due ruote 

An opportunity seems to have materialized.
I know there is construction along McDonald lake, so I am wondering, specifically, how rough is it? My riding partner and I will both be on 28mm tires.
This is from the park road conditions map popup:
Gravel and milled surfaces expected on the entire 9.3 miles of road between Apgar and North McDonald Road. All turnouts will be closed for public use. Motorcycles and Bikes use extreme caution. Remaining surfaces to also include North McDonald Road consist of asphalt pavement.
Anticipate 30-minute daytime delays and full nighttime closures starting at 10pm and ending at 6 am. Opportunities to go through exactly at midnight, 2 am and 4 am.

due ruote 

I managed to get through to the park by phone. In case anyone is interested:
The road along Lake McDonald is in pretty poor shape but passable by car. They suggested parking at the lodge, which gets you past the road work.
Reservations are now required for vehicle entry and can be booked online at recreation.gov. The reservation is good for 3 days. No reservation needed for entry between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The vehicle entry reservation is a requirement for the whole season, and of course you still need the park entry pass in addition to it.

Hondo6

Spouse and I were there last year in late June/early July. Sounds like the permit requirement to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Highway (GTTSH) is still about the same this year,

Road from Apgar to Logan Pass was in rough shape in places then, but it sounds like it's really torn up now.

I forget how long in advance you can sign up for GTTSH reservations, but you want to do it at first opportunity as soon as you have a date window. There's a daily limit on reservations and they're often exhausted fairly quickly on the day they become available, especially for late spring and summer. As I recall, 75% of a day's reservations are available well in advance, and the remaining 25% on a date much closer to the 1st day of the reservation window. (Haven't checked this year, so this may have changed.) We ended up missing out on the first window to get a reservation for the GTTSH but got lucky on the 2nd chance window.

If you're planning on cycling, be advised that motor vehicle traffic may be pretty heavy on the GTTSH. Ride paranoid, as vehicle drivers may be sightseeing along with their passengers.

Also keep an eye on the park's website. They typically post status of GTTSH on it. It had yet to open for the year when we were there due to construction and excess snowpack.

All that said: Glacier National Park is IMO one of the most beautiful places in the US, if not the world - it's as amazing in its own way as the Grand Canyon. Even if you can't do the full GTTSH, it's still worth seeing at least once. And the east side of the park is damned nice too.

Piff 

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid as a Californian who has never seen even a black bear.......but what kind of precautions does one take regarding girzzly bears while on a bike at Glacier National Park?

Hondo6

We were driving vice riding. But the recommendation is to give any grizzlies as much distance as possible. I believe the recommendation was to not approach any grizzly or moose you saw closer than 300' or so - particularly if it's a mother bear with cubs.

On the way back to where where we were staying after spending one day in the park, we took a back road. We encountered a traffic backup.

The cause? There was what appeared to be a juvenile grizzly apparently feeding in a meadow (it appeared to be looking for roots/grubs/whatever in the grass). Some fool had stopped their car partially blocking the road - and one of the vehicle's occupants had gotten out of the car and was standing maybe 50 to 75 feet away from the bear taking pictures.

A grizzly can sprint up to 35 MPH for short distances. Thankfully, the bear seemed to be ignoring the fool.

We got around these "brilliant individuals" as soon as we could and left. We really didn't want to be there to see the result if things went bad.

"God must love idiots, for He made so many of them."

due ruote 

We wound up doing most of the ride from Lake McDonald lodge to Logan Pass. Our first mile or two was rough, but after that the road surface was great. Unfortunately we were met with a road closure sign (notice of up to 5k fine if breached) about 3 miles from the pass, so we turned around. Amazing park and amazing ride. We had both been there before but not on bikes. We did carry bear spray, and were told by the rangers that the bears frequent the roads, but we didn't see any. We did see a lot of e-bikes, but hardly any that were fully human-powered.
We rode on 6/5, and we were told the road would be fully open to traffic within a few days (normal opening date is late June/early July). We expected to see lots of snow and saw none, which was pretty disturbing.

bikingshearer 

Do interval training. Lots of interval training.

Andy_K 

I have a theory that the main reason people invite me to ride with them is to handle situations like this. You don't have to be faster than the bear....

due ruote 

A couple pics from the ride.

Bears?

Not a bear.