NDSAILOR

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

Well, well...Finally, at age 57, the time is nearly here to start this adventure. I have been half-heartedly planning the 110 mile ride across the western frontier of the North Dakota Badlands for nearly three years. My job as an emergency planner with the N.D. Department of Emergency Services and the past three consecutive years of flooding have delayed putting the plan into motion, but now is the time. North Dakota was virtually devoid of winter weather this year and both the 2011 Fall season and 2012 Spring have had temperatures above normal, and it has been relatively dry until this past week. I am aware of people that ride this trail every year and, although I thrived on marathon-type undertakings in my younger years, now this has turned into a Bucket-List type of endeavor for ... read more