Called Due To Weather

I got ready to head to western North Dakota and packed my food. (Click any / all / none of the pictures for big.)



I crossed the border



in search of I-94. I had plenty of water to cache



and lots of crap in the back of the car. And, as you can see, it's quite serious business.



I arrived at the south end of the trail to stash my first cache.



To digress, the day before I left I checked the internets for weather. The internets told me SNOW in Medora. By the time I got there, there wasn’t much left around except for the snowman



with the shrunken head. These North Dakotans were into some funky stuff.

I spent that day and into the evening caching water, getting lost, and looking for a place to get a hotel room. It was raining that evening and I didn’t want to get the tent out if I really didn’t have to.

In Watford City – no rooms. Well, I was closer to Williston than about anywhere else so off I went in that direction. After a complete canvassing of the town – no rooms. It seems every single hotel room in the area was occupied by oil workers. Evidently, there’s a boom up there. I did see a huge amount of wells.



Feeling tired, I opened up the Thermarest and sleeping bag and slept that evening in the back of the car. The next morning I made my way south and to the start of the trail. When I arrived at the turnoff for the CCC camp (and the north end of the trail) I noticed the entrance was blocked off due to road construction. No worries, plan “B.”



I drove a bit farther south to Bennett trailhead and camp. I figured I skip the Little Missouri crossing just south of CCC and begin my riding at Bennett. My game plan was to ride north to the Teddy Roosevelt National Park border and then ride back. I was going to camp overnight and then start my southward trek on Monday morning.

Unfortunately, the trail was still too muddy from the snow and rain to ride. Bummed, I set up camp and was going to wait until morning to ride. I decided I’d give it another try in the morning. If the trail was going to still be wet from the previous moisture, I planned to drive south to Buffalo Gap campground and ride some down there.

It was windy as I went to sleep. Quite windy, in fact. I got up in the middle of the night to pee and it was still blowing hard. When the morning came around the wind was gone. Evidently the mist and light rain scared it off. Crap.

I decided it was going to be too wet to ride even if it stopped raining immediately for several days. I didn’t relish the thought of being holed up in my tent waiting for something. I decided I’d done enough recon for next summer and packed up and headed back.

I took an alternate route home. I took me through Lemmon, SD and this:



Further on I crossed the Missouri River near Mobridge, SD.





Now I’m back, still on vacation, and deciding what to do next. The bike still has mud on it and it needs to be cleaned. Other than that I’m disappointed the riding conditions were not better. I do see how that trail would be a ton of fun. In 2011 I’ll make another run at it in the summer. I’m not going to go unless I know the weather has been precipitation free for a week and none is even remotely in the forecast. It’s a long-ass drive out there and don’t want to do it again if I can’t bring my intended purpose to fruition.

Ride On.