Medora to Gladstone

We left the luxury of the Badlands Ministries Retreat Center this morning, rumbling over two miles of dirt road before we hit pavement, crossing five cattle guards, and pushing our bikes up an 8% grade before we arrived back in Medora for breakfast. The Cowboy Cafe was packed. A petroleum conference was in town.

We saw Nathan, Larry, and Nancy for a few moments outside the restaurant and said goodbye to Nathan. We saw Larry and Nancy again for a few minutes at Theodore Roosevelt National Park where I finally saw Emily, who works as a ranger there.

We started on I-94 again. After Medora, traffic increased in volume and aggressiveness.

There is an oil boom in the area of Williston. Gooey crude is being taken out of the ground by any available means: pumping, surface drilling, fracking. With the boom has come a quantum increase in traffic. Thousands of trucks haul oil to the distant refineries. According to a guy we talked to in Wolf Point, a 24-hour traffic volume study on Rte 2 at Williston counted 2700 vehicles. Betty at the Green Valley RV Park spoke of half hour long waits at stop signs in the area. I can't vouch for either of these sources, but their force as anecdotal evidence is strong.

Adventure Cycling used to recommend Rte 2 through Williston as a part of their Northern Tier route. No more. Speeding oil trucks and an 8 inch shoulder have led them to reroute bicyclists.

Do I need to say that we gave Williston a wide berth?

The traffic we saw today on I-94 was the edge of Williston's oil traffic.

We stopped to buy snacks at Don's Convenience Store in Belfield. A pair of guys in jumpsuits with FracTech patches were there at the same time The clerk (Don?) had helpful advice.

"Stay off of 85. That's suicide highway. Lots of accidents. Don't take 10. It's under construction with lead cars and all. If I were you I'd get back on 94 to South Heart, then get on Old Route 10 through Dickinson."

We did as instructed with good results.

Northwest winds blew along at 26 mph. As long as we went south and east we made good progress. The few times we turned north were painful experiences. Like riding into a wall.

After Dickinson Old 10 turned into a scenic byway. So it was billed, anyway. We took this road to 100M and turned south toward Gladstone. We stopped to visit the world's largest scrap metal sculpture at the I-94 overpass.

Tomorrow we plan to head south from Gladstone on the "Enchanted Highway" where many of the same artist's other works can be seen.

Gladstone doesn't offer much. We had bar food for supper. We're camped in another city park. We'll eat snacks from our panniers for breakfast. No coffee in the morning (a circumstance for which I hold BJ entirely responsible. Further I reserve the right to grouse over it at great length.)*

We rode 59 miles today. Trip total: 1358.

*I'm not serious. Well, not very serious.

The world's largest scrap metal sculpture