Bicycling the Lewis & Clark Trail
Culbertson, MT to Williston, ND

Saturday, August 07, 2004
Distance Cycled: 69 miles
Vertically Climbed: 1,800 feet
Average Speed: 12.2 mph

We woke up to gray skies this morning, packed the bicycle, ate breakfast and headed east. When we tried to start our altimeter, it would not work because the battery was dead. The road was flat until we approached the Montana/North Dakota border and then we began to go up and down hills where each hill seemed to be higher than the hill before it. Finally we reached the border and climbed the steepest and longest hill. At the top was a sign that said Welcome to North Dakota.

We climbed another gentle hill and Mary Kay asked to stop because she thought that the front tire was flat. We turned south to get back to the Missouri River. The only problem was that we had to cross another bunch of hills so we again went up and down hill after hill. Mary Kay was really worried about that front tire so we stopped several times before we finally we reached the Missouri River valley again. We visited Fort Union a reconstruction of Fort Union which was the first fort at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. It was built to be a trading post and later it was bought by the United States for a military fort. We also visited Fort Buford which was built after Fort Union was abandoned.

As we left Fort Buford, we looked at the sky to the east and saw some very large thunderheads forming. We immediately began riding to Williston, hoping to reach our motel before we were caught in a thunderstorm. As we were approaching the town of Trenton our front tire went flat again. We stopped and after removing the tube, examined the interior of the tire and this time felt a sharp object. With a finger nail removed a very small piece of glass that had produced both yesterdays and today's flat tires. Jim finished fixing the flat tire and we continued on our way. By now the sky to the east was really dark and we could see lighting flashes but we could not hear thunder. We continued to ride to Williston and got very lucky in that we never got rained upon although we rode our bicycles on roads that were still very wet from rain.

Our motel was only a block from a Wal-Mart store so after we ate, Jim headed to Wal-Mart and they replaced the battery in our altimeter which now again works.