Trailblazing, Part II

Here's the link and map again:


I got my pictures developed, but they kind of suck and just don't do their subjects justice. And my fingers were in like 10 of them...

But, continuing with

I) Teddy Roosevelt National Park (TRNP, pronounced "turnip"), ND. Here's my campsite:


Not very wooded but neither is any of North Dakota, and there is a river running right by it. I wish I could have captured the windiness of this place. When I arrived, my bikes were slanted at 45 degree angles on top of my car. And it was a bitch to set up the tent. An Iowan man and his two teenage daughters helped me fight the wind and get it staked down. He commented that it seemed like a very good tent, and his daughters agreed. For some reason I felt self-conscious about using a three-person tent for one person, so I said, "yea, but it's a bit big for one person." Later, I realized that could have been taken as an invitation to the daughters. I should have done a little wink wink nudge nudge.

The wind also made cooking nearly impossible, but after a half hour running between the grill and the camp stove, I ended up with some fantastic soot-covered hot dogs and cold beans. Then, while I slept, the wind covered the inside of my tent and lungs with a thin patina of dirt. Those may sound like complaints, but I actually enjoyed the wind. It got me thinking about how pioneers must have dealt with it, and the satisfaction they must have felt when they figured out how to conquer it and heat their beans to a reasonable temperature.

I spent the next morning in Medora, the little tourist town just outside of the park. I managed to lose a postcard between the car and the Cowboy Cafe where I planned to write it. Sorry mom. Then I got some info about biking, and biked around the ~30 mile scenic loop with my new panniers, which is fricking hard, especially with the hills and the wind.

Here's the beginning of the ride:

And here's the first third, with the second third off in the distance.


And here's a buffalo:

That disposable camera is really lame. I know it doesn't look like it, but I was actually about 12 feet from this bison, who was named Theodore Roosevelt (as are all the bison at TRNP). Theo wandered slowly into the road and stopped there, thwarting me. All the park literature tells you to be afraid of these creatures, so I was, but I followed him a while anyway, until I snapped this picture and ran away.

J) Circle, MT. All I did was get gas here, but this place totally creeped me out. It reminded me of that episode of the X-Files where those deformed hill people do a lot of ax-murdering. Not that I saw any deformed hill people, but still. The gas station was super old-timey, they had to charge two times what the pump read, because the pumps won't let you set the gas price above $3.99. I was going to take a picture, but, you know, I didn't want to offend any hill people.

K) Shelby, MT. After Circle, I thought I was just going to be uncomfortable the whole way through Montana, because I was off the main highway, and I thought it would be a bunch more Circles. But when I got to Wolf Point, in the Flathead Indian Reservation to stop again for gas, there were tons of friendly and obese Native Americans, so I started to warm up to the state. After Wolf Point, I passed 10-15 small 'towns' which ALL consisted of 1 bar and 1 silo/processing plant thing. Then I got to Shelby, where I slept at a motel.

Brock just got home, so we have to go biking now. Next post will be Glacier NP and beyond.