Bicycling the Lewis & Clark Trail
Fort Thompson to Platte, SD

Saturday, August 21, 2004
Distance Cycled: 75 miles
Vertically Climbed: 2,400 feet
Average Speed: 10.2 mph

Today was a hard day, only I think we have said that before. We got up this morning and ate the food we had bought at the grocery store the night before. It was filling but not as good of fuel as we would have had at a restaurant. It was cold when we started out at 7:00 and the wind was coming from the southeast. After one mile we had the wind in our face. On the first 26 miles we had beautiful views of the Missouri river and a couple of large long hills with 7+% grades. It took us around 3 hours to go the first 26 miles. After Jim and I had breakfast, Barb and Scott came in and decided that 50 more miles into the wind did not sound like a good way to spend the day, so they hitched a ride into Platte. We rode the original route and every time we went south, our average speed dropped to less than 9 miles per hour. Jane and George took the long way to avoid the hills and they were on the road about 10 hours, a very long day. It was about 52 degrees when we started and over 80 when we arrived in Platte.

Along the way we saw a statue of a man holding some hay, probably the most interesting thing we saw on the route.

Windy days on a bicycle are hard because you need to work a lot harder to make any speed. But they are also hard because you have the wind in your face all day and the roar in your ears gets very tiring. You also cannot hear the trucks or listen to the birds as you travel.

Tonight we all just walked across the parking lot to a Pizza Buffet we were all to tired to look for an excellent restaurant.