The Spirit Lake Nation Casino ...
... and the wind turbine that powers it.
| Day | 31 |
| Date | Monday July 23, 2001 |
| Distance | 99 miles |
| Moving average speed | 11.2 mph |
| Left at | 8:00 AM |
| Arrived at | 5:30 PM |
| Overnight in | Wonder Rest Motel and Trailer Park, Cooperstown, ND |
| Latitude | 47 d 26 m 32 s N |
| Longitude | 98 d 7 m 24 s W |
| Cumulative distance | 2310 miles |
Today after picking up my mail in Fargo (thanks, Maria!), I took my first bite out of North Dakota. I should mention that yesterday when I crossed the North Dakota border I was once again deprived of the opportunity to take a photo of my bicycle leaning against a "Welcome to ..." sign since Fargo, ND and Moorhead, MN have basically merged into one city and like an old married couple it appears that they don't bother to welcome each other anymore.
The morning went smoothly and just about as expected. Almost as soon as you leave Fargo you are on the great plains, and riding the great plains is like riding a treadmill. While the route parallels the railroad, you can play the game of spotting a grain elevator on the horizon and watching as it imperceptibly gets closer, but pretty soon the route leaves the railroad and you are deprived of any indication that you are making progress except for the odometer. The horizon is low and you can often see the water tower in the next town five or six miles before you get there. You have to disabuse yourself of the notion that just because you can see a place you must be close to it: at 12 mph it could take a half hour to go from first sighting to arrival.
My goal for the great plains was to keep the average speed around 12.5 mph. That way eight hours of riding would carry me 100 miles and still leave an hour or two for breaks or in case something interesting came along. It's a pace I can manage pretty easily even in moderately difficult conditions, but as you can see from the header above I didn't come close today. The reason is the wind.
I thought I had fought headwinds in Indiana and Illinois, but back then I didn't know what a headwind was. Around noon a wind started picking up coming directly from the west; by 2 PM it was up to a steady 25-30 mph, right in my face. In the great plains the wind is relentless. There's no shelter from it, and it has half a continent across which it can blow freely without obstruction. A strong headwind is very demoralizing. No matter how hard you work you can't make any time, and unlike climbing a hill, you won't get anything back. It's a widely fluctuating load as the wind gusts up and down, so it's hard to set a steady pace. If the wind has any component perpendicular to your direction of travel it will blow you off course forcing you to make constant corrections. There's no helping it: the wind will slow your progress to a creep. I had in mind to go another 25 miles today, but at 5:30 PM the wind was at full strength and the last 10 miles had taken me an hour and a half. At that rate, there simply wasn't enough daylight left to go another 25 miles and set up camp once I got there.
As I was slogging along, I kept thinking that it is inconceivable that our country would seriously consider drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge while thousands of gigawatts blow across North Dakota untapped. It's interesting that the wind reaches its full strength in the early afternoon at exactly the same time when the demand for electricity is at its peak. I hope someday somebody in the utility business takes advantage of this happy coincidence.
| Day | 32 |
| Date | Tuesday July 24, 2001 |
| Distance | 148 miles |
| Moving average speed | 15.5 mph |
| Left at | 7:00 AM |
| Arrived at | 7:00 PM |
| Overnight in | Hillman Inn and Campground, Rugby, ND |
| Latitude | 48 d 21 m 20 s N |
| Longitude | 100 d 0 m 7 s W |
| Cumulative distance | 2458 miles |
I made a point of getting an early start today so that I could get as much riding in before the wind came up in the afternoon. The route out of Cooperstown, ND starts out due west and then turns north on state road 1, and when I reached the northward stretch I started feeling pretty sluggish. There's a small town just off of SR1 called Binford, reaching it meant a detouring a mile off the route, but if there were coffee and pancakes in Binford then the extra distance would be well worth it.
The cafe in Binford had a notebook for cyclists passing through to write their name, departure point, destination and about a page describing their trip. Most of them wrote notes with recommendations for cyclists going in the opposite direction, all of them praised the friendliness of the locals and the pancakes in the cafe. The notebook went all the way back to 1995. It was interesting to see the wide variation in how cyclists were reacting to the experience of riding across the US. There was the resignation of an westbounder reaching Binford late in September and realizing that there was no way she could finish before the weather in the mountain passes would get too cold. There was the euphoria of an eastbound couple finishing up a round-the-world tour and claiming to average 100 miles per day (although the 1800 miles from Seattle had taken them 22 days). There was one who was positively suicidal. Numerous eastbounders complained that they hadn't had any tailwinds yet. One eastbounder in 1995 suggested taking US Route 2 from Devil's Lake to Rugby to shave a little distance off the Adventure Cycling route (which picks up US 2 west of Rugby). This turned out to be very bad advice.
I spent quite a while in Binford reading all the entries in the notebook and taking copious notes on their suggestions. When I finally got going again the wind had already come up, but much to my surprise and delight it was a tailwind today, just a little bit south of due east. I took off like a bat out of hell propelled by that tailwind, hoping to encounter some eastbounders so that I could gloat about it.
Near Tokio, ND I encountered my first "Road Closed" sign of the day on State Road 20. There are only 638,800 people living in North Dakota, about half as many as live within the city limits of Boston (not to mention the surrounding towns and suburbs), in an area of 70,704 square miles. A low population density means a very sparse road network, and therefore any detour could easily add forty miles to the day. Naturally, there's no easy way to tell in advance, you are just expected to follow the detour. So I flagged down a motorist going in the opposite direction and asked him if he knew why the road was closed and if he thought I could get through on a bicycle. He said he didn't know why it was closed, he had no problem getting through in his pickup, and I should certainly have no trouble on my bicycle. This turned out to be very bad advice.
The roads in the neighborhood of Devil's Lake (the lake, not the town) are built on causeways through the surrounding wetlands and across the lake itself. It was the absence of one of these causeways (which was being rebuilt) that was the reason for closing state road 20. The local in the pickup truck who said I could get through on my bicycle must have had a rather exaggerated opinion of my swimming abilities. Fortunately, the Adventure Cycling map showed a way to route around the missing causeway that only cost me a couple of miles on gravel roads.
The south shore of Devil's Lake from the southeast, is the Spirit Lake Nation, a Sioux Indian reservation (apparently "Devil's Lake" is a mistranslation of a Sioux word more nearly approximated by "Spirit Lake"). The Sioux of the Spirit Lake Nation have also noticed what I have been remarking on for the past three or four states: in flat country such as this the wind is steady and reliable enough to use for generating electricity. It was in the Spirit Lake Nation that I saw a wind power turbine for the first time. Apparently the Sioux are using it to power their casino, judging by its location just outside the parking lot. I imagine the local rural electric cooperative simply didn't have enough amps to supply the demands of a large scale hotel-casino, and so the Nation erected a turbine to supplement it.
The Spirit Lake Nation Casino ...
... and the wind turbine that powers it.
At this point, I decided to take another piece of really bad advice, which was to detour off the Adventure Cycling route and pick up US 2 in Devil's Lake (the town, not the lake) and follow it to Rugby (the town, not the sport) shaving a few miles off the route and taking better advantage of the ESE tailwind. After all, Adventure Cycling was going to pick up US 2 west of Rugby and follow it for a few hundred miles across western North Dakota and eastern Montana, so how bad could it be? Perhaps it was the image of that wind turbine that made me think taking full advantage of the wind was the order of the day; at any rate I would live to regret this decision.
For a four-lane, divided federal highway with a 65 mph speed limit, US 2 is in pretty abominable condition. The pavement is badly broken up, there isn't a hard shoulder for most of the 60 miles between Devil's Lake and Rugby, and where there is a hard shoulder six inches of grass has grown through the cracks. This was bad enough, but the worst was a stretch I hit between Penn and the junction with US 281 at Churchs Ferry. I guess the DOT had come to the same conclusion I had about the condition of the pavement, and had decided the best course of action was to rip it all up and start over. To this end, they had closed the two opposing lanes on the eastbound side of the median, reversed the flow of traffic in the passing lane on the westbound side and had two way two lane traffic for a good four miles. The only things that saved me were 1) North Dakota drivers are VERY considerate and 2) there aren't very many North Dakota drivers. Even though US 2 is the only east-west corridor across the northern part of the state, there still aren't enough people living here to generate a lot of traffic.
I had pretty much made up my mind to take US 281 south to Minnewaukan, pay the 11 mile penalty for my error of judgement, and forget about Rugby. But guess what sign I saw at the junction with 281? "Road Closed" with a detour straight down US 2. Arrgh. At least I was out of the construction by then, and the next ten miles of US 2 must be what they ripped up and rebuilt last year because it was in excellent condition with a wide, hard shoulder. I guess what Andrew Howard says about Minnesota also applies to North Dakota, "There are two seasons: winter and road construction".
In the end I decided to just grit my teeth and steam down US 2 as fast as I could to get off of it before the sun was so low in the west that drivers would be blinded. Fortunately, I had that wind behind me, so with some effort I was able to run through the last 60 miles or so at 17-18 mph (hence the ridiculously high -- for a tourist -- average speed in the header above). One begins to understand why some cyclists choose to ride the interstates in Montana and North Dakota: the traffic isn't moving much faster than it does on the secondary roads and at least there's always a hard shoulder.
I'm spending tonight at a campground (which is an adjunct to a motel) in Rugby, the geographical center of North America. I think Alaska must be pulling the center a bit to the west in the continental US since I am pretty sure that I'm more than half way to Seattle: with 2450 miles down, there should only be about 1700 remaining. And the "geographical center" seems to be remarkably close to the 100th meridian exactly .... At any rate, there's a monument here marking the center which becomes a photo opportunity when you lean a bicycle against it.
Geographical center of North America in Rugby, ND.
| Day | 33 |
| Date | Wednesday July 25, 2001 |
| Distance | 68 miles |
| Moving average speed | 15.2 mph |
| Left at | 9:45 AM |
| Arrived at | 3:00 PM |
| Overnight in | Expressway Car Wash, Laundromat and Campground, Minot, ND |
| Latitude | 48 d 13 m 46 s N |
| Longitude | 101 d 15 m 6 s W |
| Cumulative distance | 2526 miles |
I had a late start today since I knew it would be a short one. I need to get myself in phase with the places you can stop along the way. Here in the wild west, the population is so sparse you can't choose your daily mileages, you just go from one town to the next and hope it's not too far.
By delaying my departure I gave the wind time to build up a bit, and who would have guessed it but I got another day of bodacious tailwinds. I bet those eastbounders who flew from the east coast to the west coast to start their ride are really steamed now. But guess what the day consisted of? 68 miles of pure, solid US 2, this time sanctioned by Adventure Cycling. It's no different west of Rugby than it was to the east; I've put in more than 120 miles on US 2 in the last two days and I'm thoroughly sick of it now and plan to follow every single little detour off of it that Adventure Cycling recommends. Locals inform me that US 2 is even worse in eastern Montana where it's only two lanes wide, still with no shoulder. That's acceptable to me as long as traffic is light.
They told me in Rugby that the North Dakota State Fair would be running in Minot when I got here, and sure enough it is. I spent most of the afternoon down there. It's everything you would expect from a state fair: carnival, crafts, livestock (a word of caution to future cyclists in North Dakota with fancy cleat systems built into your shoes: be very careful where you step in the livestock barns). It seemed a shame to squander the tailwind by spending the afternoon at the state fair instead of riding all afternoon, but there is no place to stop within a reasonable distance of Minot if you already have 68 miles on the odometer, so I have to just hope the wind doesn't turn again tomorrow.
| Day | 34 |
| Date | Thursday July 26, 2001 |
| Distance | 81 miles |
| Moving average speed | 12.6 mph |
| Left at | 9:00 AM |
| Arrived at | 4:00 PM |
| Overnight in | New Town Marina Campground, New Town, ND |
| Latitude | 47 d 58 m 56 s N |
| Longitude | 102 d 31 m 53 s W |
| Cumulative distance | 2607 miles |
I had a miserable night last night. My choice of campground was a very poor one: although they had a laundromat and were convenient to the state fair they were located right on the corner of US 2 and a major county road with a gas station that was open all night. It was one of those "campgrounds" that's really just a parking lot for RVs with a few grassy patches at the edge where you can pitch a tent. It was very noisy; I hardly slept at all.
I had a late start after lingering in a cafe in Minot, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the wind was still favorable, from the southeast today. I was able to take pretty good advantage of it except for the first twenty miles which were due south. That stretch was on US 83, which was a carbon copy of US 2 as far as riding conditions are concerned. I turned west on State Road 23, which was much better.
I'm getting into really empty country now. It's the sort of place where they raise the speed limits on the grounds that the greater danger is one of drivers falling asleep, not high speed collisions. Today I started with a 45 mile stretch where there were no services whatsoever (no towns, no gas stations, no convenience stores, no potable water, nothing). Tomorrow starts with 70 such miles. This is the price you pay to leave the main road. Eastern Montana won't be so bad because the route returns to good ol' US 2, which is literally the only road you can take through that area.
Soo Line class F-9 Consolidation locomotive (210 psi boiler pressure, 37,300 lbs tractive effort) on display in New Town, ND.
| Day | 35 |
| Date | Friday July 27, 2001 |
| Distance | 76 miles |
| Moving average speed | 12.3 mph |
| Left at | 9:45 AM |
| Arrived at | 4:00 PM |
| Overnight in | Travel Host Motel, Williston, ND |
| Latitude | 48 d 10 m 49 s N |
| Longitude | 103 d 37 m 37 s W |
| Cumulative distance | 2684 miles |
Not much to report on today. I crossed what I'm sure will turn out to be the loneliest stretch of road on the trip: 72 miles from New Town to Williston, ND in which there is not a single town. The loneliness was relieved about 20 miles out of New Town where I encountered two eastbounders: Bill Easley and his son Todd are from Denver, CO and are riding from Anacortes to Bar Harbor following the Northern Tier, on the road for 20 days when I encountered them. Bill will have to finish alone as Todd has to return home to work in another 20 days.
State road 1804 in North Dakota, the loneliest stretch of the ride.
Eastbounders Todd and Bill Easley en route from Anacortes to Bar Harbor.
Passenger rail station in Williston, ND.
Great Northern class O-1 Mikado locomotive (180 psi boiler pressure, 60,930 lbs tractive effort) on display in Williston, ND.