Any tour that has taken us beyond the states of Washington and Oregon has involved driving or flying, and sometimes quite a bit of it. It's not the most environmentally-friendly approach to taking a holiday.

For the past few years, I have had the idea of taking our bikes on the train to Glacier, but I found reasons to put it off. After hearing that Amtrak was gearing up to carry unboxed bikes on its long-distance routes, I decided to wait until that became a reality. We also found it difficult to schedule time off during the short cycling-friendly season at Glacier.

One of our cycle-touring guests, Rachel, had crossed the U.S. on the Northern Tier. She had so many good things to say about Glacier that it finally got the gears in my head turning. What kind of adventure can we make out of the available ingredients?