Hot on the Trail of Lewis and Clark

So Minot may not have been the most exciting place in the world, but I must say, they have an Amtrak station and Columbus doesn't, so perhaps I have not given Minot enough credit. The Empire Builder runs right through Minot and will take you to Minneapolis if you go east and Portland or Seattle if you go west.

Friday morning we left Minot for New Town, ND which is a small town located on an Indian Reservation. A hot breakfast was served upon wakeup and during our first 5 miles, we were chased by a news crew which was doing a story on Bike and Build for the evening news. This isn't the first time we've dealt with the media, but this is the first time that they've done some filming on the road which, after viewing the news clip, was pretty cool.

We rode due south of Minot for New Town - directly into a head wind - and after making it nearly half way to lunch, we learned that there would be no lunch stop because the van wasn't able to shift. It was towed to a local garage for repair, but we wouldn't see the van until much later that evening. The ride though was very pretty: rolling hills, lots of agricultural fields, and little development. Even without the van, Bike and Build did provide lunch; peanut butter and jelly from a small convenience store in the middle of nowhere.

Well we made it to New Town which I found quite fascinating. It is the town center for the Sioux Indian Tribe reservation and its Native American population is nearly 80% of the total population. I was fascinated by this because it is a population which is discussed so often in text books and within America as a whole, but little contact is made unless one ventures onto a reservation. After grabbing some lunch in town and wondering around checking the sites, the van made it in and we were able to throw some dinner together after a long day.

Incidentally, during the time that the dinner crew was putting together pasta and sauce, it began to hail outside. Pea size hail fell for about ten minutes and left the sky nearly black. Weather in the state of North Dakota is quite strange and very sudden, there is no telling what could happen in a given day.

The next morning was one we were all looking forward to, our ride to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This day though more than any other day was one I will not forget. I know I have done a descent amount of complaining about the scenery, but the ride from New Town changed all of that. No longer were we in the farm fields of the Midwest, we had ridden all the way to the grassy plains of North Dakota. I spent most of the day riding by myself and just thinking about how breathtaking the scenery was. Grass covered hills for miles with mountainous buttes rising off in the distance; I loved the ride so much I didn't want it to be over. Fortunately though, the finale, after lunch and all of the stops for pictures along the way was incredible, was a nearly two-mile steep downhill into the park which allowed my bike and I to go over 50 miles per hour. It was incredible and the scenery on the way into Theodore Roosevelt was even more amazing than that which I had seen all day.

(Now this camping experience which I will discuss is one I will never forget, one which will go down as one of the most ridiculous evenings I've ever had.)

Some debate occurred when we arrived at the park: should we stay or go back to town because we would be returning there in the morning. (Bike and Build has been visiting the park for 7 years, but riders must make a trip nearly 25 miles out their way to get to the park). Was it worth it? Would it be better to go back and shorten the ride for the following day? We decided that it was worth it and continued on to our camp sight where we pitched tents, fired up the grill, and watched the sunset over the mountains.

Now watching thirty city people try to pitch a tent and fire up a camping stove is quite a site. Bags unpacked and stuff flying everywhere, who knew camping required so much skill? There was also no shower; only a small building which had guys and girls bathrooms. Many of us decided showering in the sink was worth it, but many did not, definitely a mixed bag.

The tents provided by Bike and Build were definitely not the newest model and several of them failed to possess the rain cover which when pulled taught allows any water to drip off the side and not into the tent. (I opted for one with a cover). Upon arrival to the park the ranger had nonchalantly mentioned the fact that there was a 40% chance of rain, something that perhaps we should have listened to a bit more closely.

Most were in bed by 10 and a few drops fell at around 12. Around 3am I was awakened by some of the brightest lightening I have ever seen, blinding lighting that illuminated the whole sky. The four of us in the tent figured we could hold out if anything happened and thought little of it. The few drops of rain and wind went from bad to worse extremely quickly and within several minutes the wind was so bad that our tent collapsed. We heard screams and laughs and saw many others making a break for the bathroom; we proceeded to do the same. After shoving my sleeping bag into its waterproof bag, grabbing my shoes, and my toiletries, I made a break for the girls bathroom. People were yelling and when I got to the bathroom, a small two sink two stall room intended for 4 people at most, there appeared to be about 21 people standing there cold, wet, and half asleep with as much stuff in their hands as I had in my own.

We hoped the rain would stop for a second, but it didn't, not at all, in fact it picked up. Seven of the eight tents pitched the night before had collapsed and those that had not prepared for the storm (which I had) were looking at all of the stuff in their tents get completely soaked. So we realized that the only option was to sleep in the bathroom. Several of us ran over to the mens room and within minutes I found myself sitting in one of the bathroom stalls while other scurried to dry their thermarests and sleeping bags. It was 3am and we were not going to wake until 6, so with wind and rain still demolishing our camp site, I fell asleep in my own private suite: the bathroom stall with my legs around a toilet.

I awoke hoping that it was all a dream and that I would be in the tent, but I was still in the bathroom and still straddling a toilet. The morning was chaotic, people trying to find clothing, bags, iPods, and anything else that had been left at the camp site. Being quite good at planning ahead, I had put all my bags in the trailer the night before and had grabbed everything from the tent in the heat of the moment leaving me with very few wet items.

The chaos of the evening was quite a precursor to our 95 mile day which left Theodore Roosevelt and took us to Culbertson, Montana. It began with a bike back up the massive 2 mile hill we had all ridden down the day before as well as some run-ins with the bison in the park. It was a long day with a lot of hills and some relentless wind, but we all managed. We threw all of the wet things into the church lawn and manged to dry just about everything in the evening.

So it has been an interesting last couple of days. Gorgeous scenery, arrival into Montana, and perhaps one of the most ridiculous evenings we've had yet. And perhaps the most ridiculous part of the evening in the park was the fact that it is the only night thus far that we have had to pay for our accommodations. $110 for the whole group and I woke up in a bathroom stall.....

I'll keep writing when I have more exciting things to mention, keep reading and commenting.