We left Bismarck this morning from the Fairfield Inn at 7:45. Still a little later than we hoped. We picked up a bike trail from the motel and traveled the next 5 miles or so out of the city on this paved bike trail. I am very impressed with the larger cities out here. Almost everyone has designated bike trails. I don’t mean roads that are designated for bikes and cars, I mean roads for bikes and pedestrians only. These are well-maintained and very well used. We probably met or passed 20 people or more in that 5 mile stretch. Warsaw, take note! The first 10 miles of today’s journey was flat and shaded by a large bluff on our east side. It was a very pleasant ride. We exited from the bluff and did some climbing but nothing extreme and headed back out on the prairie. For the most part, the ride went very well. The only downside was the heat, but we did get a fairly early start and by noon we were within 12 miles of Washburn. Our original intent was to go to Stanton today, but we decided to stop at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and at Fort Mandan, both in Washburn. We arrived in Washburn about 1:30, stopped at the Dakota Farmer restaurant for lunch. After lunch we proceeded on to the center. The center was only about a half a mile from the restaurant. It was a very beautiful facility. We enjoyed strolling through the displays. One particular display that fascinated me was the dugout canoe. Using Lewis and Clark’s dimensions, several members of this community undertook to make a dugout canoe. When I think of a dugout, I think of this 10 foot log that is about 2 feet in diameter. This canoe was about 30 or 35 feet long and started out larger than 3 feet in diameter. The original log before any carving was done, weighed 11 tons. It was a huge canoe. We also visited a reconstructed fort 2 miles down a hill from the center. Here the Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1804-1805. Actually the exact fort is about 10 miles up river from this location and under water. This was a guided tour and it was very realistic. I could easily put myself in the Corps for the 30 minutes we toured the fort. Our seventh grade question for today relates to this. What was the name of this fort we toured where the Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-1805?
We biked back up the 2-mile hill, no small task, and tried to make a decision about where to stay tonight. Washburn does not have an official campground. They have a park with pit toilets only…not even any water. The other choice was to get a motel for the night. We called the motel and they had one room left on the second floor (a problem for our bikes and trailers), a smoking room, and only a single bed. All the other rooms were filled. I asked the lady if we could get our gear in the room and she doubted it because of the small size. Tai and I discussed this back and forth for some time and finally decided to look at the room. By the time we got to the motel, someone had already called about the room, but the owner saved it for us. We checked it out. It was small and did smell like smoke, but we thought we could squeeze the bikes and trailers in. We took the room. When we got ready to pay, she suddenly found another room (same size) but non-smoking. We jumped on that one. The price was right so here we are. It’s tight but doable.
-ClarkWheel
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