After yesterdays finish with 7 miles of gravel and dust, all of us wisely choose riding the vans to Babb beffore heading north to the border. We knew it was still closed but what the heck.
About 15 miles we leave the main highway and head north on Chief Mountain Highway heading to the border. But this highway is on Blackfeet Native American land and there were permits that each of us needed but did not know about. Neither did the guides who have been guiding this trip since 2014. Anyway, we are all stopped for a food break when an official looking pick-up from the Black Feed Recreation/Conservation pulls up and says we all need a permit to be on this highway or face a $100 fine. Confusion and tension reigns for the next 30 minutes but he is right and we need permits but how. He is not allowed to sell them but we have to get them on-line and no one has cell phone coverage. Load the bikes and back to Babb where more confusion and frustration reigns as connection is confusing etc etc. The guides do not lose their patience and everyone works the problem and an hour later we are all on our way back to where we stopped. The Blackfeet representative was still waiting for us to return and show our individual permits and then we finally were on our way. Getting moving again on a bike is a great way to resolve pent up frustration. To the border and then back to Babb and ultimately back to St. Mary and the east entrance to Galacier National park.
Because of all the confusion with the border being open or not, the accomodations at St. Mary were at best
"primative" for some of us. On the other hand, it had a hot shower, a comfortable bed and was clean. For some, that was not enough and they were very vocal, but the rest of us slept well. (Everyone got moved to a much better lodge the next day.)