Start: 7:43 AM

Finish: 5:17 PM  

Saddle Time: 6:18

Ascent: 404 feet

Descent:  1181 feet

Miles: 75

Total Miles: 1,750

Highlight: The first couple hours riding east from Gackle through wetlands with lots of ducks and other birds.

Lowlight: Getting a flat tire 2 miles before a truck stop after riding 48 miles.

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

I was the only person in the hostel last night.  It was nice to have my own, cheap room but would have been nice to meet some other cyclists.  The three women I met in Hazleton were the first I’ve seen in over a week. The Honey Hub is great.  I met the owners last night.  They keep bees for a living and own the Stinger brand of athletic gels and supplements.  Their home is California but they summer over with their bees in North Dakota, one of the best honey producing states in the country.  I saw lots of hives along the way, most belong to them.

The road is straight, totally straight.  Look at my map, only a couple slight bends here and there.  The hills are also like yesterday if anything maybe even a little more flat. I dropped about a thousand feet in elevation on todays ride which certainly helped with the wind.

By 10:00 the wind was really blowing.  Forecast called for 17 mph out of the south but I think it was over 20 mph with gusts even higher.  It shifted a bit from south to south-southeast so I did get a bit of headwind later in the day.  Strong wind in any direction really saps the fun out of riding. I spend more of my concentration and energy seeing that the bike goes straight rather than looking around.

This is one of the most remote parts of the tour.  I have 50 miles of just farmland with no towns along the way.  There’s a truck stop at about 50 miles so I can get at least water for the last 20 into Enderlin.

At 48 miles I noticed my tire was almost completely flat. It seemed like a slow leak so I pumped it up hoping I could make the final 2 miles to the truck stop. Once at the truck stop I pumped it up again and measured the pressure.  I was trying to decide if I should fix it now or ride on for the next 20 miles.  The truck stop had a little restaurant that served the usual midwest fare, burgers and such.  I had a chicken sandwich just to mix it up a bit.  Over the course of my meal the tire lost 20 lbs of pressure, definitely needs to be fixed now. I have the tube I patched from a couple days ago but also a new tube I had from the start.  I figured it’s best to use the new tube, just to be safe.  The flat tire is on the front, my bald tire I had moved from the back a couple days ago.  With the inner tube out an inspection revealed a piece of wire poking through the tire. I’ve read trip journals from other cyclists who have complained about getting flats from wire shards typically on highways.  When truck tires explode they send off lots of fine pieces of wire.

I noticed the bald tire was starting show threads.  I really need to get a replacement soon and I need to figure out how, where and when.  Fargo is the obvious option but my earlier searches showed nowhere to stay tomorrow night and I’m not even sure bike shops will have the tire I need.  I looked up Amazon shipments but they would be a week out for this area. Not sure what I’ll do if I can’t find a tire in town.

I wanted to stay in a motel tonight to figure this out with hopefully decent wifi but the two motels in Enderlin were booked so it looks like I’ll stay at the town park which has free camping for cyclists. They have bathrooms with running water but no showers. I don’t know how people do this without taking a shower every night, or at least jumping in a river or pond.  The park is on a river but I suspect it is terribly polluted like all the water I’ve seen in the area.  A truck stop up the road has showers for $10, pricey for some water but I’m not paying anything to camp.  I picked up a can of beans and a couple pieces of chicken for dinner. Some of the gas stations around here have the Champs line of fast food chicken, basically KFC. I was super happy to find a 4-pack of Goose Island IPA.  North Dakota has been a complete wasteland for beer.  Everything is light: Bud Light, Coors Light, Michelob Light, etc. Occasionally you can find an amber in the mix.

The campsite is nice and secluded by the river and no I wouldn’t jump in.  There’s a covered area with picnic tables and a small field.  I’m the only one camping here tonight.

I looked again online and called ahead to some places in the Fargo area for motels and camping, everything is booked.  My plan is to ride on and hope I can find a replacement then ride out of town to Barnesville where there’s a campground and another city park.  One should work out one way or another.