Day 87 - ending near Buford, ND - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

August 9, 2023

Day 87 - ending near Buford, ND

Day 87 - Alexander, ND to Buford, ND

Heart

Comment

I was up at 6:35am, with breakfast on my mind. So at 7:20am I headed off to Wild Flour Buffet and Bakery here in Alexander. As with most of these local cafes, there was one big table with older men. They even had some sort of card game going, though it seemed like it was to determine who was going to pay for the coffee.

Scattered rain was predicted for this morning and was showing up on the radar. It looked like I had time to try one more idea to fix the power adapter for the MAP330 GPS. I opened the case back up and removed the output capacitor, which I suspected was shorted. That was apparently the problem, because everything worked after that. Now I can quit feeding AA batteries to that GPS. After that, I packed up with the idea that I could wait out the rain underneath the pavilion at the park. That plan worked well. I was over at the pavilion at 10:40am and the rain came at 10:52am, though it wasn't a heavy rain. I worked more on reports while waiting.

At 11:35am I walked across the street to Alexander Bar and Grill for lunch. I can't claim I didn't have enough to eat today. I got on the bike at 12:24pm to actually get somewhere, but only made it as far as the Lewis and Clark Museum here in town. They looked like they were open, since the door was propped open, but their sign stated closed on Wednesdays. That's probably a good thing because I would have spent too much time there.

My destination today is Trenton Lake Recreation Area near Trenton, North Dakota. My routing would be on highways ND-200, ND-58, and ND-1804. This way I would be able to see the Fairview Lift Bridge and the Cartwright Tunnel, and also the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center and Fort Buford State Historic Site.

At 12:53pm I turned west from US-85 onto ND-200. This was a fun ride on a fairly wide flat shoulder with the wind at my back. It had been overcast when I first started, but now it was starting to clear. I turned on my radio to see if I could receive any stations. There were several, but I left it on the NPR station because they were playing classical music.

I stopped in Cartwright at Yellowstone Station, a Cenex gas station, at 2:30pm for Gatorade, Clif Bars, strawberry milk, and what I see is called a Scotcharoo. The cashier said she lives near the tunnel and the bridge that I was headed for.

I got back on highway ND-200 going west. There was an uphill and then a downhill coast to the Yellowstone River. I looked to my left as I crossed the highway bridge and saw the bridge that I should have been crossing on - the historic Fairview Bridge. Somehow I'd miss several turns. I decided to keep going ahead and I would check out the bridge and tunnel from the west side. I was at the west end of the bridge at 3:20pm. I parked the bike and decided to walk across the bridge, which is 2994 feet long. The Cartwright Tunnel, east of the bridge, is 1456 feet long. Both these were used for trains, and later for automobiles also. It was darker inside the tunnel than I expected. My pocket flashlight was barely adequate. I finally made it to the tunnel's east end at 3:39pm. At 3:57pm, I was back at the bike.

It was just a little ways further on ND-200 to my turn north onto ND-58. I certainly noticed the strong east side wind when I made that turn. Still a flat road and I was making good time. The road angled slightly toward the east a few times, which really slowed me down. This made me wonder how I'd do when I turned east onto ND-1804. After crossing the Missouri River at 5:26pm, I pulled over to look for nearby campgrounds using my phone. Otherwise I was going to have a very slow 12 miles ahead of me to get to Trenton Lake. Fortunately there is a campground at Fort Buford, and I was less than a mile from there. I made it to their campground area, then read that camping is free, but I needed to register at the Confluence Center. I had to use Google Maps to see where that was: "a three minute ride to the east." It was 5:55pm, and the center closes at 6:00pm. I made it with a few minutes to spare, but then got tied up before I got to the door helping a woman who wanted to know if there were any campgrounds in the area. I told her about the one here and also about the one at Trenton Lake. When I finally got to the door, I found it locked. There were no directions outside about registering after hours, so I rode back to the campground. I'll talk to them in the morning.

There's no hookups at this campground, just cottonwood trees providing lots of shade and making a lot of noise with the east wind blowing through them. By 6:23pm I'd settled on which site I wanted. Then I sat down at the picnic table to write up a report for a few days ago. A fellow who had parked at a campsite north of me walked up while I was doing that, offering me a cold can of beer. I'm only allowed one beer a week due to medication I take, but accepted his offer. Then the camper to the south of me joined us. They were both quite interested in what I was doing on my bike touring trip. They're on touring trips of their own using their vehicles. One of the fellows has been on the road since January 2022, and has put 75,000 miles on his van since then!

About an hour before sunset I paused from working on reports to unload the bike and set up the tent. As windy as it is, I knew the tent set up would be a challenge. One thing I did differently, and this is the first time I've ever done it, is set up the tent without the ground cloth. That helped. What didn't help was the tent stakes would only go into the ground about 2 inches. But I did get the tent up and tied down with extra guidelines to the bicycle, which I placed on the ground upwind of the tent.

Other than the wind, it's a very pleasant evening and I'm in a beautiful spot. I love the sound of wind through cottonwood leaves and there's certainly plenty of that tonight. Rain's predicted for tomorrow morning. I think I'm ready for that if it doesn't get too much more windy.

Jeff

Spent: $15.40 plus $4 (breakfast) + $20 plus $5 (lunch) + $16.44 (Gatorade, Clif Bars, Scotcharoo, strawberry milk) = $60.84