Blogs from North Dakota, United States, North America

Thursday, May 17, 2012....What a great day for a ride. Got out of work early and finished packing. Tom arrived at my house, we loaded up the bikes, one last check of my checklist, and we hit the road. First stop, Belfield, ND to top off gas and get our "last meal" before heading north to Magpie Camp, west of U.S. Highway 85 near Grassy Butte. U.S. Highway 85 is full of truck traffic, we had to be careful making that left turn off the highway onto Magpie Road. Magpie Road just kept getting more scenic the further back into the Badlands we got, lots of cattle crossings and cattle greeted us along the way...on the roadway...."MOOve". Once we arrived at Magpie camp we found we were the lone occupant and had a nice choice of ... read more

Everything, except for food, water and ice and the bike, is packed into my Xterra ready for transport. Charged the camera, phone, tablet last nite. Tablet not working correctly and I am undecided as to if I should take it with or send back to the manufacturer today. Forecast is for rain Friday night and Saturday morning, but if I made all my plans based on the National Weather Service forecasts, I would only have done about one-quarter of the things I have done in weather that ultimately turned out to be beautiful, when otherwise forecast as miserable. I have sooo much food packed, clothing for all types of weather and lots of tools. Leap-frogging the vehicles will be a pain, but this will be a great adventure...so the trials and tribulations will be worth the ... read more

Thursday August 18, 2011 Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND 59 degrees with a mixed sky of clouds and blue sky. Starting mileage at 15624. Left camp at 7:45 to be at the stables by 8 for our ride at 8:30. Drove the couple miles to the stables, got checked in and issued our helmets. The wranglers lined the group of us up and selected the horse for each of us as we stood on a raised step to make it easier to mount. When my turn came, I mounted my horse with help and I knew immediately that I was in trouble. My legs didn't want to spread that far and, therefore, my hips were really hurting. While the rest of the group got mounted, I sat on my horse trying to decide if the hip ... read more

North Battleford, SK to Minot, ND (850 km). Woke up at 0800 and started packing to leave forthwith. Midway through packing, and that only takes about 5 minutes, my mouth started pounding. It has become a tradition for me to have dental surgery just before I leave on a bike trip and this year was no different. So I took some Advil and went back to bed. Departing around 1100 a little bummed out at the loss of quality riding time, but my spirits were buoyed by the beautiful blue sky day. The RCMP in SK drive Blue PT Cruisers, White Toyota Matrixes and Brown Ford Expeditions, all slick tops (ghost cars). That strikes me as very unfair. I think a cop car should look like a cop car. I wonder if the PT Cruiser is ... read more