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Cyclist On Canada-Mexico Race Rescued In Glacier National Park

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Published Date

June 17, 2022
Inside the North Fork Road, Glacier National Park/NPS file

A section of the North Fork Road during drying times/NPS file

A gruelling, 2,700-mile "bikepacking race" proved too difficult for a Wyoming contestant who needed to be rescued after wrecking his bike in a rugged corner of Glacier National Park in Montana.

After Alex Minge, 25, of Riverton, Wyoming, crashed his bike in the North Fork section of the park, he lost his way trying to return to Canada but was stranded by flood waters in the Kishenehn drainage in the northwestern corner of the park. When he realized his dilemma, Minge activated the "help" option on his GPS tracking device.

Park rangers began an immediate search and swept the North Fork Road as far as possible but were unable to reach the suspected location of the tracking device due to flood conditions. A Minuteman Aviation helicopter from Missoula, Montana, picked up park rangers near park headquarters in West Glacier and flew to the Kishenehn drainage, where rangers found and rescued the injured bicyclist who was transported by Three Rivers Ambulance to the hospital, where he was treated and released.

The search and rescue was an international effort with several agencies involved including US Border Patrol, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Fernie Search and Rescue out of British Columbia.

According to the Flathead Beacon, Minge wasn't the only participant in the 2022 Great Divide Mountain Bike Race to go down. The Fernie Search and Rescue reported 10 separate rescues of cyclists suffering from hypothermia and broken ribs, the paper reported.

The race is run on a mix of paved and unpaved roads, as well as single-track mountain bike trails. On average, it takes participants 37 days to pedal from Canada to Mexico. The North Fork Road is a nerarly 40-mile-long unpaved road cut through the corner of the park in 1901. 

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