows are done for the day — which is about 4:30 p.m. On the east side, the road is closed at Rising Sun, but there are no hiking or biking restrictions, though travel is not recommended beyond Jackson Glacier Overlook because of avalanche danger.
East side crews are not plowing the road at the moment. They’ve been working on repairing the Many Glacier Road.