32 miles, 6.6 mph, 1860' elevation gain
(Lund's Landing to Williston, ND)
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Highlights: vicious 25+ mph headwinds, hilly terrain, 4 mph uphill speeds, no need for brakes
Journal: [to come]
67 miles, 10.2 mph, 1660' elevation gain
(Parshall to Lund's Landing, ND)
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Highlights: hot & hilly, very strong crosswinds (bad) & tailwinds (good), Lake Sakakawea, oil wells, sleeping in a teepee
Journal: [to come]
66 miles, 10.1 mph, 1320' elevation gain
(Velva to Parshall, ND)
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Highlights: rolling prairies & farmland, Gasman Township Cemetary, 2 more broken spokes, stressful afternoon ride, Minuteman III missle silos
Journal: [to come]
75 miles, 11.3 mph, 640' elevation gain
(Esmond to Velva, ND)
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Highlights: flat tire, rolling farmland, very little traffic & nice tailwind in morning, private John Deere toy collection
Journal: [to come]
46 miles, 9.8 mph, 810' elevation gain
(Fort Totten to Esmond, ND)
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Highlights: Fort Totten State Historic Park
Journal: [to come]
65 miles, 10.3 mph, 780' elevation gain
(Binford to Fort Totten, ND)
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Highlights: rolling hills, occasional ponds & lakes, peculiar Devil's Lake, Totten Trail Historic Inn, free beer
Journal: [to come]
19 miles, 9.8 mph, 530' elevation gain
(Cooperstown to Binford, ND)
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Highlights: late start, met Joe (another bike traveler) & started riding with him, 10-20 mph headwinds
Journal: [to come]
44 miles, 11.8 mph, 830' elevation gain
(Page to Cooperstown, ND)
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Highlights: a great tailwind, severe thunderstorm watch
Journal: Right now, it's raining outside and there's some nasty weather approaching from the west. Fortunately, I made it to a town with a motel. Since the next town with accomodations is 36 miles away, I've decided to call it a day.
54 miles, 12.1 mph, 530' elevation gain
(Fargo to Page, ND)
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Highlights: flat, hardly any traffic, tailwind, nice friendly local folks, City of Page
Journal: [to come]
1.7 miles, 4.5 mph
Highlights: sleeping, taking pictures of plastic bison, visiting the Hjemkomst Museum, eating at Sammy's Pizza
Journal: I've been looking forward to taking a day off in Fargo ever since my body started to ache (about 8 days ago). So even though I'm several days behind my original (unrealistic) schedule, and even though the winds are blowing in the right direction (from the southeast) today, I ended up taking today off and exploring Fargo a bit. In the afternoon, I visited the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretigve Center across the river in neighboring Moorhead, MN. The Hjemkomst ship was modeled after a 9th Century Nordic burial ship, constructed locally in the 1970's, and then sailed across the Atlantic to Norway in 1982. Also at the Center is a replica of a 13th Century Norweigan church, also constructed locally (in the late 1990's). After I had enough of old boats and churches, I picked up my bike at the local bike shop (I had the wheels trued up again) before ordering a half-vegetarian, half-Hawaiian pizza from Sammy's Pizza (rated #2 in the USA by Pizza Of The World). Overall, I quite liked Fargo: the older tree-lined residential neighborhoods to the north of town are quite attractive, the downtown has some interesting attractions (old cinema playing indie movies, Sammy's Pizza) and the city itself feels much smaller than it's population of 91,000 would imply. Unfortunately, the winters really suck in Fargo, so I won't be moving here anytime soon.
Sadly, I will be leaving tomorrow and will therefore be missing out on this weekend's upcoming Potato Days Festival in nearby Barnesville, MN. Events of note include the Potato Salad Cookoff, the Potato Picking Contest, the Potato Sack Fashion Show, the Great French Fry Feed, and of course...my personal favorite...Mashed Potato Wrestling!!!
52 miles, 9.8 mph, 230' elevation gain
(Callaway, MN to Fargo, ND)
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Highlights: first day of prairies, 1 state down (6 to go), nicest laundromat ever
Journal: [to come]
64 miles, 10.6 mph, 820' elevation gain
(Itasca State Park to Callaway, MN)
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Highlights: last day of woods & lakes, befriended by local stray dog, stayed up 'til 1 am awaiting thunderstorm
Journal: [to come]
18 miles, 8.4 mph, 1000' elevation gain
(Itasca State Park, MN)
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Highlights: perfect weather, stung by wasp, rode 10-mile Wilderness Drive, hiked 2 miles
Journal: [to come]
8 miles, 7.8 mph
(Itasca State Park, MN)
Highlights: wet day, boat tour on Lake Itasca, saw loons & bald eagles, ate dinner at historic Douglas Lodge
Journal: [to come]
42 miles, 9.6 mph, 950' elevation gain
(Bemidji to Itasca State Park, MN)
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Highlights: signed 2 autographs, reached Mississippi River headwaters
Journal: [to come]
31 miles, 8.1 mph, 550' elevation gain
(Cass Lake to Bemidji, MN)
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Highlights: broke a spoke, walked 1.5 miles, got picked up by a good samaritan, saw Paul Bunyon & Babe the Blue Ox
Journal: Other than flat tires, the most common type of mechanical difficulty a bicycle traveler is told to expect is the occasional broken spoke. I suppose I was lucky on my 2003 bike ride, since I never had to deal with one. Well, now I have. Ever since yesterday morning, my bike has been feeling increasingly unstable (i.e. wobbly). When I got to the campground last night, I checked out the rear wheel and it looked very out-of-whack. Since the nearest bike shop was only 20 miles away (in Bemidji, "first city on the Mississippi"), I planned on riding the bike into town today and dealing with the problem then. As I got closer and closer to town, the bike became more difficult to control (especially at slow speeds) until eventually I heard the sound of my first spoke snapping off and hitting the pavement. At this point, I was only three miles from town, so I got off the bike and walked it about a mile before taking a break. I then attempted a rather foolish "fix" by tightening the remaining spokes, only to find out the rear wheel was now firmly afixed to the rear brake pad and the wheel wouldn't even turn! Eventually, I was able to loosen the spokes and get the tire turning again. As I resumed my slow march towards town, I was greeted by a local artist/sculptor who happily offered to bring me the rest of the way into town in her station wagon. I quickly accepted and was at the local bike shop in no time.
Fortunately, the problem wasn't as bad as I feared. (My fears were that I had damaged my rear wheel, and that I would be spending the next several days here in Bemidji waiting for a replacement to arrive). As it turned out, a single broken spoke will make a mess of the riding experience, but is easy to fix (if you know how). As for the cause of the broken spoke, there are two possibilities: either the spoke got bent out of shape when I loaded it onto the good samaritan's pick-up truck a few days ago (during the lightning storm), or my rear wheel is carrying too much weight. Regardless, I'm hoping this was just a quirky mechanical failure that I won't have to deal with again.
After leaving the bike shop, I took a test ride back to the place where I was picked up (about 5 miles round trip) and the bike felt great again. I then proceeded to the center of Bemidji and the famous statues of Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox. Paul was born in Bemidji and spent many years as a woodsman in the region with his faithful bovine locomotive Babe. According to Kodak, the statues of Paul & Babe were once ranked as the second most photographed man-made icons in America (behind Mount Rushmore). After taking the obligatory picture, I headed to the local Irish pub & eatery for some authentic shepherd's pie...only to discover that the Irish pub doesn't serve any Irish food! So I had a plate of spaghetti instead to go along with my Guinness!
Tomorrow I'll be heading westward to Lake Itasca State Park, home of the source of the Mississippi River.
