Lewis and Clark Cycling Trek

Epilogue

2007-08-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

This trip was quite different than the first three years. The most noticeable was the amount of traffic. As we traveled along the Lewis and Clark Trail during the first 3 years, for the most part, traffic was sparse. Not so in our southern states. We were frequently subjected to heavy traffic. I was most surprised by logging trucks. I really hadn’t expected that. I guess I didn’t realize that Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi would have that much lumber industry. I was also surprised that southern Illinois, and western Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi were all quite hilly, with some really challenging ones. I didn’t realize that the foothills of the Appalachians extended that far west. Some of these hills rivaled the crossing of the Rockies and Cascades, at least as far as steepness is concerned.

This year we traveled 1649 miles partially through the states of Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida for exactly 30 days. Our average daily mileage was 56 miles a day. We had a low mileage day of 18.53 miles because of mechanical problems. Our highest mileage was 83.34 miles because there were no lodging opportunities between the 2 points on that particular day. Speaking of lodging, we stayed in more motels than we ever have during the first 3 years. We stayed in 1 cabin, 1 private home and 11 motels during the 30 day tour. The weather was hot and humid through the entire month. I believe that there was only once that the temperature dropped below 70 degrees during the night and it was frequently in the mid-80s most nights. This made tent-sleeping very difficult, especially for me. I’m sure this lead to the increased number of motel nights. Spokewrench didn’t seem to mind the heat nearly as much as I did. Daytime temperatures were always in the 90’s at least part of the day and it was very humid throughout the month.

Riding conditions were varied. In Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, we were frequently on county roads. This would seem the safest, but we often encountered heavy truck traffic...mostly logging trucks and dump trucks. County roads rarely have shoulders, so this was a source of stress for me. State roads in most of these states had wider shoulders but, particularly in Alabama, the shoulder was often covered with rumble strips making biking on them difficult if not impossible. In Florida, we lost the rumble strips but had a great deal more car and some truck traffic. Florida had a fair number of bike-only lanes and we found almost all of our bike trails in Florida. I always breathed a big sigh of relief when we were able to ride on both of those. On shoulders everywhere we were constantly avoiding bark from the lumber trucks, truck tire pieces that had exploded, frequent broken glass, dead snakes, and, most frequently, roadkill armadillos.

We had 3 flats during the ride. We each had a flat on our trailer. Spokewrench’s was due to wire from truck tires and mine was due to glass. The third flat was my rear tire (in the last 10 miles of the ride) from, again, truck tire wire. Spokewrench wore out his rear tire so we replaced both his front and rear along the way. We also replaced his trailer tires for a pair with higher pressure for easier pulling. (I had replaced mine before we left, and found them quite efficient).

Altogether, we have traveled from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean in the first 3 years and then from St. Louis to the Atlantic Ocean this year, completing a transcontinental ride the hard way…diagonally…northwest to southeast. This amounted to just under 6000 miles for the 4 year odyssey. Will there be more in future years??? Who knows???

Students: You have until Monday, August 13 to submit the answers to the 30 questions we have posed. Remember to send them to the email address where we make our announcements. Good Luck!!

Day 30, Aug. 2-Hawthorne, FL to St. Augustine, FL (Anastasia State Park Campground)

2007-08-06T04:01:00.000-07:00

73.69 miles. N29.52 X W81.17

When I woke up this morning, I thought the motel room had a leak. I could hear a dripping sound. It wasn’t a leak, it was the rain dripping from the roof of our room. One would expect that the final day of a 16 week odyssey would be something like this: Clear, sunny skies, cool temperatures, quiet country roads, and a mechanically sound ride. What really happened is we had overcast skies with rain most of the day, hot, humid temperatures such that a raincoat was too hot an option, busy state highways with shoulders, some of the heaviest traffic we have seen, and a flat tire with only 10 miles to go. We packed up and set off for the last day of the trek. We biked back to last night’s supper location for breakfast, then got back on the road. Naturally, the rain had not subsided. The rain finally stopped around 11 at which point we had lunch. Once again, however, it was raining when we left. As mentioned before, we had a flat with just 10 miles to go. Spokewrench fixed that (in the rain) and we were back in the saddle within 15 minutes. We finished the last 10 miles to the campground and set up the tent, in the rain. We biked down to a small pavilion where we cooked a supper of Macaroni and Cheese with Vienna Sausage. After that, we biked down to the Atlantic Ocean to take pictures documenting us and our bikes in the ocean. We went down later to swim a little. This is officially the end of this leg of the ride and completes a 4 year odyssey that has led us from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean (on the Lewis and Clark Trail) and then from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico (on the Underground Railroad Trail) and then on the Atlantic (on the Southern Tier Trail). Unofficially, we have traveled 1648 miles this summer and a total of around 6000 miles. Tomorrow we drive!!!

Question of the day: Calculate how many pedal strokes it has taken us to the bicycle the complete 6000 mile trip. Use an average speed of 11.5 miles per hour and an average cadence of 75.

Day 29, Aug. 1-High Springs, FL (O’Leno State Park) to Hawthorne, FL

2007-08-03T07:15:00.001-07:00

58.79 miles. N29.35 X W82.05

We left a beautiful, but dripping campground and biked into High Springs, FL and to a restaurant for breakfast. We had a variety of roads and pathways to bike on today. We were briefly on state roads, but mostly on county roads going into Gainsville. Once we made it to Gainsville, as a university town, we found bike lanes on almost all the roads we traveled in the city. We also biked about 2 or 3 miles on the Gainsville-Waldo Rd. Greenway…this led us to the Gainsville-Hawthorne Greenway that would take us 16 miles into Hawthorne via this rails-to-trails conversion. This greenway was pristine. It was paved and in excellent condition. The trail was well marked and made for a very pleasant ride. We did encounter rain about half way across the greenway, but just enough to cause us to put everything under cover. It never rained seriously and we didn’t get soaked. It was just enough to cool us off and cover our bikes with sand…again. We biked on to Hawthorne and stopped at Sonny’s for supper. We had a called the Ranch Motel and Campground earlier and were told that there would be no problem getting a room. With the rain and the threat of more, we decided to spend the night in one of the inexpensive motel rooms. Tomorrow is St. Augustine!

Question of the Day:

Which university, which has won titles in football and basketball this season, is located in Gainsville?

Day 28, July 31-Live Oak, FL (Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park) to High Springs, FL (O’Leno State Park)

2007-08-03T07:07:00.001-07:00

54.72 miles. N29.54 X W82.35

I had a flat tire today before we had gone over 10 miles…a piece of a brown beer bottle lodged in my tire. I saw it before I hit it, and dodged it with my bicycle, but I couldn’t avoid it with the trailer. In my opinion, glass throwers are the lowest level of human life forms. People who throw glass bottles on the roadway should have their driver’s license suspended for life and be issued a bicycle and garbage bags so they can dodge and pick up roadway glass. We see glass everywhere and all the time. I’m surprised we haven’t flatted from glass before this. I also have a similar opinion about people who throw dirty diapers on the roadside, but I won’t go into that one.

It pretty much rained and dripped all night long. We stayed dry in the tent, but it was pretty hot and damp. Today’s problem is that we have decided to do a 55 mile ride and our map shows no services for the entire trip. Isn’t it amazing that you can go 55 miles in one of the most populous states in the U.S. and can go that far without a place to stop and eat or use the restroom? Well, fortunately, the map was wrong. We found a coffee shop in Wellborn at the 17 mile mark and then around the 50 mile mark we found a campground and convenience store. Most of the route today was on country roads and relatively flat. The ride was pretty much uneventful. The weather was hot in the morning then somewhat cooler in the afternoon as it became partially overcast, threatening rain. We pulled into O’Leno State Park and immediately saw a couple of deer along the side of the road. We haven’t seen many deer since biking in Florida. We set up camp amid thunder all around us. Our equipment is still wet from last night’s rain and it looks like more rain is in the offing. We waiting a little before starting to cook, in case the rain should start. Finally, we decided we’d better eat. I cooked and we were able to eat without getting wet. While we were eating, we heard a pair of barred owls talking to each other. After supper, I was writing in the journal when I saw one of the barred owls fly down to the ground and pounce on something and fly back up to the tree to eat. I tried to mimic its call, but unfortunately, scared it away. Perhaps my call was a warning call…or it was just plain weird. Sure enough the rain started a little before dusk, and while we were showering. It rained very hard for 20 minutes or so and then rained lightly for most of the night. We spent another night shut up in our tent, dry, but very warm and damp. By the way, the spider in the picture above is a banana spider...and, no, it is not making a cell phone call, it's just for size comparison.

Question of the day:

What English phrase is used to mimic the call of a barred owl?

Day 27, July 30-Tallahassee, FL to Live Oak, FL (Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park)

2007-07-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

83.34 miles. N30.24 X W82.57

Congratulations are in order. As of yesterday, I am now a grandfather for the fourth time, the first time for my son and daughter-in-law. But the real congrats go to the new Mom and Dad. What a blessed event!

We spent the night in Tallahassee at the Best Western on the east side. We debated as to whether this was a good idea or not, and it turned out to be a great idea as you will read below. We left in good time after a continental breakfast at the hotel, one of the best, I might add. We biked 18 miles to Monticello hoping to find a little more to eat. Alas, we didn’t find a restaurant in Monticello on our route. We biked on to Greenville, another 15 miles or so. Nothing in Greenville but convenience food and no place to sit. Next stop at the 48 mile marker was Madison, by this time we are starved. Finally a sit down restaurant. I called from this restaurant for our campground tonight and the campground was closed. That meant another 32 miles, making a total of over 80 as you can see at the top. I called the next campground and reserved a spot for the night. We biked on to Lee, got something to drink and that’s about where the sky opened up on us. It rained all the remaining 25 miles of the trip into the campground. With the heat and humidity, the rain felt good and cooled us off. This campground is much like a KOA with all kinds of facilities including a restaurant. We had supper, pitched our tent, and perched on the office porch to blog.

Question of the day: This campground is named after a famous river. Who made this river famous?

Day 26, July 29-Eastbank Campground, Bain Bridge, GA Near Chattahoochee, FL to Tallahassee, FL

2007-07-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

55.11 miles. N30.29 X W84.10

It remained clear all night, so we did not need the rain-fly. This helped the heat in the tent a little. It was still pretty warm but we managed a pretty good sleep. We were also able to keep the ants at bay thanks to the pesticide the camp host loaned us. I did find some woodroaches in the trailer, but I chased them off. We got a late start. We slept in a bit as we were expecting a short day today, but decided before we left to not take the 45 mile bypass of Tallahassee that Adventure Cycling suggests and go directly through the city. This will save us a day of biking, but make today a bit longer. We also lost an hour today because of the changing time zones. Anyhow we didn’t get started until after 10:00…and it was a hot one. Yesterday was 97 degrees, and it seemed hotter than that to me. The only problem was that we needed to find a motel on the east side of Tallahassee. An internet connection would allow us to search by area, but we couldn’t find a connection. We stopped at 3 McDonald’s and one Burger King, but nothing. Finally just outside of downtown Tallahassee, we found a Starbucks that had a connection and we quickly found a motel. We biked directly through the downtown, but since this was a Sunday afternoon, the traffic was fairly light. We pulled into the Best Western at about 6:00 p.m., a little later than normal. I am pretty much whipped today. The stifling heat doubled with the hills (yes, I said hills) of Tallahassee made it a difficult day for me. Spokewrench, however, seemed to get along pretty well. Well, we are in the air conditioning with some thunderstorms booming around in the area. I’m looking forward to a good, cool night’s sleep.

Question of the day: Can you find two words in today’s blog that have a triple-double?

Day 25, July 28-Bonifay, Fl to Eastbank Campground (COE), Bain Bridge, GA.

2007-07-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

61.26 miles. N 30.43 X W 84.51

Spokewrench got up today feeling a little punky. We walked next door to the Waffle House for breakfast and both ordered big breakfasts. Spokewrench ate hardly any of his and I actually didn’t do much better, eating about half of mine. I sent him back to the motel room to rest and I gathered the excess baggage we have been carrying around, took it to the Bonifay Post Office and sent it back home. I had a bag full of unneeded receipts and maps, Spokewrench’s bicycle tire he replaced, our never used water filter, some brochures, and a couple of gifts for family. We finally got on the road around 9:30. Today we biked 10 miles and then stopped, rested, and ate or at least drank something. That seemed to help us get through the day. It was 5:00 Central time when we reached the campground and 6:00 Eastern time. We seem to be moving in and out of the Eastern time zone. Also we are just across the state line in Georgia. We will go right back into Florida tomorrow, but it’s kind of cool to say we camped in Georgia tonight. We are in a beautiful campground and have it pretty much to ourselves. I can’t see anyone else around. There are no people in the tent section, but I don’t know about the RV section. Here’s the plan: blog, make pudding, shower, sleep. I’m especially looking forward to the last one.

Question of the day: I mentioned time zones in the blog. Can you find the exact location on Route 90 where the time zone changes from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone?

Day 24, July 27-Crestview, FL to Bonifay, FL

2007-07-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

60.84 miles. N30.46 X W85.41

We had a possible kidnapping today—no, not Spokewrench, but Scout, our little stuffed mascot. Yesterday afternoon, I untied him from my trailer and set him on top while I put my bike in the motel room. That’s the last we saw of him. We didn’t actually miss him until morning. When we got ready to leave, Scout was gone. I asked at the front desk, the housekeepers, and the maintenance man…nothing. So we left Scout-less. It’s a little sad. He has been with us since St. Louis on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

We left Crestview around 9:00 after breakfast at McD’s. We rode on Route 90 all day today. It is a pretty busy road, but there is a smooth, 4 foot shoulder and fairly level terrain allowing us to make good time today. A slight push from a southwest wind didn’t hurt anything either. We pedaled through Mossy Head, DeFuniak Springs, Ponce de Leon (stopped here for lunch at Sally’s Restaurant), Westville, Caryville, and finally Bonifay. Yes, we are staying at another motel. This area is not good for campgrounds. In the last 4 we called, 2 will not accept tent camping, 1 was closed, and the last was expensive and off-route more than we like. So we are at a motel for the 3^rd day in a row. Hopefully, we will have more campgrounds in our future. This is getting expensive.

Question of the day: Take a look at the picture above. Ponce de Leon is the name of a Spanish explorer who came to Florida looking for something special. What was he looking for? (There’s a clue in the picture.)

Day 23, July 26-Pensacola, FL to Crestview, FL

2007-07-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

64.23 miles. N30.44 X W86.34

The day divides itself into 2 distinct halves today. The first half was busy, noisy roads with lots of traffic. This was coming out of Pensacola and traveling to Milton on Route 90. Just to make it more interesting, after biking for about an hour, we encountered a downpour. The heavy rain followed us for about 30 minutes completely soaking us. We didn’t put on raincoats because of the heat. The big problem was the traffic. Every 5 seconds, a car would pass us spraying us with road water laced with sand. We were literally covered with sand. In Milton we found a Sonic to eat. The good thing about the Sonic is that we could eat outside under a covered area out of the rain and we didn’t have to drip all over the restaurant. The rain pretty much stopped by the time we were finished eating.

The second half of the ride was dryer and much, much quieter. We picked up the Blackwater Heritage Trail out of Milton. It was a wonderful, wide, smooth biking path. We followed that for 5.5 miles. I even spotted a box turtle crossing the path in front of us. The trail ended all too soon, but we continued on quiet, county roads for almost the rest of the mileage. We stopped at Holt at a restaurant for an early evening meal. I called the campground where we intended to stay for the night…bad news…they no longer have tent campsites. We called the other campground near Holt and same answer. 13 more miles down the road was Crestview, but no campgrounds. The nearest campground was 43 miles away…way to far for us today. Crestview does have motels, so we broke down and took another motel. Oh well, it’s a good chance to shower away the sand coating we are wearing.

Question of the day: If you have been in my classes at Washington, I have told you the answer to this question. Today we saw a box turtle, like Tilly and Boxer, in my classroom. Tilly is a female and boxer is a male. What is the unique way male and female box turtles can be told apart?

Day 22, July 25. Dauphin Island Campground, AL to Pensacola, FL

2007-07-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

58.71 miles. N 30.25 X W87.13

We didn’t get into a good rhythm today. We started out without breakfast, so we could make the first ferry off the island. We have a 60 miler to do today after the ferry and the earlier we can get at it, the better. The ferry left the island at 8:00 and put us back on the mainland at 8:40. By the time we got on the road, it was 9:00. Late to do 60 miles but do-able if one keeps at it. Tonight is Pensacola and, as is our usual policy, we stay at a motel when stopping in a city. The ride was flat as a pancake today, except for bridges and there were several of those. Most of the day was spent biking along the coast. We have seen more condos along the beaches than I thought possible. There seemed to be one after the other, for hour after hour. We left Alabama and entered Florida around 2:00 p.m. without fanfare…in fact we didn’t even know we were in Florida until we noticed the road number changed. No picture of us under the “Welcome to Florida” sign this time. We ran across a bike shop shortly before arriving at the inn. Spokewrench was able to find a match to the front tire he bought the other day and a kickstand to replace the one that exploded in Gosport, AL. The inn in Pensacola added to this unusual day. The first room where we were placed had serious, and I do mean serious, toilet problems. The front desk person changed us to another room. In this room, the remote didn’t work and the shower was cold. We complained again and the lady gave Spokewrench the codes to calibrate the remote. He was able to correct that problem…but the shower is still cold. We walked several blocks to check out a couple of restaurants for a burger. One was very expensive, we found out, after we were seated, so we left. The other was a pub and it didn’t quite feel right. So we walked back to the hotel and order out for pizza. Things turned out pretty well. We have a room that has a working toilet and remote, we have enough pizza for both supper and breakfast tomorrow morning, and the air conditioner is keeping the room “sleeping cool.” All we lack is a hot shower...oh well, 4 out of 5 isn’t bad.

Question of the day: The picture at the top of the page was taken from the ferry this morning. What is the function of the structure in the picture?

Day 21, July 24-Mobile, AL to Dauphin Island Campground, AL

2007-07-26T05:43:00.000-07:00

46.98 miles. N 30.15 X W 88.05

We left Mobile at 9:00, 3 hours later than we had planned. We wanted to get an early start to miss the rush hour traffic downtown…but…it was raining. The weather said it would clear soon so we decided to leave around 9:00 after rush hour instead of before. It worked out pretty well. The traffic wasn’t too bad. We are actually traveling off-route because we are between the Underground Railroad route and the Southern Tier route. A gentleman at the bicycle shop in Mobile gave us a route down to Dauphin Island and it worked out quite well. Thanks, Mike. We made it to Dauphin Island in good time after crossing one of the longest bridges we have biked over yet. I don’t know exactly, but it was somewhere between 4 to 6 miles.

And now…three foot breakers wash up into the white sands churning the clamshells and pebbles over and over. The beach is rather isolated with only 5 or 6 families enjoying the summer sun and the warm Gulf water. Every few minutes I see a pelican skimming along the water searching for fish, I assume. The beach itself is dotted with tree stumps to my left but mostly white sand on my right. Back from the shore a ways, clumps of beach grasses and another plant I can’t recall, agave perhaps (see the picture above). All this, right behind our camp. Awesome! Spokewrench and I even took a dip in that delightfully warm water. Spokewrench’s claim to fame? A possible jellyfish sting.

Question of the day: The flags of 4 different countries have flown over Dauphin Island. What are those 4 countries?

Day 20, July 23-Hubbard Landing Campground to Mobile, AL

2007-07-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

64.10 miles. N 30.41 W 88.03 Elevation:42 feet

Good-by to the great little cabin at Hubbard and hello to the hustle and bustle of the city of Mobile. We breakfasted at the Stagecoach Restaurant in Stockton and then headed toward Spanish Fort. The hills and forests were much the same as we have been biking through for the past 4 or 5 days. All that changed dramatically when we hit Spanish Fort, AL. Suddenly we were on a 4-lane highway with lots of traffic. Gone were the pine forests…and we were surrounded by water everywhere. Rivers coming into the Gulf of Mexico on our right and the bay on our left. Our route into Mobile followed a truck route which was heavily traveled. Luckily we had a good sized shoulder on which to ride. 2 tunnels take most traffic into Mobile, but since bicycles are not allowed in the tunnel we had to take a circuitous route to a large bridge over the Mobile River to the north of the city. Unfortunately, this also took us through the Mobile Docks which wasn’t such comfortable biking. We finally worked our way through that and into the downtown area of Mobile. There were found the Ramada Inn where we planned to spend the night. The next problem was that we needed to get to a bicycle shop. We have pretty much worn out our bicycling shorts and Spokewrench’s back tire is all but bald. We called 3 but all were out of the city quite some distance. The Cadence 120 Bike Shop owner thought he was only about 4 miles from downtown. I called about a cab but it was $18 one way…so we decided to bike there. It didn’t look too difficult to find, so we took off our trailers and headed out. 8 miles later we found the shop. That means a 16 mile round trip ride. But we did get the tire, shorts, and Big Mac at McDonalds.

Question of the day: As we biked into Mobile, we came across the battleship pictured above. It is memorial to the Veterans of WWII. What is the name of the battleship?

Day 19, July 22-South of Grove Hill, AL to Stockton, AL (Hubbard Landing Campground)

2007-07-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

54.58 miles. N31.04 X W87.52

Today’s issue was lack of services…We left our guesthouse in good time and headed down to the Gosport Grocery for coffee, poptarts, peanut butter crackers. We didn’t find a convenience store for the next 22 miles. This is Sunday, so many convenience stores are closed. There are no restaurants at all on the route and only a few gas stations showing on the map. It turns out there were only 2 convenience stores on the route open, but thankfully that provided us with lunch. We biked on to Hubbard Landing Campground and when we inquired about cabins and campsites, the owner, Harold, said that since we were biking the Underground Railroad, he would give us a cabin for the night free of charge…and a very nice cabin indeed, complete with stove, refrigerator, shower, sink, microwave, and air conditioning. I can’t get over the kindness of that we have seen in the last few days. It is overwhelming! Tomorrow is Mobile!

Question of the day: Our cabin overlooks the Tensaw River. At certain times of the day, the river runs toward the Gulf of Mexico like it should, but at other times of the day, the river runs backwards…upstream…why?

Day 18, July 21-Coffeeville, AL (Service Park Campground) to 13 miles south of Grove Hill

2007-07-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

38.89 miles. N31.35 X W87.37

The Adventure Cycling Map has us doing something weird today. We are supposed to go south to Jackson, then back north to Grove Hill, some 35 or 40 miles. Rt 84 on the other hand goes directly to Grove Hill from Coffeeville in 20 miles. I asked a local gentleman about Rt 84 and he said that he would cry if someone made him bike all the way to Jackson and back up to Grove Hill… by all means we should take 84. That settled it, we would take Rt. 84. We had no traffic issues, some cars but only 2 trucks in the 20 miles and we arrived in Grove Hill by 11:30. We stopped at the local Burger King for something to drink. Apparently a church bus full of church camp kids had arrived just before us, because there was quite a long line of youngsters waiting to order. I struck up a conversation with the chaperone/bus driver. Harrison was very interested in what we were doing and where we planned to spend the night since this town has only a city park in which to camp. As we got ready to leave, Harrison walked back over to us and asked us if we might want to camp in the backyard of friend of his that lived 13 miles south on our route. We jumped at the chance. Harrison called John Moore and John was agreeable. He said we could put up a tent in the backyard of an empty house he owned. After having lunch at Gloria’s Restaurant, we biked down to the John’s empty house. We called John and he met us there and gave us a great deal. He gave us the house for the night! It had air conditioning, shower, stove, refrigerator, and TV. He told us to use anything we wanted. So Spokewrench and I camped out on the floor in front of the TV after a meal of Spam and Cheese with smoked sausage. What a wonderful act of kindness. Thank you so much, John. And now, we only have a 50-some mile ride tomorrow instead of a 70-some!

Question of the day: We thought of a few reasons that Adventure Cycling may have routed us on the longer route rather than the more direct road. Name 3 reasons why you think we were routed the long way.

Day 17, July 20-Linden, AL to Coffeeville, AL (Park Service Campground)

2007-07-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

59.76 miles. N31.45 X W88.09.

Breakfast at Church’s Chicken and on the road by 7:45. We biked 20 miles to our only service stop of the day until our destination town of Coffeeville. We had a BBQ sandwich and a Gatorade and were on our way. We had 36 miles to go and they were a rough 36. We haven’t seen hills like this since Tennessee. Granny was used consistently today after she had been asleep for some time. With about 6 miles to go, we were both pretty well beaten. We stopped under some shade trees with houses on both sides of the road. We sipped at the hot water in our bottles trying to get the motivation to continue…enter Roy Pervus. Roy lived in the house to left. He came out and asked if he could get us some water. We told him we had water but it was pretty hot. He practically ran back into his house and came out with 3 ice-cold bottles of water. Nothing, and I mean nothing, ever tasted so good to me! It gave us the motivation to continue on to Sally’s Dairy Bar for supper. From there we biked another 4 miles to the Park Service Campground. We secured a site, but noticed dark clouds on the horizon. We set up the tent quickly and got the camp ready for a possible storm. We were located on a point right above the Tombigbee River. I did a load of laundry and both of us were still in the small laundry room when the storm hit. It was quite a storm. As we stood and watched, a tree blew down shattering the sunroof of a car in one site across the street from the laundry. In another, a limb broke the side window of car. We finished up the laundry and hurried back to our campsite to see if our tent was still standing. It was fine and had not even taken on any water. It rained until after midnight as we sweltered inside the tent, but when the rain stopped, the air was cooler and we were able to sleep fairly comfortably for the remainder of the night.

Question of the day: For the first time since we have started the trip, we are now seeing a parasite on some of the trees around here. I have taken a couple of pictures of this parasite. What is its name?

Day 16, July 19-Aliceville, AL (Cochrane Campground) to Linden, AL

2007-07-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

75.63 miles. N32.18 X W87.48

We were on the road today by 7:15, after a short bite to eat in the campground. We have 70 some miles planned. Our breakfast stop according to the map was 23 miles away. After we had biked about 10 miles, we came to a small convenience store that had refrigerated sandwiches. We each bought a sandwich and something to drink. No place to sit down, so we stood around and ate our sandwiches. We moved on to the next convenience store which had much the same thing. We just bought something to drink. The next stop promised us a restaurant, and sure enough there was a restaurant, Gert’s Restaurant to be exact. Gert’s has a place to sit down, great food, a restroom, but no air conditioning…but at least we are out of the sun. We stopped 3 more times during the afternoon at convenience stores, plenty to drink and sometimes eat, but no restrooms. We decided on a motel tonight. We expected to be tired and we were…hot showers, soft bed, TV. It was a long day.

Question of the day: We have noticed that about every other tree along the roadside is a Sweet Gum. Did you know that the gum tree is a Biblical tree? The resin from this tree is used to make something precious to the people in Bible times. What is this precious substance made from the resin of the gum tree?

Day 15, July 18-West Point, MS (Town Creek Campground) to Aliceville, AL (Cochrane Campground)

2007-07-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

69.30 miles. N33.05 X W88.16.

We left in decent time again today (before 8:00 a.m.). We biked to Columbus for breakfast at McDonalds. Spokewrench even took advantage of the wifi that most McDonalds have and did some internet work. After breakfast, we headed out of Columbus, but not without some difficulty. Try as we might, we ran into a confusing section of our Adventure Cycling maps. We ended up making a 6 mile mistake. Then the flat tire. As it worked out, we had ridden 25 miles and we were still in Columbus. After this start, we finally got down to the business of biking. We passed through Pickensville, Aliceville, and finally Cochrane and the campground. This was our second COE (Corp of Engineer) campground and once again we were impressed. It was a pristine site and everything was well maintained and clean. The campground host stopped by while we were trying to pump up Spokewrench’s back tire and he said he had a compressor. We followed him back to his site where we were able to pump up all of our bike tires. Thanks, Campground Host!

Question of the day: Our tires on the bikes and trailers hold about 100 pounds per square inch (psi) each. What do you think happens if we try to inflate our tires that are down to 75 psi from a compressor that can only produce 50 psi?

Day 14, July 17-Amory, MS to Town Creek Campground –COE- (Near West Point, MS)

2007-07-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

52.15 miles. N33.37 X W88.30

This was a stressful day for me. We started out on Rt. 278. It was a very busy highway with many big trucks. Someone yelled at us right off the bat…but after about 3 or 4 miles we turned off on a county road which was much better traffic-wise but seemed to have dogs at every house that were interested in escorting us along. The road was very rough to boot. We arrived in Aberdeen and immediately were placed on Rt. 25, another very busy road with just a small shoulder covered with rumble strips…more stress. Our next road was Alt 45, dual lane with a small shoulder but carried as much traffic as U.S. 30 at home. This took us into West Point, MS where we rode on Rt. 50, a highway that was very rough, had no shoulder, and was fairly busy. I was glad to have this day finished safely. The good news today…we pulled into a beautiful secluded campground with clean showers and a laundry station. A long, hot shower was a great stress-breaker!

Question of the day: You will see a couple of pictures posted with this entry of a tree we see often as we bike along. This tree is not seen often in northern Indiana. Can you identify this tree?

Day 13, July 16- Tishomingo State Park to Amory, MS

2007-07-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

61.96 miles. N33.59 X W88.29

Once again we got a decent start: Out of the campground by 7:45 – Grabbed a breakfast sandwich at the convenience store at the entrance to the park – On the road by 8:30. After about a mile, our route took us on the Natchez Trace Parkway. What a beautiful stretch of road: No buildings, no commercial traffic, no billboards. It’s just a shame that after building this wonderful road, a little more money couldn’t have been spent to make it a little more bicycle friendly by making a bicycle shoulder to ride on. Anyhow, there is very little traffic, making it a pleasant ride. Sadly, we left the Parkway after about 10 miles and went back to Mississippi country roads. We biked about 30 miles of the doggiest roads we have ridden. Every farmhouse seemed to have 1, 2, or 3 dogs running loose and ready to chase us. Most are contented to just run to the road and bark, some, however, are more interested in chasing. Thankfully, we haven’t come up against any really aggressive dogs. We biked 30 miles to Fulton for lunch and then on to Amory. We arrived in time at the motel for me to find a Laundromat and get a load of laundry done. We ordered out for pizza tonight and Spokewrench spent some time in the pool while I blogged.

Question of the day: Between what 2 cities does the Natchez Trace run and how long is it?

Day 12, July 15-Pickwick Landing State Park to Tishomingo State Park

2007-07-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

42.85 miles. N34.37 X W88.12

We continued on our off-route short cut journey after a good breakfast buffet at the Pickwick Landing Inn. We wished that the campground had been as well taken care of as the Inn. It was spotless and a very beautiful building whereas the campground toilets and showers left something to be desired. We rated it a 4.5 out of 10…not quite good enough to actually take a shower. We pedaled on down to Tishomingo, stopping once for a shake at Hardee’s and again at a convenience store in Tishomingo for deep fried delights for lunch. Tishomingo State Park is a large, beautiful park with its own lake called Hayes Lake. It is very apparent that this area is under drought conditions because the lake is down some 8 to 10 feet according to the next door camper. We can only see 2 other campers on the grounds tonight, making it very quiet indeed. Our campsite is huge extending down to the lake edge. Our tent is dwarfed by towering pine trees and we have a smoky, little campfire going. There is almost no breeze but the lake has some riffles caused by several ducks that have taken up residence here. It is quite an idyllic scene. I have failed to mention that we are in armadillo country now. We see 4 or 5 roadkills along our route every day about like we would see opossum along the roads in Indiana. We have yet to see one alive, however. Well, time to prepare supper. No roadkill tonight… I think a spaghetti dinner is in order. Bon appetite!

Question of the day: Tishomingo refers to a person in a Native American tribe. To what Indian group did this person belong and what was his job?

Day 11, July 14-Saltillo, TN to Pickwick Landing State Park (Near Pickwick Dam)

2007-07-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

33.92 miles.

We managed a much earlier start this morning. We had eaten breakfast and were on the road shortly after 8:30. We joined Diane and Ron at the breakfast buffet down the road and then we headed south and they headed north. Our destination today was Crump, TN by noon about 15 miles away and Shiloh Battleground State Park by early afternoon. Ah, but how often do our plans go awry. We both watched the map carefully today and were very confident we were taking the correct roads. The turns matched up well and, even though there were no roadsigns, it looked like we were right on course. Strangely we came across a surprise flat area of about 5 miles that wasn’t apparent on the map. That is the first time we have hit this much flat land in our 10 days of travel. Imagine our surprise when we rolled into the town of Savannah, TN instead of Crump, about 5 miles south of where we hoped to end up. That explains why the flat land was not on our maps. Well, when you have lemons, make lemonade. Neither Crump nor Shiloh had a public library, but Savannah does, so we went to the library and uploaded yesterday’s blog. South of Savannah about 12 miles, is Pickwick Landing State Park which was recommended to us by Diane and Ron. We headed down to Pickwick State Park instead of Shiloh Battleground State Park. We can rejoin the route in several different places tomorrow. Diane and Ron were right, it is a beautiful park and we are glad we are here. We are only about 5 miles from the Mississippi border. It was quite warm and humid today with bright sunlight all of our traveling time. It has clouded up some since we made camp late this afternoon, however.

Question of the day: The paternal grandparents of a famous author are buried at Savanna, TN. Who was this author?

Day 10, July 13-Mousetail Landing State Park to Saltillo, TN

2007-07-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

34.16 miles. N 35.30 X W88.13.

We again got a late start from the state park and biked down to Linden to Fat Man’s Convenience Store and Restaurant for breakfast. Within 2 miles of the restaurant, my chain dropped off into the frame again and bent the chain…but this time we were ready, or should I say Spokewrench was ready. He put some of his wrenching skills to work and had us back on the road in 20 minutes. Great job, Spokewrench! We biked on to Decatorville, TN to the Decator County Library. We asked about and were given permission to use the wireless system there. I dug out the computer and am pleased to say that it connected just fine. Apparently, it wasn’t our computer’s problem at the Imperial Lodge in Waverly after all. We had lunch at Decatorville and here it was, 1:15 and we have only biked 13 miles. At this point we abandoned hope for making it to Shiloh and decided to stop at Saltillo, TN at a landing campground there. We arrived in Saltillo and stopped at a restaurant for something cold and wet. I struck up a conversation with Shannon Hayes, who was very interested in our trip. Thanks for the drinks, Shannon! When we arrived at the campground, it was a bit run-down and I wasn’t feeling too good about it, when another couple came pedaling in. Ron and Diane were touring around western Tennessee for a 3 week vacation. This was there 2^nd or 3^rd day out. I felt better immediately. I needn’t have worried anyway, because the owner who had just taken over the campground was completely accommodating, even offering us free pontoon rides on the Tennessee River. We had a wonderful evening chatting, sharing stories, and laughing through the evening. It was good to find kindred spirits. While we were chatting, a couple of stray pups came up to our camp. We were told that these were “Coydogs”, half coyote and half dog. They were still too wild to catch, but, as you can see in the picture, it is easy to see that they had coyote blood in them.

Question of the day: According to the campground owner, today's location is within 10 miles of the suicide of an important person related to the past 3 year's rides. Who was this person?

Day 9, July 12-Waverly, TN to Mousetail Landing State Park (Linden, TN)

2007-07-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

53.26 miles

N35.40 X W88.00.

Finally, my first café latte of the trip. We biked back to downtown Waverly, and visited the Waverly Café. The menu included espresso coffee, so I enjoyed my first café latte in a week. Not as good as Courthouse Coffee, but good! At the Waverly Café, we met Sue and Charlie. They were biking the Underground Railroad northbound. These are experienced bikers having done the transcontinental Northern Tier, SouthernTier, and the original transcontinental route, plus the Great Rivers route. We enjoyed swapping stories with them. Today’s bike was a little calmer. The hills were there with several challenging ones, but we also had some places where the grades were not so steep and long allowing rest between the challenges. It was a much more pleasant ride today. We did come upon a snake today. Of course, I (Clarkwheel) can’t pass up a snake. It was about a 2 footer, very dark with even darker spots. I stopped and went back for a better look. I’m not about to pick up a snake that I can’t identify, but I can’t help but study it a bit. I touched it with a stick and it immediately flattened its head and formed a hood like a cobra. It also hissed loudly. So I’m stumped. The worst hill of the day was inside the Mousetail Landing State Park. The road to the campground was the steepest I have ever encountered. I couldn’t stay in the saddle and pedal because my front wheel would lift off the pavement and I don’t have the stamina to stand and pedal over a long distance…so, yes, I walked or rather pushed with all my strength. Of course, Spokewrench refused to walk and, after several stops and starts, managed to pedal up that monster. Upon reaching the top of the hill, he found his pulse to be 184.

Today’s question: Based on the description above, what kind of snake did we find today?

Day 8, July 11-Big Pine Campground (Dover, TN) to Waverly, TN

2007-07-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

46.53 miles

N36.05 X W87.49

By the time morning came the rain had stopped, but everything was quite wet since it had rained most of the night. We packed up and went back over to the Catfish Kitchen for breakfast. We started out climbing a long hill and at the top we made our first turnoff. The map warned us today about getting confused on the first turnoff, so we carefully watched our mileage and turned when it was exactly correct. We biked about 4 miles and came right back to the Catfish Kitchen. Second try…this time I asked someone. He gave us exact directions, so after the 4 or 5 mile warm-up (including the long hill twice), we finally found the right path. And a hilly one it was today. This was monster hill day. They came after us all day long, one after another. By the time we reached Waverly, we were both exhausted. There were no campgrounds within 20 miles so we stayed at the Imperial Motel. When I call ahead, and I usually do, I always ask in this order: price, wireless internet, pool, hot tub. For this one I got $50.00, wireless internet, no pool, Jacuzzi. Turns out the price was about the only thing correct. The wireless wasn’t working properly at least with our laptop, the Jacuzzi was in a room that one could rent for substantially more money. I guess I’ll have to learn to reword my questions. Anyhow, hot private showers and a soft bed in air conditioning…that’s worth a lot.

Question of the Day-

This picture is significant in the cycling world as there is a component company mentioned here. What cycling component are they most famous for making and what is the top model they make of this component?

Day 7, July 10 - From Grand Rivers (Hillman’s Ferry Campground) to Big Pine Campgrounds (Near Dover, TN)

2007-07-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Mileage: 46.29

Coordinates: N36.29 X W 87.56

Mec

hanically, things went somewhat better today. Our task was to ride the Land Between the Lakes Trace. It is a 40 odd mile ride between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley through a national recreation area. We saw places to do almost every outdoor activity. The only problem was that there would be no services through this 40 miles, so we stopped at the camp store and bought some snacks to tide us over until we could reach a restaurant at Dover, TN on the other end. The entire 40 miles was heavily wooded and went up and down like a roller coaster. We saw deer, w

ild turkey, and one lonely buffalo.

The only problem I encountered was near the end of the ride. I somehow bent a tooth on the middle chain ring. I was able to get to the campground using the small ring and was also able to tap the tooth back into place after borrowing a small hammer from the the campground host. Rain began around 8:00 and lasted pretty much all night. I had added some seamseal to my tent the night before and the tent was completely waterproof.

Question of the day: What is the structure in the picture?

Day 6, July 9-Grand Rivers (Microtel Inn) to Land Between the Lakes (Hillman’s Ferry Campground)

2007-07-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

Mileage: 18.53 miles
N 36.57 X W 88.53

The famous motel continental breakfast: have you ever wondered what it really is? We have been in 3 motels and they have all had about the same:
2 or 3 kinds of cold cereal
2 kinds of juice
Bagels with toppings
Toast or raisin bread
1 or 2 kinds of muffins
Sweet rolls
Coffee or tea
Milk
Condiments
Out west we almost always had a waffle machine as well. I miss my morning waffles.

Notice the low mileage today. We did laundry in the morning and it took up most of the morning. After a delicious lunch in Grand Rivers at the Iron Kettle…fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, veggies, pies, etc. we headed over to the local bike shop called Wood n’ Water. My shifters had been acting weird and I wanted them checked. We also were looking for some high pressure tires for Spokewrench’s trailer. We were able to do both at the shop. Spokewrench got his tires and mounted them. I had my shifter adjusted. We took off for a 20 something mile ride as it was already 2:30. I hadn’t gone 6 miles when my chain got caught between the frame of the bike and the inside chainring and bent the chain. We didn’t bring extra chain links, so I called the bike shop back. They were extremely accommodating. Chase drove out to where we were and picked us up and brought us back. My chain was repaired by 5:30. We decided on a campground 3 miles away instead of 20 and headed there. We had no sooner set up our tent at Hillman’s Ferry Campground when a thunderstorm descended upon us, dumping a half an inch of rain in about 15 minutes. We took cover in the tent and played Lewis and Clark gin until it past. I cooked some ramen and we hit the sack.

Question of the day: We camped in the area designated as "The Land Between the Lakes"...the lakes are Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. These are actually reservoirs resulting of the damming of two rivers. What are the names of the rivers?

Clarkwheel

Day 5, July 8. Cave in Rock State Park-Cave in Rock, IL to Grand River, KY. N37.03 X W88.16.

2007-07-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

I am having difficulty with my front derailleur. The shifting is not working well at all. Spokewrench worked on it until after dark but it was still not working so we decided to get some sleep and try again in the morning. When the alarm rang at 5:30, it was very foggy. We slept in a little and then we got up around 7:00, Spokewrench went to work on the derailleur again and got it working. We went up (and I do mean up) to the State Park Lodge for breakfast. We left the restaurant and headed down to the Ohio River ferry and crossed the river. Watching the driving of the tugboat is interesting. It must take quite a bit of practice. Matching up the ferry with the dock perfectly must be quite a trick with the river moving and the ferry moving. Anyhow the driver managed to get it done, so we rode off the ferry into Kentucky. Although it was another hot day (very hot), we got along pretty well with the hills of Kentucky. The hills didn’t seem as steep and long. We were riding on pretty much traffic-free roads most of the day. We had originally planned a shorter day because of campground availability, but we decided that we would go for a longer day and a motel. So here we are at the Microtel Inn and Suits after a refreshing shower and a swim in the pool. Ahhhh!!!!

Question of the day: Living in Indiana, we are called the Hoosier State, what is Kentucky called?

Day 4, July 7: Ferne Clyffe State Park (Goreville, IL) to Cave in Rock State Park (Cave in Rock, IL) N 37.26 X W 88.10

2007-07-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

63.34 hilly miles today.

We managed to get going a little earlier than yesterday. We biked back up to Delaneys, about 1.5 miles out of our way for breakfast. I ate the best Western Omelet I’ve had in a long time…literally loaded with ham. Then off for the day and into some huge hills right from the get-go. I personally felt better about the hills today and handled them better than the previous two days, at least in the morning. We biked on state highways most of the way to Eddyville. This means that the hills are a just a little gentler and a whole lot smoother. Smoothness seems to make a big difference for me in hill-climbing. I was pretty well shot by the time we reached Eddyville. We had a late lunch there and that revived me somewhat. The waitress at Eddyville recommended a boathouse restaurant in Elizabethville, our destination tonight. We biked on the Elizabethville under about the same conditions. We looked up the restaurant on the Ohio River. It was packed but we waited and had a great Ohio River all-you-can-eat catfish meal. We headed on about 8 miles to the Cave in the Rocks State Park. This last 8 miles were the most difficult of the day…steep hills, rough road, and tiredness…even when we got to the campground, the road to the sites seemed straight up. A long day!

Question of the day: As I mentioned, we ate actually on the Ohio River. What states does the Ohio River touch on the way to the Mississippi River?

Day 3, July 6: Murphysboro Lake State Park (Murphysboro, IL) to Ferne Clyffe State Park (Goreville, IL N 37.32 X W 88.58

2007-07-09T04:23:00.000-07:00

45.69 miles.

Late start this morning. We are not in the “packing up and getting out” mode yet. We packed and left the campgrounds around 8:45. We biked the short distance into town and had breakfast at Tippey’s. Consequently, we didn’t really get on the road until almost 10:00. It was already pretty warm. We had a good breakfast, though and good thing because we didn’t eat again until 6:00 p.m. As we left Murphysboro, we mistakenly followed the signs to Carbondale rather than follow the Adventure Cycling maps. Turns out it was a shorter way to Carbondale, but a busier route. We would have been fine, had we know which way to get downtown to the bicycle shops. We ended up going 3 miles out of our way. We finally figured out where to go after questioning a bus driver and a UPS driver. We visited the 3 shops looking for high-pressure trailer tires, but to no avail. We headed on down to our route and managed to stay on route until our arrival at Goreville. We biked to the main district and had “all you can eat” fish at Delaneys. Delaneys keeps a record of bikers coming through. They take a picture and asked us to write something in their biker log book. Then they give us a free piece of pie to go with our meal. I left very full. We biked on out to the Ferne Clyffe State Park and set up camp in a very beautiful campground with a friendly host. It was late so without too much ado, we showered and hit the sack.

Question of the day: Carbondale is the home of what university?

Day 2, July 5: Red Bud, IL to Murphysboro, IL (Murphysboro Lake State Park) N 37.46 XW 89.22

2007-07-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

We awoke this morning and enjoyed the continental breakfast provided by the Country Inn of Rosebud. The news that morning told of lots of rain and thunderstorms overnight, with unofficial reports of up to eight inches. However, upon going outside, we found very little rain near the hotel. Road signs told us we had 24 miles to get to Chester. As we progressed, we noticed more indicators that places south of us had received significantly more rain than we did. We stopped for a bite to eat in the small town of Ellis Grove, where the rumors were confirmed of the eight inches of rain received in some areas. Upon inspection of the Adventure Cycling maps that we were now part of, but technically not on the route, it looked like there was a road that paralleled the busy and rough route 3. The road was mainly used to get to Fort Kaskaskia State Park. We entered the park and followed the roads that were near the campground in which we were going to camp at last night had we not gotten so tired. It was clear that Fort Kaskaskia had received a lot more rain than we did in Red Bud. There were trees down and washouts that had probably flooded the road during the storm. For the most part, there were no longer any parts of the road covered by water. We came to the conclusion that it was a good thing we stopped in Red Bud last night, because the heavy storms and strong winds could have been a hazard to us. Continuing further, we saw a large bridge spanning the Mississippi river. The road went into Chester and was part of the Adventure Cycling route. Soon we got on the route and stopped at a McDonalds where we got some food to eat and drinks to cool off. Outside of Chester, the route split into a main route and an option that took us along the river. The Adventure Cycling maps informed us that the river option was not a good idea if the river was high. The roads are sometimes closed due to high water. Judging by the recent storm, we thought it was obvious that we should take the main route, which was described by the Adventure Cycling maps as “slightly hillier”. Hmmm, “slightly” was one of the great understatements. The first 15 miles had some of the steepest we could recall during the previous 3100 miles of the Lewis and Clark trail. Keep this a secret…but I (Clarkwheel) had to walk and push my bike and trailer on one particularly steep section. From there on, the road leveled out somewhat and made going a bit easier. Then…we encountered something we had never encountered in the past 3 years. RAIN! We have been waiting 3 years for this! We both were perspiring profusely and the cool, refreshing rain was welcomed addition to the trip. We stopped at the town of Ava for lunch at Bruzeks, a delicious meal I might add, and continued the remaining 13 miles or so to Murphysboro Lake State Park, making a total mileage of 66.74 miles, a pretty decent total for the second day out. We had several wildlife sightings today. We spotted deer on two occasions, a turkey…not sure whether it was wild or tame, a fairly large blacksnake…dead, and two turtles…a box turtle and a musk turtle, and were visited by an owl at dusk. Spokewrench calculated the next week’s worth of travel and, if all goes well, we should be in the state of Mississippi.

Question of the day: We often hear mockingbirds singing in the evening and sometimes into the night. We don’t have many mockingbirds in northern Indiana but we do have another mimic. It is the catbird. The mockingbird and catbird have similar sounds, mimicking other birds, but there is a basic difference that allows one to tell them apart. What is the difference between the mockingbird’s song and catbird’s song?

Day 1-Pontoon Beach, IL to Red Bud, IL-50.44 miles

2007-07-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

38.12 N X 89.60 W
We left the Best Western around 7:15 a.m. after having a pretty skimpy continental breakfast. I guess that was one reason why this hotel received only a half a star out of five in the ratings. Anyhow we ate what we could and headed out. We really didn't have a bicycle route. We are about 70 miles north of where we can intercept the Adventure Cycling map of the transcontinental bicycle route. We ask the limo driver what he thought and he gave us the best route he knew. We started with that. We had only gone about 5 miles when we realized that there was a bicycle path just to the right of us. We jumped on it at the first opportunity. It was a great paved path and it carried us for about 10 miles of traffic-free biking bliss. Of course, reality set in when we arrived at Route 159...a historic highway, but very busy. (Speaking of historic highways, the Best Western was located on historic route 66. However, we only rode that route for about 1 block). Our original plan was to bike near the city of Chester, IL and stay at a nearby campground. We will be able to pick up the transcontinental trail from there. That was a 70 mile shot and turned out to be a little too robust for me to handle. After 50 miles, I was ready to throw in the towel for the day. We inquired. The nearest campground was still 26 miles south. There was the Red Bud Country Inn...the only motel in Red Bud. The weather was deteriorating and I was shot, so we took a room there for the night. The temperature was 93 degrees and very humid with approaching storms.
Clarkwheel
Question of the day: While biking on historic route 159 today, we passed a man-made object that turned out to be the world's largest of its kind. What object did we pass and what city was it found in?

Best Western Hotel, Pontoon Beach, IL

2007-07-03T20:47:00.000-07:00

38.46 N X 90.04 W

Welcome, Adventurers. Spokewrench and I (Clarkwheel) are starting phase 4 of our bicycling adventure. Briefly, phase 1, (summer 2004) was from St. Louis, MO to Kansas City, KS; phase 2 (summer 2005) was from Kansas City to Lewistown, MT; and phase 3 (summer 2006) was from Lewistown to the Pacific Ocean. Our goal this year is to begin at St. Louis (actually Pontoon Beach, IL just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis) and pedal to St. Augustine, FL and the Atlantic Ocean, completing a transcontinental ride. Once again we are posting daily journals to our blog www.lewisandclarkcyclingtrek.blogspot.com . This pre-ride entry will be posted on the blog as well. Starting tomorrow with the first day’s ride, we will again post a question a day. The student with the most correct answers by the end of the trip (approximately 30 days) will receive a $100 gift certificate to Trailhouse in the Village at Winona. Adults are encouraged to participate as well as students, however, only students are eligible for the prize. We will report the correct answers to all questions upon our return from the tour. Do not report the answers to the blog as everyone will be able to read that. Instead, reply to this email with your answer. We will save and compile correct answers upon our return. Also keep in mind that since we are camping most of the time and may not have an internet connection, there may be time lapses between entries, but there will be an entry (and a question) for every day of the journey. If you have questions or comments, please reply to this email or post to the blog. Good Luck!

Spokewrench (Tai) and Clarkwheel (Pardee)

Day 28-Postride-Fort Stevens State Park (back) to Astoria, OR-11.26 miles

2006-08-02T04:22:00.000-07:00

We slept in a bit this morning, because…well, we didn’t have much reason to get up early. We went back down to the beach, about a mile from the campsite, watched the ocean and took some more pictures. We packed up and biked back into Astoria. We delivered the bikes and trailers to “Bikes and Beyond” for boxing and shipping. Next we had lunch and shopped for “train snacks” and reading material for the next 3 days. Back to the bike shop where we had our luggage stashed and taxied our way to the motel for the evening. This was a decompression day. The end of ride like this gives me a bitter-sweet feeling. On the sweet side, I like the feeling of accomplishment; of closing a 3 year project, of seeing the ocean as Lewis and Clark, but on the bitter side, I will miss the anticipation of seeing new sites; tackling new challenges; of meeting interesting people. Remember, my philosophy has always been that everyday is the goal, not just the destination.

The next 3 days will be travel days. One of the nice things about taking the train is that we will get to retrace some of our route and see it from a different perspective, and we will be able to see new sights as well. That should prove to be interesting.

This adventure has been a great experience! Thanks to all who have followed along with us!!

Hmmmm…what will be the next adventure???

-clarkwheel

This completes the student questions. Students, you will have until midnight, Aug. 4, 2006 to send your answers to us.

Day 27-Longview, WA to Astoria, OR (Fort Stevens State Park)-66.75 miles

2006-08-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

"Ocian in view! Oh! the joy!" These are the exact words from William Clark's journal. These words kept ringing in my ears as we biked this last day of the Lewis and Clark Trail. We left David’s house with sandwiches, fruits, vegetables, granola bars to get us through today, thanks to Janet. It was a real blessing along the way. We crossed back over to the Oregon side on the Longview Bridge…an experience in itself…and biked into some pretty good hills on the way to Astoria. We managed those hills and 56 of the miles in good time…time enough to make most of the arrangements for our return trip. We will be taking Amtrak home on Thursday. We have an appointment in the morning tomorrow to have our bikes and trailers boxed and shipped home via DHL. Since the train originates in Portland, we also made arrangements for a bus to Portland from Astoria on Thursday morning in time to catch the train. The plans are falling together for our return. After making those arrangements, we felt the trip would not be complete if we didn’t actually experience the Pacific Ocean (Astoria is still on the Columbia River side). We biked 10 more miles to Fort Stevens State Park directly on the Pacific. Upon arrival, we quickly set up the tent, emptied out our trailers and pulled them down to the beach where we each took pictures of the other standing in the waves of the Pacific. What a thrill! The Lewis and Clark Trail and a 3-year goal has been completed!

-clarkwheel

Student question: When Lewis and Clark saw the ocean, they saw something that Sacagawea begged to go see as well. What was this sight the Sacagawea wanted to see so badly?

Day 26-Portland, OR to Longview, WA-68.79 miles

2006-07-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

We left Portland and thought we might never get out of town. The city seemed to go on forever...we did make it eventually, of course. We stopped for a snack at a coffee shop and noticed a mountain to our northeast. I suspected Mt. St. Helens, but wasn't sure. I inquired at the coffee shop and the first person I asked had no idea. I guess people who live in the mountains don't get quite as excited as I do about mountains. Anyhow, she referred me to a gentleman who confirmed that it was, in fact, Mt. St. Helens. When we came out of the shop, we could actually see some smoke coming from the mountain. The unusually high humidity we are experiencing in this area has caused some haze in the atmosphere, but if you look carefully at the picture, a small plume of smoke can be seen.
We have been looking forward to this ride for some time. Last year we met a fellow biker with whom we shared our campsite. As we parted, David told us to let him know when we reached Astoria the following year. We have kept in contact with David and he kindly offered us an evening meal, hot shower, soft bed, and breakfast as we prepared to make our final day's ride on the Lewis and Clark Trail. David lives in Longview, WA about halfway between Portland and Astoria. As we biked from Portland, David biked out and met us and biked with us back to his home. What a pleasure to see him after a year. We met David with about 10 miles to go towards Rainier, just across the river from his home. We crossed the Columbia River over a beautiful 75 year old bridge. We made a home visit that night. The first of the trip, thanks to David and Janet. We had a great cookout with David and his family and toured a museum where David is the Historian. He took me sightseeing in the mountains near his home which included a peek at both Mr. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. And to top off the evening, Janet treated us to homemade cobbler. What a great way to prepare for the last day on the trail. Many thanks to David, Janet, Cheryl, and Emily for making the next to the last day of our 12 week journey so special…Mmmmm! Great cobbler!

-clarkwheel

Student question: What do the movies “Free Willie” and “Kindergarten Cop” have in common? Hint: Keep in mind what tomorrow’s destination city will be. (Thanks to David for this question!)

Day 25-Hood River, OR to Portland, OR-54.96 miles

2006-07-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

We quietly tiptoed out of our bunkhouse room at the GorgeView Bed and Breakfast before anyone else was up. Ann and Pat had prepared our breakfast so that all we needed to do was put it together ourselves this morning. It worked quite well and we were on the road by 6:30. We biked to Cascade Locks on I-84, but being an early Sunday morning, traffic was light. At Cascade Locks we stopped for an espresso and Tai ate a second breakfast. From there we rode a bicycle trail through the forest. It was beautiful and quiet. We came to one spot where it was necessary for us to carry our bikes and trailers up a 3 story stairwell. It sounds difficult but actually was fairly easy. Again we biked a number of miles on the Historic Columbia River Highway. We stopped and photographed 2 beautiful waterfalls along the way. We finally left this beautiful highway and continued on into Portland on I-84. By this time the temperature was once again inching above the 100 degree mark, but the road was flat, there was a light breeze, and, when it seemed it was at its worst, a Wendy's Restaurant appeared at Troutdale. We took advantage of their air conditioning and had lunch. The final 10 miles did not seem so bad as we biked into Portland on one of their many bicycle-only paths. Portland is said to be the most bike friendly city in USA! We stayed Holiday Inn Express tonight to try to beat the heat. Tomorrow is predicted to be another hot day, with heat warnings already posted. We are looking for another early start.

-clarkwheel

Student question:

Day 24-Biggs, OR to Hood River, OR-58.24 miles

2006-07-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

How about this for a sleep problem...we decided the night before, because of the excessive heat predicted for tomorrow that we would stay in a motel. Weather radio was predicting a hotter day tomorrow than today. Trying to be efficient, we called for reservations last night for a Hood River motel called Cousin's Country Inn. When we arrived in Hood River, about 3:00 in the afternoon today, I called the motel to get the directions and it was then I was told that this particular motel was located in The Dalles, 25 miles behind us. Now we need a place to sleep. No campgrounds were listed in town, and I was pretty sure all the motels were full. Tai suggested that we bike to a nearby Subway, get something to drink, and try to work out the problem. I must say, the Subway people were very helpful. One lady wrote down 3 possible motels and their numbers for us to try...but all were full. One hotel person, however, suggested I call a Bed and Breakfast "finder number" in town. We were a little skeptical about a Bed and Breakfast because they are usually too expensive, but we were pretty much out of options. The "finder" lady was very helpful. She said, "I know just the place for you!" when she heard our dilemma. Sure enough, she called the GorgeView Bed and Breakfast and found us 2 beds in a bunkroom for $38 each. It was nearby and that's how we met Ann and Pat at the GorgeView. We had a great time at the Bed and Breakfast. We enjoyed talking with Ann and Pat and the other guests at the Inn. This Bed and Breakfast had private rooms and a bunk room where 4 of us slept. It was a wonderful experience and I would recommend the GorgeView Bed and Breakfast to anyone.
The ride to Hood River and GorgeView Bed and Breakfast was good as well. The high temperatures predicted for today didn't materialize because of an all-day cloud cover. The temp didn't get much over 90 degrees. Winds were light and, although we had a major climb, we had very good biking day to do it. Most of the time today we were riding the Historic Columbia River Highway that partially follows Route 30, the same Route 30 that goes through Warsaw. We also spent some short times on Interstate 84. Each of those roads has advantages and disadvantages. The Historic Columbia River Highway is 2 lane, rather narrow, and much hillier than the Interstate. The interstate is faster, less hilly, has 4 lanes, and has wide shoulders protected by rumble strips, but it is very noisy with semi's passing us every 15 or 20 seconds. It is also much hotter because there is very little shade on the actual roadway. Generally, we prefer the Historic Columbia River Highway for it scenic beauty. The downside to today's ride was that we caught glimpses of Mt. Hood, but it was mostly vailed in clouds and we never did get a picture.

-clarkwheel

Student question: What is the elevation of Mt. Hood?

Day 23-Crow Butte Park to Maryhill State Park (Biggs, OR)-58.73 miles

2006-07-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

This was the hottest day I have experienced in my life. We left as early as possible to beat the predicted heat. We were on our bikes at 6:30 a.m. We stopped at 10:00 for a bite to eat at a "saloon" that served breakfast. By noon the heat was intense and we still had 15-20 miles to go. It only got hotter. I hung my small thermometer on the handbars of my bike and for the next 2 hours the temperatures hovered around the 105 degree mark. There were almost no trees...we did find one old red cedar tree where we could escape the sun for a short time. About 5 miles from our destination for the day, we ran into a huge uphill. That hill took every ounce of energy I had. Fortunately, on the backside of the hill was the Maryhill State Park. When we stopped to register, we left our bikes in the sun and went in to the park office. When I came back out, my thermometer registered a blistering 120 degrees! I've never been so glad to see a campground. We were given a beautiful, secluded site that was in the shade and cooled by a breeze from the river. What a relief! Later we heard on the weather radio that the high temperature had officially been 108 degrees.
We have been biking through desert for the past 2 1/2 days. Most of the hills are covered with sagebrush only. I guess I never realized the eastern Washington and Oregon are mostly desert.

-clarkwheel

Student question:

Day 22-Hat Rock RV Park to Crow Butte Park-44.81 miles

2006-07-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

We have wanted to camp at Crow Butte Park since the beginning of the trip because it is located on an island in the middle of the Columbia River. We called the night before to make a reservation and were told by the Washington Parks Department that Crow Butte didn't exist. Disappointed, we headed out anyway, figuring it might be necessary to go further if, in fact, the campground was closed. We passed through the town of Umatilla and stopped at the Visitor's Center there. The lady told us that the park DID exist, it was just under private management. She did mention that the park had a rattlesnake problem, though. We talked it over and decided to take our chances with the rattlesnakes. We got a phone book, found the number and made a reservation. We biked on to Crow Butte as the landscape became more desert-like, and the heat built steadily. Our campsite was beautiful. Out one door of the tent we could look out over the desert and out the other we could see the Columbia River. Speaking of the Columbia, we spent part of our afternoon skipping rocks on the river.
Later that evening, one of our kindly neighbors came over to our site bearing a bag of ice, since the water from the faucet was warm! What a treat! Ice cold water to drink. He even offered to cook us a steak, but we had already eaten and were ready for bed. We regretfully had to turn him down.

-clarkwheel

Student question: Rattlesnakes have two methods of detecting prey. One is visually seeing their prey. The other is to locate prey with special sensory organs that can detect what?

Day 21-Walla Walla, WA to Hat Rock RV Park, OR-50.15 miles

2006-07-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

We left the campsite early, but stopped at Tommy’s Dutch Lunch for breakfast. It was recommended by the host at Fairway where we stayed last night. She was right, lots of food and delicious. We boxed the hashbrowns from Tai’s plate for later consumption.

We had calm winds and cools temps today, so biking wasn’t too difficult. The terrain was up and down, but again not too challenging. We were told by the camp host that Walla Walla is famous for a certain vegetable. (See student question). Seed for this vegetable was brought here by the early pioneers and 2 families still have some of the original seed. These are produced here by the trucks-full and shipped all over this part of the country (and maybe nationwide). This is harvest time for this product. We saw many fields being harvested. Anyhow I decided to look for 1 or 2 of this vegetable to cook with the leftover hashbrowns we brought along. Sure enough, just outside of Walla Walla, we found a farmer selling them. We stopped and inquired about buying 2. The smallest package we could see looked to be 10 lbs. The lady said she would give me 2. I tried to pay, but she said, “No, just enjoy them!” Enjoy them we did that evening at Hat Rock RV Park. I used 1 sliced, along with the hashbrowns and a can of dried beef. I stir-fried them together in olive oil. It was a tasty dish, if I do say so myself.

Today we moved on down into the beginnings of the Columbia gorge. We passed some huge basalt cliffs on either side of the river. We moved along as the land became more and more like desert. There is sagebrush only growing in most places. It is amazing that even along the Columbia River, which must be ¾ of a mile wide here, there is almost no green except what is irrigated. We arrived at Hat Rock RV Park hot and dusty, but took time to walk around the basalt dome that William Clark named Hat Rock (see photo) and to have a burger at the camp store, then it was into the pool for most of the remaining afternoon. Sure did feel good!

-clarkwheel

Student question: What is the vegetable that I referred to in the narrative as famous in Walla Walla?

Day 20-Tucannon River Retreat (Delaney, WA) to Walla Walla, WA-51.28 miles

2006-07-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Just as we expected…wind when we got up, fairly strong. We have another major climb of about 1000 ft, which isn’t too bad…unless the wind is involved. And it is. We pushed up the hill and pushed back down the other side. We had lunch in Dayton, WA and still another windy 30 miles to Walla Walla, WA. We stopped about halfway to Walla Walla at Del’s Espresso Shop for a latte for me and an Italian soda for Spokewrench. The owner of the shop was very helpful. We didn’t have a plan for where to camp tonight. She had an RV guide. We found one and called, but no tents at that one. We tried another that was actually much closer to our route and, “Bingo!” We have a place to stay. It was another tiring day with the wind in our faces most of the day. We did notice that it seemed to lessen as the day went on. Maybe there is hope for tomorrow.

-clarkwheel

Student question: As planned, we have stopped in Walla Walla, WA. How did Walla Walla get its name?

Day 19-Winchester, WA to Tucannon River Retreat (near Delaney, WA-57.17 miles

2006-07-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

A 7:00 start even with breakfast, not too bad for us. We have a major climb today and we want to try to beat the wind. We expect to climb 2000 ft. today. We started the ride on a level lakeside road near Lower Granite Lake. We suspect that this is really part of the river we talked about yesterday. We had an 8 mile climb to the top of Alpowa Summit at 2785 ft. It took about 2 hours of climbing, but we had little difficulty, not even using our lowest set of gears (granny gears, we call them). We reached the summit at about 10:30 and prepared ourselves for an exhilarating ride down the other side. Alas, Mother Nature intervened by slapping us in the face with a sudden, fierce headwind. So what should have been a smooth, fast downhill turned into a grueling marathon. We pedaled our way downhill to Pomeroy, WA and had lunch at the Pioneer Eatery. During lunch, watching a locust tree across the road from the restaurant being whipped about by the wind, we decided to abandon our plan to ride another 40 miles to Lewis and Clark Trail State Park. Instead we called around and found an RV park about 26 miles away near a small crossroads called Delaney. It was 4 miles off route but looked like our only option. We arrived in several hours after fighting the in-your-face wind that never let up, but just got stronger. Tucannon River Retreat RV park is new and not well known (it wasn’t on our maps). We were the only campers, along with the camp hosts, the Hoovers, and another maintenance type fellow. We were pretty well dehydrated, so Mrs. Hoover kindly brought us a pitcher of ice-cold lemonade…we drank it all. This park is in a rural area which probably explains why, while we were eating supper, a wild turkey sauntered across the park, stopping to take a dust bath, then casually moved on. The wind was still blowing when we went to bed, not a good sign…wind at night generally means more wind during the next day. We have another major climb tomorrow that will be made doubly-hard by a headwind. We shall see.

-clarkwheel

Student question: The area we are traveling in (Pomeroy, Dayton, Walla Walla) is surrounded by this colorful Mountain range. What is the name of this range?

Day 18-Winchester, ID to Clarkston, WA-46.42 miles

2006-07-16T22:24:00.000-07:00

Our camp at Winchester Lake State Park atop Big Butte was at an elevation of about 4000 ft. Today when we arrived at our destination in Clarkston, we were at 850 ft., a net loss of 3150 ft. A good part of that loss was in an 8 mile stretch as we approached the town of Culdesac. It was a steep downhill with many hairpin turns on a road void of guardrails. We maintained a healthy 20-25 mph with the brakes on during most of the 20 minute ride down the butte. It was an exhilarating ride to swoop from banked curve to banked curve that left us breathless at the bottom. The ride from Culdesac on to Lewiston, except for one 800 ft. hill, was moderately downhill. This brought us to Hell's Gate State Park where we picked up a bicycle path that followed the river and then across the river(see the student question below) to Clarkston, WA. In Clarkston, while having a late lunch, we made arrangements at a Best Western for the night to update this neglected blog and to get some relief from the 103 degree temperatures. Now for the laundry...

-clarkwheel

Student question:
Hell's Gate State Park is located on the largest tributary of the Columbia River. (The Columbia was the river that carried Lewis and Clark to the Pacific). What is the name of this tributary?

Day 17-Kamiah, ID to Winchester, ID-46.75 miles

2006-07-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

We left Kamiah and almost immediately were faced with a 2000 ft. increase in elevation in a 7 mile stretch of road. That translates to a mighty steep rise. The only upside is that the early morning hours were cool and calm. And that's not all. The remainder of the trip was also uphill but not as severe. This was a tiring day. What we actually climbed today was a huge butte called, appropriately, Big Butte. The terrain has changed dramatically. We are back in a agricultural region. The top of the butte, which must be hundreds of square miles, is hilly but flat enough to plant wheat, oats, and rye and pasture cattle.We concluded this exhausting day by stopping at Winchester Lake State Park and were dismayed when the car ahead of us got the last tent site. When we pulled up, the campground host said she had one site left in the RV section that we could have for the price of tent site. That means we would get electricity and water on the site, but not have to pay the extra fee. What a lucky break! It has been very dry lately with no rain in the forecast and pretty warm even at night, so we left the fly off the tent. I went to sleep tonight watching the stars in the Idaho sky.

-clarkwheel

Student question:
Winchester Lake State Park, in addition to renting camping sites, also rents yurts. From what continent does the yurt originate?

Day 16-Lowell, ID to Kamiah, ID-31.90 miles

2006-07-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Today was a somewhat of a dilemma. We either ride a rather short route or a very long route with a challenging uphill. We chose the short route followed by a moderate one for the challenging ride. As one can see, our mileage is not high today. We took our time enjoying another river (see the student question below for more information on the river) on our left the entire day. This river is much wider and tamer than yesterday’s Luchsa River. Occasionally we could see and hear whitewater but it was not a constant thing as yesterday. It still is mostly level or downhill for the entire 31 miles, so it was not a challenging day either. We stopped at Lewis-Clark Resort just outside Kamiah and across the road from a Nez Perce Historical Site. Earlier today we crossed into the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. This site depicted the legend of creation from the Nez Perce point of view. The historical site setting was quite fitting for the story and I enjoyed taking the tour.

The resorts in this area are quite complete. This particular one has a pool, hot tub, laundry, café, and even a fishing pond. Not that we could partake in all those amenities. We just enjoyed the pool, hot tub, and café.

When we came to our assigned site this afternoon, on our picnic table sat a baby bird. He was sitting straight up and not afraid of us at all. We sat at the table with it and took some pictures and he never moved. I couldn’t identify it but I could hear a vaguely familiar buzzing from the birds in the trees. Finally, I picked up the bird and started to move it to another table. Immediately the trees above me came to life with that buzzing and I recognized the parent birds as Cedar Waxwings. We have Cedar Waxwings in Indiana but they are not as commonly seen. Anyhow the baby flew away with a stuttering flight and we figured we had seen the last of it. Lo and behold, after supper, we came back to our tent and there he sat again on our picnic table. We watched him for a bit and then Tai picked him up (it just seemed to like to sit in Tai’s hands) and carried him to the next picnic table. Soon he flew, much more skillfully, into a nearby maple tree. The only reminder that he had been there was the deposit he left on the table. Of course, I found it by sticking my hand in it!

-clarkwheel

Student question: At Lowell, ID, we camped at the confluence of the Luchsa River and Selway River. These two come together to form the river we followed to Kamiah. What is the name of the river we followed today? Beware, it has a long name.

Day 15-Powell, ID (Lochsa Lodge) to Lowell, ID-66.21 miles

2006-07-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

After breakfast at the Lochsa Lodge in Powell, we pushed off for Lowell. This trip promised to be downhill the entire way. The downhill wasn’t a coasting downhill. We had to pedal, but in most places it was pretty easy to go 14 or 15 mph. In fact, our overall average was 12.7, by far our best average so far this trip. The road was a curvy one; right and left…time after time…following the Lochsa River. The river was a rough, with a good deal of white water and it was always on our left. To the right, most of the way, were high cliffs with a brook every hundred feet or so rushing down the cliff, under the roadway, and into the Lochsa River. Add to that, the sheer beauty of being completely surrounded by mountains and one has the making for a very enjoyable ride. Even Captain Lewis mentioned the awe-inspiring beauty of seeing mountains in every direction, even though it was these very mountains that caused the expedition so much hardship. We went down as far as Wilderness Gate Campground, a National Forest campground about 26 miles short of Lowell and kicked around the idea of stopping there, but we decided to continue on to Lowell. The beauty and downhill ride continued on in to Lowell. We stopped first at the Wilderness Inn for a 3:00 p.m. lunch and then crossed the river to the Three Rivers Resort to spend the remainder of the afternoon and night. With a pool and hot tub just across from our tent, we didn’t have any problem using up the afternoon and evening hours. It was a delightful 66 mile ride and a relaxing afternoon.

-clarkwheel

Student question: The word Lochsa (in the Lochsa River) is a Nez Perce Native American word meaning what? Hint: It translates into 2 English words and I used them both in the narrative above.

Day 14-Lolo Hot Springs, MT to Powell Junction, ID-20.44 miles

2006-07-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

Another pass done…today we scaled Lolo Pass, elevation 5255 ft. We left Lolo Hot Springs today at about 9:00 after a late breakfast at the local café. We meant to get an earlier start, however the café didn’t open until 8:00. This worked out well because when we woke up around 6:00, it was raining, so we got a little more sleep. From our campground, it was only 7 miles to the top of Lolo pass. We biked to within 4 miles of the pass, then the mountain stage really started. SpokeWrench scaled the mountain 12 min., 38 seconds ahead of ClarkWheel…a bit of time to pass. We went into the visitor’s center at the Montana-Idaho border; it was very interesting. Turns out that the visitor’s center was WiFi, so we took the opportunity to update the blogs, but we had connection problems. We were forced to hardwire through their router…this made the connection slow, so we didn’t update any pictures or send out the email. Descending Lolo pass was fun. We were told that westbound was the best way to go up the pass, as it was the more gradual route. Going down the west side, we were told, was very steep. That was correct, as we braked to stay under the speed limit. Maybe that is why the cars didn’t pass us. I looked in my mirror as cars approached us, then fell back as we surpassed their speed. Near the bottom, they finally caught up and passed, as the grade was getting less steep and we slowed down. Once we were done with most of the downhill, we approached the town of Powell, basically owned by one family. They own a gas station with prices 20 cents higher than most (not that that matters to us)…a small store…a great restaurant…as well as some cabins for rent. After inquiring about the price of a cabin, which seemed right to us, we rented one for the night. Short mileage is good somedays after a challenging ride.

-spokewrench

Student question: Today we passed through the DeVoto Memorial Cedar Grove , an stand of ancient cedar trees. Some of the trees have been growing for a thousand years before the birth of Christ. How can someone determine the age of a tree?

Day 13-Missoula, MT to Lolo Hot Springs, MT-40.17

2006-07-12T10:43:00.001-07:00

We were on our bikes and moving by 8:10 this morning to beat the wind and heat. We feel we need to leave early because we are expecting to gain 1000 ft. in elevation in this 40 mile journey. The roads, 12 and 93, that we took from Missoula to Lolo was very busy reminding us of road 15 in Indiana. We lost route 93 at Lolo and the rest of the trip was very pleasant. It was one of the most beautiful rides of the trip so far. Even though it was uphill, it was a gentle grade with light winds and scenery was gorgeous.
A friend of mine described bicycle touring like this. If you encounter someone who says, "Are we there, yet?" A bicycle tourist can answer, "Yes, we are there...all the time!" The enjoyment is in the trip, not the destination." How true!
Lolo Hot Springs is a unique place. We checked in at the RV park in the village, set up our tent and went directly to the restaurant for a late lunch. After lunch we changed clothes and sampled the hot springs. The hot springs are made up of 2 pools, one is an indoor pool 104 degrees for soaking and the other is an outdoor pool at 85 degrees. It is particularly pleasant to soak in the hot one for as long as one can stand it and then go immediately to the cooler one. We enjoyed the hot springs for most of the afternoon and then took another evening dip before bed.

Student question: The Lolo hot spring water is a kind of mineral water of a varied composition. It is made up of:
30% Silicon Dioxide
29% Hydrocarbon
22% Sodium
8% Sulfur (one can smell this one)
3% Carbon Trioxide
3% Flourine
3% Cholorine
1% Calcium
1% Potassium
How many of these are elements on the Periodic Table and what are their abbreviations?

Day 12-Missoula, MT-Rest day-11.5 circular miles

2006-07-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

We used today to get some needed things done. We mailed our army bags (used to carry the gear on the plane) to Dave, a friend we met on the trail last year who lives near Astoria, our destination. We took our bike to a repair shop for some brake and derailleur adjustment. We visited and toured the Adventure Cycling Headquarters. These folks are the creators of the maps we use. I have been a member of Adventure Cycling for 18 years. It was interesting to see their headquarters. We also stopped at REI and finally bought a pressure gauge to check tire pressure. This one works…third time is a charm.

This evening our neighbors from Alberta invited us to go with them to see Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Dead Man’s Chest. We returned at bedtime…a very relaxing day.

Student question: Northeast of Missoula, on the return trip, Lewis explored the Marias river. During his exploration, a casualty resulted. Captain Lewis claimed a Native American was trying to steal something, but the Native Americans claimed he was trying to steal something of theirs. A Native American died because of this. What was each claiming the other was trying to steal?

Day 11- Lubrecht Forest to Missoula, MT- 35.15 miles

2006-07-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

Ever since we left Great Falls, we have technically left the westbound Lewis and Clark Trail. Lewis and Clark actually followed the Missouri River out of Great Falls in a southwesterly direction towards the present-day city of Butte and then came back north to Missoula. On the eastbound trip, they split up with Clark again going down toward where Butte is now and Lewis took the route on which we are currently going west. In other words, we are on the trail but it is actually Lewis’s return trail. We will join with the westbound Lewis and Clark Expedition once again in Missoula.

We left Lubrecht’s and had a relatively comfortable downhill ride to Missoula. We dropped nearly 1000 ft. during the 35 mile ride. We continued on through Missoula, taking advantage of the many bike lanes that are scattered throughout the city. Traffic is very heavy even on Sunday, but the bike lanes make getting around fairly simple. One thing we haven’t figured out is how to make a left turn across 2 moving lanes of traffic from the bike lane. If anyone knows, please email. We have resorted to pulling off at the left turn intersection, pushing the crossing button, and walking our bikes to the opposite side of the road and then repeating that again…pretty time consuming. We are camping a the Missoula KOA. It’s like its own village with all kinds of services and things to do. One of those is the laundry that desperately needs done. Everything we have is dirty. We even found that most of the time we can get a wireless connection from our own picnic table. We have very interesting, friendly neighbors; Mike, Lois, Jessica, and Brent from Fort McMurray, Alberta. We visited with them until midnight, knowing that we are planning on spending another day here.

Student question: We followed a river pretty much all the way from Roger’s Pass. The river’s name is shared with a Native American tribe name. What is the name of the river?

Day 10- Lincoln, MT to Lubrecht Experimental Forest - 50.49 miles

2006-07-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

Brrrrr….when we crawled out of the sleeping bags at 6:30, we noticed quite a difference in the temperature from yesterday’s 90 something degrees. I inquired at Ponde-rosa’s Restaurant where we had breakfast and was told that it had gotten down to 34 degrees last night.

“Not unusual,” the gentleman sitting next to us said. “Last week it got down to 28 degrees. Welcome to the mountains!”

We did have a great night’s sleep with the brook gurgling by. We headed on to a campground called Lubrecht. We were advised at the restaurant that this was a big fishing week and many campgrounds could be full. In light of that, I tried to call and reserve a spot at Lubrecht’s but no cell service so we’ll just have to take our chances. We were also told that just outside of Lincoln was one of the largest jerky manufacturing plants and there was a trading post attached. It was an interesting place to visit. We stopped there, and found that to be true. We stocked up on jerky, a good riding snack and bought Tai a sweatshirt in case of more cool weather.

Today, we again had some headwind but it was tolerable and we made reasonable time. We stopped for lunch at Trixie’s Café and Bar in Ovando, about half way along on the ride. The scenery is beautiful here in the mountains, but, of course we are going up and down constantly.

We arrived a Lubrecht’s only to find it almost deserted except for a large group of campers who called themselves the Barons of “something” Keep. This is a group who practice medieval martial arts. They were having some sort of rally that evening at this campground. We inquired as to who to secure a campsite but no one really knew. I called the number from a phone in the camp but just an answering machine. We were just about to become squatters, when a lady pulled up in a truck. She was a caretaker of the campground and took our $5.00 and gave us permission to camp. There are flush toilets and hot showers, but no electricity. It is situated in the middle of pine forest and she just said find a spot to set up your tent anywhere you want. We talked to the “Barons” and they all warned us that they planned a big campfire that night and it might be loud and boisterous at times. We decided that we were probably tired enough to weather almost anything. We set up camp a little away from their planned bonfire. They were correct and so were we. They were loud but their loudness was overcome by our tiredness and it all worked out.

Student question: The past 3 nights have been very clear. I have noticed that I can see roughly twice as many stars out here than I can back in Indiana. What are 2 reasons why this is true?

Day 9-Bowman Campground to Lincoln, MT-40.18 miles

2006-07-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

Roger's Pass--This is the day we have been talking about since last year's trip. This is the highest pass we will encounter on the entire trip through the mountains. We awakened to a strong 20-25 mph headwind. It was strong enough that I had decided to stay at this campground another night. It was primitive but the owner was a very friendly person and that can make all the difference. At about 9:30 a.m. we noticed the wind was somewhat calmer. We decided to go for it. No sooner had we started than the wind picked right back up and even got stronger. It remained very strong throughout the day. For me, it was one of the 3 most difficult biking days I have every done. It ranked right up beside Fort Peck to Jordan, MT last year...a 100 mile marathon that we didn't finish until way after dark and the other was Durango to Silverton, CO, a 50 mile, 3000 ft. gain in elevation that I had done when I was in my thirties. Had it not been for the wind, this would not have been so challenging, but the wind never faltered. We even had to pedal (not coast) down the other side after cresting the 5610 ft. pass. It sure took the fun out of the downhill! We finished at about 6:00 p.m., arriving at Lincoln, MT. We stopped at Shake and Burger, the first place we came to and had something to eat. There had been no other place to eat during the entire ride. Our campground it great! Electricity, water, flush toilets, and a hot shower. Our campsite is only 3 ft. from a gurgling brook. What a great night's sleep!

Student question: As you have read and can see, we rode over the highest elevation of the trip and over the continental divide. Describe a continental divide.

Day 8-Simms, MT to Bowman Campground-40.73 miles

2006-07-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

The best part about today was that we biked parallel to the front range of the Rocky Mountains. It was hilly...it was headwindy but it was beautiful to us flatlanders. We rode 22 miles to the town of Augusta and had lunch there. While there we inquired about a library and found there was one and it had free internet service. We took advantage of it and uploaded the previous 3 blogs. That started us out late for Bowman Campground but we needed the rest time anyway. The wind had tired us out. The last 18 miles became very hilly so we were slowed down even more. Finally we arrived at Bowman Campground...unless you had an RV, the amenities for this campground were minimal. We had a spot next to a cattle pasture and we had water. The restroom was a portable jon that apparently hadn't been used in some time. There was a restaurant, so we took the opportunity to charge our cell phones while we ate...not that it did us much good...we didn't have service once we had a charge. A storm blew in during the evening and changed the wind direction. I was hoping that it would bring us a more favorable wind for tomorrow's biking. Early to bed.

Student question: The route we are taking from Great Falls to Missoula on Road 200 is actually much closer to the route Lewis took on the return trip from the Pacific in what year?

Day 7-Great Falls to Simms-33.94 miles

2006-07-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

We purposely chose a shorter route today, although there wasn't much choice. Because of the locations of the campgrounds, we either had a short day or a very long one. Since neither of us are feeling 100%, we opted for the shorter route. The road was fairly flat with a quartering tailwind, so it wasn't too taxing. We stopped in Fort Shaw for lunch. We then biked the remaining 11 miles to Simms. Our maps told us that Simms had a campground. When we arrived, we found that the campground was really a service area with a few gravelly spots for RVs to park. There were no restrooms, except in the campstore and no showers. We had little choice at this point, so we spent the night here and made do with what we had. Sort of survival camping...

-clarkwheel

Student question: We have been following a river today that the Native Americans called the Medicine River. What is the present-day name of this river?

Day 6-10.6 circular miles in Great Falls, MT

2006-07-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

Tai is still not up to par, but his fever is down and he is just tired. I kept Tai in bed as much as possible today, but in the afternoon a flat tire on my bike forced me to get him up. In the afternoon, I had biked the 5 mile trip to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls. It was a very complete center, one of the best I have seen. It included a video and lecture by one of the National Park people, plus it had a large display that centered around the portage of the Great Falls of the Missouri. When I finished and went to my bike, I found I had a flat tire. I did not bring my tool kit or new tubes, so my only alternative was to call Tai and have him bring out what I needed. I hated to disturb his rest day, but there was no other alternative. He brought everything out and we fixed the tire and returned to the hotel. We are looking forward to biking tomorrow.

-clarkwheel

Student Question- About how long were Lewis and Clark in the Great Falls area portaging and doing other chores?

Day 5-Great Falls, MT-Rest day-16.07 miles (Circular miles without the trailer)

2006-07-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

We took a rest day…not really by choice. Spokewrench was running a low grade fever last night and this morning. He was pretty tired today, so we decided to stay at the hotel another day…even though we can’t get the wireless to work. To be honest, I am not really feeling quite up to par myself. The sore throat has turned into a nose issue and I am a little tired, too.
Well, laundry is done, groceries are purchased, and we have visited the bike shop to take care of the cadence and air pump problems. We have visited the hot tub and the pool several times as a bonus. Actually it was a blessing in disguise as it started raining just a little afternoon and it is still raining at 4:00 p.m., a miserable biking day. I would still like to take a tour around town, though, to look at the falls and a museum or two, but I prefer not to do that in the rain.
The hotel has been a minor disappointment. There has been no connection at the hotel for the past 2 days. It will probably be necessary to update by going to be an internet café down the street from the hotel.
It finally stopped raining around 4:30 so we took off to do some sightseeing. Obviously, this is where Lewis and Clark found the Great Falls of the Missouri. We biked to 2 of the 5 falls they found. These falls have been pretty much tamed as you can see by the pictures. Lewis and Clark recorded that they could see the mist from the falls quite a distance before actually seeing it (see the student question below). As you can see from the pictures, the falls are not big enough now to produce much mist at all. What we did find besides the falls was the River’s Edge Trail; a beautiful 2 lane paved bicycle and hiking trail. We rode about 10 or 12 miles of the trail.

-clarkwheel

Student question: Lewis and Clark could see the mist from the falls about how many miles away before they actually laid eyes on it?

Day 4-Fort Benton, MT to Great Falls, MT-42.48 miles

2006-07-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

I got up at 5:30. We decided that, if possible, we will be on the road early. We have noticed that if it is going to become windy, it usually starts up after 9:30. Also, the heat is at its peak around 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. It’s good if we can avoid that. The problem is, no matter how early we crawl into our sleeping bags, it is still extremely difficult to leave them in the mornings. Today, we started pretty early…for us. We were on the road before 7:30. We started out with a pretty good uphill, but then it flattened out and was mostly a rolling landscape today. At about the 25 mile mark, we stopped for a water break and were attacked by hordes of mosquitoes. They were unbearable! Our insect repellent was buried deep in the trailer because we have never needed it during the ride itself. To stop and dig it out with those bugs was not an option. We took off immediately, but the mosquitoes followed. Unfortunately, we were climbing a hill and they were keeping up with us. We were forced to increase our pace and to just keep pedaling for those last 15 miles or so. We were really tired coming into Great Falls.
This story has a happy ending. We had reservations at the Comfort Inn for tonight. I can’t describe how good a hot tub feels after a day of biking! Tonight was no exception.

By the way, we think we spotted a coyote today. We had stopped for some water and Spokewrench saw it moving across the field.

Student question: When Lewis and Clark arrived at the falls, they found it necessary to portage around the falls. How many miles did they have to portage to get around the falls?

-Clarkwheel

Day 3-Geraldine to Fort Benton-31.33 miles

2006-07-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

It’s a hot day in Montana, close to 90 degrees but I am sitting under a cluster of quaking aspen with a breeze that is making the heat quite bearable…one might even say pleasant. Yet a couple of hours ago as we were biking into Fort Benton, that very same breeze was making our ride torturous. It was a short ride today. We got caught by the wind yesterday which was substantially stronger. We stopped at Geraldine mostly because of the strong winds. Today was the about the same situation. We had a choice of going to Fort Benton just 27 miles or so or going on to Great Falls about 68 miles. The wind gave us the answer, loud and clear. It took us over 3 hours to fight the wind for the 26 miles and it pretty well exhausted us. There is nothing between Fort Benton and Great Falls, so Fort Benton seemed the obvious choice. Anyhow I wanted to look around a bit in Fort Benton. It is the site that originally piqued my interest in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This occurred when I was a fifth grader. There was a story in the fifth grade reader called “Which is the Missouri” It told about how the Corps came to a fork in the Missouri River. One fork went northerly and the other more in a southerly direction. Both Lewis and Clark felt the south fork was correct but the men thought the north fork was the one to follow. They only thing they knew from the Native Americans was that the real Missouri had a huge set of falls further up the river. The story tells about how they explored a short way up both forks but no falls. Finally Lewis and Clark proposed to explore further down and the south fork with part of the provisions until they found (or didn’t find) the falls. As we know, after several days of exploring, they did find the falls of the Missouri (now the present day site of, appropriately, Great Falls, MT). We basically had the afternoon to explore so we found 2 museums. Both were very well done, especially the second one. It was a sort of a history of this town with many, many artifacts and much information. We spent a couple of hours exploring these museums.

Student question: I just told the story of the fork in the Missouri River. Since the south fork was the actual Missouri, what is the present day name of the other river, the north fork?

stats coming soon

Day 2-Denton, MT to Geraldine, MT -37.70 miles

2006-07-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

We got a fairly early start from the city park at Denton and stopped at the Denton Café for a couple of orders of biscuits and gravy. We headed out to fairly flat terrain and calm winds. We made good time in the early going.

Yesterday, soon after we started out, I could see in the far distance a mountainous-type landform. It was barely visible through the haze. Now we are at the foot of the landform. In fact we bicycled around it today. It is quite prominent and dominates the landscape. We have posted a picture of it on along with this narrative. Students, it is related to your question for today.

At around noon we stopped at a small village of 25 people called Square _______. We had lunch at the Square ______ Bar and Café. While we were eating a cold front moved through the area and did cool things off a bit, but more significantly it brought in a blast of strong northwest winds. We had intended to go on to Fort Benton today and Great Falls tomorrow, but after battling the northwest headwind for 1½ hours we decided to call it quits and stop at the small town of Geraldine. We inquired about camping and found that again the city park was available. So for the second day in a row, we camped showerless and powerless. Both our cell phones are dead as well as our two-way radios and the computer only has a few minutes left on it. We had supper tonight at Rusty’s Bar and Grill and asked if we could charge our cell phones while we were eating. The waitress was very obliging and even offered to keep them charging. We could come back later in the evening and pick them up. So by bedtime, we did have some cell phone power…but, alas, now there is no signal…Oh well, such is biking in Montana.

Student question: I have already alluded to the question. What is the name of the type of landform you can see in the picture. The name of this landform will also fit in the blanks above. Good luck and remember to email your answers to

stats coming soon

Day 1--Lewistown, MT to Denton, MT--39.84 miles

2006-06-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

Our first biking day and I am feeling it. The 40 miles took it out of me today. We set off this morning at 9:00 which isn't too bad on the first day of eating breakfast, packing up, and taking off. The morning weather was calm and cloudy which made for some pleasant biking. By noon, however, the sun found us and also the wind sneaked up on us too. We encountered one pretty challenging hill of about 4 miles in length that took about 45 minutes to scale. It came towards the end of the ride and really sapped my energy, but we made it. We are updating from the library in Denton and when we finish here we will go find the city park to camp for the night. We were told at the local cafe that the pool is open for night swimming tonight at the park. More about that when we update next time.

-clarkwheel

^agreed^

-spokewrench

Today's Student Question: Riding today we saw (and climbed) a few mountain ranges. Excluding the Judith and Rocky Mountains, name two more mountain ranges near us. They are small and may not be found on all maps, but they are beautiful. Find the answer and email it to us: lewisCLARK.06@gmail.com

--- STATS ---

Distance: 39.84 miles
Highest Speed: 27.7 mph
Average Speed: 10.1 mph
Cycling Time: 3 hours 55 min
Wind: Cross Wind 5-15 mph
Weather: Party Cloudy AM, Sunny PM. Hot, about 95 degrees.

Finally Arrived...

2006-06-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

We have arrived at the beginning point of this year's tour. The major accomplishments today were flying from Billings to Lewistown via a local airline (see today's question). A most interesting flight, by the way. Accomplishment number two was retrieving our bikes, rebuilding the trailers, as well as reloading them. We are camped at Mountain Acres RV Park. We are having supper at the Yogo Inn, mainly because of the good food and a wireless internet connection (we ate here last year). Our only mileage today was biking around Lewistown, just a couple miles. Tomorrow we begin the biking portion of the trip, 40 miles to Denton, MT. It is unlikely we will have an internet connection for a few days, but when we update, you will be notified.

Student Question:
The airline we flew today is based in Montana; with a name on Montana license plates as well. What is the name of the airline?

Email the answers to: lewisCLARK.06@gmail.com

The Adventure Begins....

2006-06-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

<-- One of many planes we rode in today

I learned many years ago in math class that the closest distance between two points is a straight line. Why then did the most inexpensive flight ticket we could find take us from Fort Wayne, IN to Chicago, IL to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX to Denver, CO to Billings, MT, a flight mileage of over 2000 miles? That was our route today as we made our way to our stopping point last summer in Lewistown, MT. We will take the last flight up to Lewistown tomorrow and start bicycling on Thursday, June 29th. Everything went well today...at first. When we arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth we found that the next
United flight on our itinerary was delayed. This meant that we would miss our connection to Billings. To make a loooong story short, we found another flight on Frontier Airlines to Denver. The only problem was that this flight arrival time was perilously close to the departure time of the Billings' flight. After running through the Denver airport, we found that the Billings' flight was also delayed so we ended up having to wait for some time to go on to Billings. We finally arrived in our hotel room at 3:15 a.m. Indiana time nearly 14 hours from when we left Fort Wayne.
Our bikes and trailers along with the stove and fuel tanks preceed us. We sent those ahead to the High Plains Bike and Ski shop where Mark, the owner, has them assembled and ready for our use. We will have a reunion with our bikes and trailers tomorrow afternoon.
The weather in Billings is clear with a promise of a 94 degree high temp tomorrow. Billings is located in the southcentral part of Montana at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. When we look to the west, we can see a fairly high bluff (they call the "rim") from the hotel parking lot. Judging from the Billings Gazette, the "Magic City" as they call themselves, is an up and coming community in Montana. It even has its own professional minor league baseball team. This brings us to the question of the day....What is the name of Billings' minor league baseball team. Tune up your internet research skills and see if you can find the answer to that question. If you find it, email it to , or if you are on our email notification list, you may just reply to that email. Good luck!
-Clarkwheel

2006 BEGINS!!!

2006-06-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

We leave Indiana the 27th. First biking day is June 29. Stay tuned and watch the blog for the day's journal entry!

MAILING LIST >> To keep up to date with us and to receive notice when the blog changes, send us and email at lewisCLARK.06@gmail.com

Cycling Trek 2006!

2006-05-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Our tour continues in 2006. Lewistown, MT to the Pacific. It's about 1000 miles, planned for July. Stay with us this year as we finish the trek!

2005-07-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

Cactus in the Judith Mountains

2005-07-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

Judith Mountains just before rain

2005-07-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

Approaching the Judith Mountains

2005-07-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hayfield near Winnett, MT

2005-07-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hill Ranch Oasis Bed and Breakfast

2005-07-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

Wild cottontail rabbit resting in the shade.

2005-07-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Shoeing Horses in Winnett, MT

Conclusion and Seventh Grade Questions

2005-07-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

As you may have noted, this is the conclusion of our trip. We are not home yet. We still have a 44 hour bus ride to get to Warsaw, but the bicycling portion is over for this year. We are already planning our 2006 leg of the journey...stay tuned.

It's time to find out the winner of the prize! Send all of the information to lewisclark.2005@gmail.com before August 1st. On a Word document, please include your name, the date of the question, a brief description of the question, and the answer(s). Attach this document to the email. If Microsoft Word is not available, this information can be directly copied and pasted into the email. On all answers, be as specific as possible. This may be used for tiebreakers if necessary. SpokeWrench will look at the answers and grade them. The winner will be announced on a blog soon after the entry deadline. The answers to all of the questions will also be given. The winner will be notified about instructions on receiving the prize. If anyone has any questions about the wording of the questions (before the deadline), they can be sent to the email address above. Of course, the answers to the questions will not be given.

Since we have done all the biking we will do for this leg of the trek, SpokeWrench has compiled about every stat we have on record of the trip: (We don't expect you to find them interesting)

SpokeWrench-ClarkWheel

Highest Speed: 37.8 mph- 38.9 mph

Lowest Speed: 1.9 mph- 2.5 mph

Highest Average Speed: 14.0 mph- 12.9 mph

Lowest Average Speed: 7.1 mph- 7.5 mph

Flat Tires: 2- 4

Longest Day: 98.38 mi.

Shortest Day: 20.87 mi.

Longest Ride Time: 15.5 hours

Shortest Ride Time: 5 hours

Longest Uphill: 46 mi.

Longest Downhill: 9 mi.

Other Bicycle Tourists Met: 6

Total Trip Length (Days): 40 days

Total Trip Distance (2005): 1680.98 mi.

Total Trip Distance (2004 + 2005): 2087 mi.

Thanks for following along with us!!

-SpokeWrench and ClarkWheel

Winnett, MT to Lewistown, MT- Day 39- 58.63 mi.

2005-07-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

I know I've said this before, but what a difference the wind makes from one day to the next. Today, the wind was light out of the east and that is to our backs!! We left Winnett at about 8:15 filled with a good breakfast from the Kozy Korner. The first half of the ride was pretty much flat. We stopped at about 11:00 at Grass Range at a truckstop/restaurant/campground for lunch. After Grass Range the road started heading in an upward direction. We were approaching the first mountains of the ride. This range was called the Judith Mountains and is a part of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to come. With the lack of a headwind, even climbing didn't seem so bad. This range was steep enough that the transportation department had a pulloff at the start of the Judith Mountains for vehicles to put on tire chains in the winter and another place to take them off on the other side. Even though mountains mean some hard pedaling, it was a pleasant change of scenery. We saw large pines on the hillsides and cooler temperatures as we ascended. We summited at about 4800 feet. This was followed by a 9 mile downhill of 20-30 mph into Lewistown. We secured a campsite at the Mountain Acres RV Park and then thought it might be a good idea to start figuring out how we are going to get home. I called the car rental place in Lewistown...no one way rentals outside of Montana. I called the Avis rental in Great Falls...no vehicles available. I called the Avis rental in Billings, thinking I could rent a local one way here in Lewistown to Billings and then rent another vehicle home. This would have worked except for one small detail. There is a $750 fee for a one way rental on top of the car rental fee. This brought the grand total to well over $1000 plus gasoline and the rental fee to Billings. We still didn't have an SUV, it was just a sedan. At this point we decided that we would try to head back home from here in Lewistown instead of going on the Great Falls. The weather did not look good for the next 3 days, with headwinds in the forecast each day. So back to the drawing board...no trains out of Lewistown, but there was Greyhound bus service. We biked down to the bus depot and talked to them. For slightly over $300 we could get a bus home with our bikes and trailers as long as the bikes were boxed. Boxing the bikes was the only hitch in this plan, but there was a bike shop in town and most shops will box bikes. The shop was closed by this time so I called and left a message. Next morning, Mark from High Plains Bike and Sky Shop called me and said no problem boxing our bikes and he would even drive them down to the bus depot. It looks like we are set to come home.
Seventh Grade Question:
This entire trip was brought on by a story I read when I was a fifth grader at Leesburg Elementary School. It was a story about how Lewis and Clark came to a fork in the Missouri River and didn't know which way to go. It was called, "Which is the Missouri?" Since reading that story, I have dreamed of someday following the Lewis and Clark Trail. We are fairly close to that fork in the Missouri. What is the present-day name of the river that Lewis and Clark nearly mistook for the Missouri?

-ClarkWheel

Mosby, MT to Winnett, MT- Day 38- 27.67 mi.

2005-07-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

Notice the short mileage today...the wind defeated us. It totally demoralized both of us. We had planned to try to make it to a small town called Grass Range today, about 55 miles from the Hill Ranch Oasis Bed and Breakfast. Speaking of which, we enjoyed an excellent breakfast with interesting conversation with the Hills this morning. We packed up and were on our way by 7:30...early start...no wind...right? Wrong!! The wind had already picked up straight out of the northwest at about 20-25 mph, our direction of travel for the entire day. We noticed right off that we were making a whopping 5 mph average in the first hour and the wind was picking up even more. The closest refuge from the wind is this town, Winnett, MT. We pushed our way for 5 hours against the wind. It seemed like we were getting nowhere, just like Lewis and Clark mentioned when they hit those windy days. We finally arrived at Winnett, biked to the Kozy Korner Cafe hungry and tired. After a relatively short discussion, we decided to stay here for the night and not try to move on another 24 miles. We checked out the city park, but it didn't look too conducive to camping. We read about an inexpensive bed and breakfast in the area and we inquired, but it was 12 miles back to the east where we had just biked. Neither of us felt like biking back half the distance we struggled through this morning, so we checked out the only motel in town. It was open, looked pretty inviting, and the price was right. We secured the room for the night. I am writing this blog from the town library which also serves as the school library for the K-12, 100 pupil school. It is a very nice community library for a town with a population of only 158...Leesburg, take notice...small towns can have a library! Later I visited the Trading Post and Ice Cream Shop, run by the 5th and 6th grade teacher here. We had a nice chat and I had a delicious Raspberry Moose Tracks shake. SpokeWrench went for the more traditional (and boring) chocolate shake. Too bad Lewis and Clark didn't have that shop when they passed through. We will soon be passing by where the Judith River joins the Missouri and that brings us to....
The Seventh Grade Question:
How did the Judith River get its name?

-ClarkWheel

Jordan, MT to Mosby, MT- Day 37- 51.12 miles

2005-07-20T15:49:00.000-07:00

We were up and packed by 7:00 and went up to the nearby cafe for a big breakfast before heading out. Strangely, neither of us could finish our breakfasts today. Usually we are famished. We doggy-bagged what we could and headed down the road. We made excellent time today even though the terrain remained fairly hilly. The hills today seemed less steep, but perhaps longer than the journey from Fort Peck. At the 31 mile mark we came across the town of Sand Springs, population of 1, the owner of a country store. The store was also the post office for this tiny town. The store had a surprising amount of goods and we were able to have our lunch and hydrate before heading on. Before we left, the post mistress suggested a bed and breakfast for tonight about 20 more miles down the road, but she warned us that it was a hilly 20 miles. I (ClarkWheel) saw a sparkle in the eyes of SpokeWrench when she mentioned a "Bed and Breakfast." I called ahead and found the accommodations to be quite reasonable. The only problem was that it was a mile off route, on a gravel road, and there was a big hill to climb to get there. We decided to bike to the entrance and take a look, making a final decision at that point. It didn't take too long to make it to the entrance road with the nice tailwind we had today. We were there by 2:30, a little early in the day to stop, but we had already covered 50 miles...not a bad day for us. There was a sizeable hill to conquer to get to the bed and breakfast, but SpokeWrench was adamant, "Let's go for it!"
We did just that and did have to walk our bikes up part of the hill. Pulling the trailers on gravel just didn't give us the traction and our tires would keep spinning out. We did make it, of course, and were treated to the site of the lovely home, the Hill Ranch Oasis Bed and Breakfast of Phil and Delores Hill.
The terrain in this area is the same, but we are seeing something new. Soon after leaving Sand Springs, we began to see pine trees on the tops of some of the hills. By the time we arrived at Hill Ranch Oasis Bed and Breakfast, there were many pine trees and scrub pines. Enough that we could smell the fresh pine scent as we biked. I don't know what the difference is, as the hills appear about the same. The area between Jordan and Mosby was also significant for Lewis and Clark. It was in this area that Sakakawea's husband carelessly swamped a dugout canoe that was carrying Lewis and Clark's most prized possessions. Sakakawea wisely recovered all of their possessions before they would have been lost in the river. This brings us to...
The Seventh Grade Question:
Name one or more of the items that Sakakawea recovered.

-ClarkWheel

Fort Peck, MT to Jordan, MT- Day 35-36- 98.38 mi.

2005-07-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

Nearly 100 miles of nothing! From Fort Peck to Jordan, the only thing we saw the whole day that suggested any sign of civilization was a small rest area at about the 62 mile marker. The night before, we had prepared for the next day by trying to get a very early start. Our original plan was to leave at sunrise, about 5:00. This plan left us without breakfast, as the hotel's restaurant didn't open until 7:00. The manager of the hotel told us that there was a convenience store near the Fort Peck Dam that opened at 6:00. So, we set our departure time back to 6:00 and slept in for a while longer. After leaving the hotel, anxious for food, we biked to, over, and past the dam without seeing a convenience store. We were both disappointed because not only did this mean we would miss breakfast, but we would also have to take the time to cook along the way. At about the 43rd mile, we stopped and cooked a freeze dried meal. After that, we kept biking our hilly route until we came to a blessing... a rest stop! There were bathrooms as well as a place to fill up with cold water. We took this opportunity to cook a bit more food and get re-energized. With only 36 miles to go, we tried to bike quickly to beat darkness. Our maps give us a profile of how hilly the terrain is from place to place, and the route looked very flat. We thought we could average a high speed and get to the campground before dark. Well, the maps were wrong. The route was very hilly, and it took us a long time to get to Jordan. When we did get to Jordan, the moon was shining brightly, and the "Garfield Motel" shone even brighter. Not wanting to set up the tent in the dark, we settled on the motel for the night at about 10:00. After eating a pizza for a late supper at 11:00, we went to bed very tired. We had completed a day less than 2 miles short of 100. Lewis and Clark mentioned having very difficult, tiring days on their journey, and this was one of ours. When we woke up in the morning, we were both still very tired. We decided to take a rest day. During the day, we changed to Kamp Katie, bought groceries, updated blogs at the local library, and had delicious smoothies at a coffee shop.
Seventh Grade Question: We biked a total of 98.38 miles today in 15.5 hours. What was our (pathetic) average speed?

- SpokeWrench

Not everything was bad on this long, long day. We saw a number of deer and antelope. We saw some antelope up close for the first time. One was bedded down next to the road. The cars apparently didn't bother it, but the bicycles spooked it out. As we were biking to Jordan around dusk, I looked to my left and saw a lone antelope standing on a ridge. It was silhouetted against a full moon. I would have loved to put this image on the blog for you, but it was too dark for my camera...I do have it stored in my mind though!

-ClarkWheel

2005-07-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Seventh Grade Question for Day 33

2005-07-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

Entering the 670 mile length of Montana

The Confluence of the Missouri River and the ???? River

A Grizzly Bear at the Confluence Interperative Center

Wolf Point, MT to Fort Peck, MT- Day 34- 52.34 mi.

2005-07-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

My fears were confirmed! The wind that started the evening before had not let up by morning, in fact it had gotten stronger. It was whistling by at 30 mph rate with gusts from 40-45 mph. It had also rained most of the night and when the alarm rang at 5:15, it was still raining fairly steadily. We did not want to pack up in the rain...at least that was the excuse we told each other so we could rollover and sleep another 2 hours. When we finally did get up around 7:30, we questioned whether we should try it or not as most of the route was directly northwest into that wind. We finally decided to try it. It was unbelievably difficult. In my opinion, it was one of the hardest days yet. Coincidentally, Lewis and Clark had wind problems in this same area when they passed through in their boats going upriver. It completely stopped them for a 2 or 3 days in a row. Unlike Lewis and Clark (who may have had better sense) we pushed our way through that wind for about 11 hours before arriving at dusk at Fort Peck. Not wishing to set up a campsite in our exhausted state, we stopped at the Fort Peck Hotel. This was a historic hotel with 2 stories and wooden floors. It had a restaurant buffet which we enjoyed and gave us a good night's sleep before attempting our longest stage yet..the 96 mile voyage to Jordan the next day. The manager of the hotel promised me the coffee would be ready at 5:00 a.m. and that we should go right on into the kitchen and help ourselves. He said he would also put out 2 caramel rolls for us to eat in the morning before leaving.
Seventh Grade Question:
What was the name of the only African American that accompanied Lewis and Clark to the Pacific and back?

-ClarkWheel

Culbertson, MT to Wolf Point, MT- Day 33- 60.48 mi.

2005-07-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Wolf Point, MT is on the southern edge of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation as is all the small towns we have passed through today. As we bike through Indian Reservation territory, we see very few permanent homes. Mr. Gilbertson, of the Deep Water Bay Bed and Breakfast, explained this to me when we were there. He said that since the tribal land cannot be bought or sold, banks will not loan money for building homes because the potential homeowner does not own the land....kind of a strange "Catch 22". If we see dwellings, they are most often mobile homes. We met a British gentleman on our route today. He is biking the Northern Tier Transcontinental Trail with an ultimate goal of Halifax, Nova Scotia. We set up camp at the Rancho RV Park just outside of Wolf Point. Wolf Point is a fairly large town in the reservation. In the evening, we were surprized by a sudden shift and huge increase in the wind. The speed jumped to nearly 40 mph and was coming from the northwest rather than the southeast as it had done all day. By 9:00 p.m. it had begun to rain and the wind continued. If it continues all night into tomorrow, we could be in for a difficult day against that northwest wind.
Seventh Grade Question:
In the picture labeled "Seventh Grade Question-Day 33, what is the purpose of the machine. SpokeWrench calls it a giant toothpick dispenser. Hint: It is not a toothpick dispenser!

-ClarkWheel

Williston, ND to Culbertson, MT-Day 32- 62.46 mi.

2005-07-19T11:58:00.000-07:00

Let's start out with a question today that highlights our activities.
Seventh Grade Question: Just outside of Williston, ND one can find the confluence of the Missouri River and what other important river? On Lewis and Clark's return trip, they took different routes with Lewis exploring this river.
We left the motel early this morning and biked to Trenton, ND to a quaint country store that had all the ranch's brands on wood around the perimeter of the store. We had a snack there and bought a few groceries. From there we biked on to the Confluence Interpretive Center near Trenton, ND. This is the spot referred to in the seventh grade question. It was an interesting center. In one display, we took some pictures of us standing next to a stuffed grizzle bear. At Lewis and Clark's time, grizzles were living in this area. The corp soon found that they great bear was a force to be reckoned with. They found that just one shot was not sufficient to down this bear. Sometimes it would take 8 or 10 shots to bring one down. After the first encounter or two, the men were willing to leave well-enough alone. We also visited a reconstructed fort, Fort Buford, where the great Hunkpapa chief, Sitting Bull, surrendered. The fort had many very interesting artifacts that was brought to our attention by the guided tour we were able to take.
We biked on into Montana today and spent the night in the town of Culbertson, MT. Our campground was in the city park. We have nice grounds, electricity, restrooms, but no showers and all for free. It was really very nice. Culbertson had just had a damaging storm two days before. They had many trees down, roofs blown off, and one house was destroyed. It was not a tornado, but rather 107 mph straight winds that did the damage. No storms tonight for us. It was cool with a gentle breeze all night.

2005-07-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Williston, ND about 5 miles in the distance

2005-07-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

Bluffs on the way to Lund's Resort

Lund's Resort to Williston, ND- Day 31- 25.87 mi.

2005-07-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

Big storms last night...fairly heavy rain, constant thunder and lightning, and some wind. The tent held up pretty well. Tai's side did draw up some water through the bottom of the tent. He may have been in a low spot. We were packed and ready for Lund's Restaurant to open at 7:00. We had a great breakfast at Lund's. I had Juneberry pancakes and they were delicious.
Lewis and Clark were also in this area according to the Lunds. On their return trip from the Pacific, Captain Lewis, dressed in buckskins, and one of his men were elk hunting near the present-day location of Lund's. The man hunting with Lewis mistook him for an elk and shot him in the derriere. According to the journals, Lewis was fine but very sore for a few days.
We left at about 8:15 toward Williston and into nearly one hour of uphill pedaling. What a way to wake up! There were several other challenging hills in our short ride today. It was short because we had many errands to do in Williston before heading into Montana tomorrow. I have completely worn out my biking gloves. They just fell apart. I found a new pair at the small bicycle shop in Williston. It is also laundry day and we have these last three blogs to upload. I hope to do a little grocery shopping before leaving as well.
Seventh Grade Question:
We will leave North Dakota tomorrow. We have met many kind and helpful people...after all, the word "dakota" in the Sioux language means what?

-ClarkWheel

P.S. We have decided on a probable destination point for our trip. We think we will stop at Great Falls, Montana; about 525 miles further on. It is possible we may not find an internet connection between here (Williston) and Great Falls. Larger cities are few and far between. Of course, if we find a connection, we will be sure to upload the journals. Of course, we will bring it all up-to-date in Great Falls.

New Town, ND to Lund's Resort- Day 30- 52.34 mi.

2005-07-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

You'd better believe we made a hasty retreat from the mosquito infested campsite at the New Town Marina and Recreation Area. We biked back to New Town on a bicycle-only trail that parallels route 23. We rode to the breakfast cafe in town. While we were eating, an older gentleman approached and asked where we were biking. We told him our plans and he seemed interested that we were biking the Lewis and Clark Trail. He told us that recently he had spoken to a large group of teachers about Lewis and Clark. He seemed to be somewhat of an expert so I asked him about the mystery surrounding the death of Sakakawea. (Some say she died at the age of 25 and others claim she lived to be 80. The location of her remains is a mystery as well). This gentleman turned out to be a Hidatsa Native American that had a connection to Sakakawea, so I asked him what his feeling was about her. He told us a very interesting story. He said that in 1955, he asked his 80 year-old grandmother about Sakakawea. He told us that his grandmother told him that Sakakawea was not the Native American the history books contend...
Seventh Graders: What Native American tribe do the historical accounts say that Sakakawea originally was?
...His grandmother told him that Sakakawea was a Hidatsa, not as history recorded and furthermore, their family was related to Sakakawea. According to this story, Sakakawea died at the age of 80 in this very area around New Town. This man's name was Esley Fox Thorton, a very interesting man with an interesting story.
We left New Town and biked into some of the largest and longest hills encountered so far. We kicked around the idea of biking on to Williston, a ride of 75 miles, but the hills wore us down, not to mention the temperature was 100 degrees. We decided to stop at Lund's Resort. I called ahead and I got a recording that they were closed for the day. Bad news...but there was another campground nearby so we continue on. We stopped at the other, 3D Campground, but it was out-of-business. We went on to Lund's. This was a very nice campground with a restaurant, but closed for the day. There were two other bikers looking for campground as well, Amanda and Mary, college students riding eastbound across the U.S. We talked it over with each other and a couple of fisherman staying in a cabin and decided to go ahead and set up camp and pay in the morning. We talked for quite a while with the girls and enjoyed comparing notes with them. This campsite had many fewer mosquitoes (until dusk) and much better water.

Deep Water Bay Bed and Breakfast to New Town, ND- Day 29- 44.51 mi.

2005-07-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

We were treated to a great rancher's breakfast at the Gilbertson's bed and breakfast. After pancakes and sausage and all the extras, we tried our internet connection, as we had been unsuccessful the night before. This morning everything was working, so we updated everything and then prepared to leave for New Town. New Town is the area that Lewis and Clark figured was the furthest any white man had ventured west. From this point on Lewis and Clark had only the sketchy information about what lay beyond from the Native Americans in the area. It must have made them think twice about what they were doing. We, however, knew exactly where we are going and traveled today uneventfully. The ride was normal with some fairly challenging hills in the second half of the trip. In New Town, we camped at the New Town Marina and Recreation Area. It seemed like a rather primitive campground. We were assigned a campsite that looked pretty enough, surrounded by a small wooded area, but when we pulled in and dismounted, millions of mosquitoes descended on us. It was unbelieveable! DEET was absolutely essential all evening and then it was nearly unbearable. In addition, the manager advised us not to drink the water, it was brown. We bought a gallon of water at the small convenience store. At the campground, we met up with a transcontinental traveler headed east. Byron was interesting to talk to and we compared notes on best traveling methods. After cooking supper and eating, we took showers in the brown water, played a couple of hands of gin rummy and a couple of games of tetherball (away from our campsite), and headed for the tent. There just wasn't much else we could do. I woke up several times during the night to see our mosquito netting lined with mosquitoes just waiting for one of us to as much as stick our heads out of the tent...rather unnerving.
Seventh Grade Question: Much of the land around New Town is part of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation; the home of what three Native American tribes?

-ClarkWheel

2005-07-12T05:04:00.000-07:00

A pronghorn antelope on the trail.

A prairie dog at Fort Stevenson State Park

Tai's new form of mosquito repellent.

The earthlodge at Knife River Indian Villages in Stanton, ND

Fort Stevenson State Park to Deepwater Bay Bed and Breakfast- Day 28- 44.46 mi.

2005-07-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

Lewis and Clark often wrote about how they were plagued by mosquitoes. We really never understood fully what they were talking about until Fort Stevenson Campground. After last evening and this morning, we have some idea. The mosquitoes were ferocious. Just at dusk, they literally drove us into to the cabin for our traditional Lewis and Clark gin rummy game. This morning, just to get our dried clothes off the line and use the restroom, DEET was essential. They were attacking in full force and it was impossible to keep them off. We left the campground and those aggressive mosquitoes at 8:45 after a breakfast (cooked inside the cabin). It was fairly hilly route today...and a windy one. The wind was either quartering into us or a full headwind all day long. The wind was around 15 mph, strong enough to impede our travel somewhat. We biked though the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and had lunch at Ree's Store, I believe on the reservation. While there, we called a bed and breakfast about 20 miles further west and north. Yes, they had rooms, campers, or tent sites at varying prices. When we arrived around 4:00, we found internet service in the house, so we took one of the rooms in the house. The people here are very kind and helpful. I was able to do laundry, cook on a stove in their garage and we will be treated to a rancher's breakfast tomorrow morning. This is wonderful place to stay. Mrs. Gilbertson asked us if we would like to go for a drive and see the tipi rings that are still visible in some area near here. We agreed immediately and she took us in her Suburban though the fields to high point on their property. There before us were rings of stones that once circled the tipis of a former Native American culture. As I looked around, I could see that this location was chosen for a specific reason. From this vantage point, it would be impossible for an enemy to sneak up on the tipi dweller. I could see for miles in all directions.

Seventh Grade question:

Many of the Indians in this area built earthen lodges for their living quarters, yet we often see tipis standing on the reservations. Why did the Native Americans sometimes use tipis rather than their earthen lodges?

-Clarkwheel

Pick City, ND to Garrison, ND- Day 27- 44.13 mi.

2005-07-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the title of today’s blog, we biked over 40 miles, but the interesting thing is that our campsite is within 2 or 3 miles of the campground last night. In order to continue our route north, we had to bike around Lake Sakakawea. This is a very large lake created by the damming of the Missouri River at Garrison Dam. Getting from the south shore to the north short required the 40+ mile ride. We had hoped to get an early start because NOAA Weather Radio said that the wind would switch in the afternoon and come from the northwest, creating a headwind for us. It turns out that the wind switched early and by the time we are up and going, it had already switched. We ended up biking against the wind most of the day…but it was cooler. We had in the back of our minds a possible 65 mile day to Indian Hills Resort. That thought was quickly put to rest by the constant headwind. We didn’t make very good time. We did have some interesting sights, though. We biked across one of the largest earthen dams in the world and the 5^th largest dam of any kind in the U.S.A. We also saw our first antelope today. There were a pair of them along the road, but they quickly moved out of the camera range. SpokeWrench did get a couple of pictures on the antelope before they disappeared in a cornfield. Today I notice a large cultivated field that had a crop that was blooming the most gorgeous blue flowers. The field looked like a large blue lake. At the lunch diner in Coleharbor, we asked about those beautiful blue flowers and was told that it was flax. They are really very beautiful. We stayed in a primitive cabin this night. NOAA Weather Radio had predicted the possible of severe weather for tonight and I felt it would be better to have something a bit more substantial. The cabins were reasonable and quite nice. It was a good decision. We biked over to a prairie dog town that the parks department was protecting. Tai was able to get a good photo of the prairie dog barking at him.

Seventh Grade Question:

What is the only mammal that can run faster than a prong-horned antelope?

-ClarkWheel

Washburn, ND to Pick City, North Dakota- Day 26- 47.64 mi.

2005-07-12T04:41:00.000-07:00

For an instant, it is 250 years ago, I am standing in a Native American earth lodge. I am in the exact center. I stand in wonder, looking around at the 18 member family that lives there and their possessions. Just as quickly, I am still standing in the exact center of the same 40 foot Native American lodge, but all that is left is the depression that marks where the lodge once stood. What a strangely wonderful sensation and a unique opportunity. This was my feeling at the Fort Clark Historic Site we visited today. Later this day, I actually did stand in a reconstructed earth lodge at the Knife River Indian Villages. As I walked into the actual earth lodge, I was struck by the coolness, and even assumed that the parks department had air conditioned it for comfort. When I asked the ranger that question, I was told that this was the actual temperature of the lodge without any air conditioning, quite remarkable since the air temperature outside today was over 100 degrees. We had left Washburn as early as possible, considering the expected high temperature in the afternoon. We biked about 20 miles to the Fort Clark Historical Site that I mentioned above and spent nearly an hour looking around there. We biked on to Stanton, had lunch at Glo’s Kitchen and then continued on to the Knife River Indian Villages. We biked on to Pick City with a great tailwind, but searing heat. The second half of the ride was definitely the hilly half but we made it in pretty good time considering the sightseeing we had done today. After a fix at the local ice cream shop, we biked to our campground at Sakakawea State Park, pretty much worn out.

Seventh Grade Question: Name one Native American tribe that built and occupied the earth lodge we saw.

-ClarkWheel

Bismarck, ND to Washburn, ND- Day 25- 49.84 mi.

2005-07-12T04:06:00.000-07:00

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

Pollock, SD to Bismarck, ND- Day 23- 93.97 mi. (Day 24- rest)

2005-07-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

Right Now, Lance Armstrong cycles in France, but back in the Dakotas, two other cyclists make a Lance-like ride. That would be us. 90 miles in one day, and it was much like Lance's strongest time, the mountains. A brisk tailwind propelled us into Bismarck, North Dakota, the state's capital. We didn't get started until about 8:00. This was after trying to get up at 5:15 unsuccessfully. Our plan was to go to a campground about 40 miles in and decide if we wanted to go on to Bismarck. Our maps showed a restaurant and campground about 25 miles in, for us to get some breakfast. We stopped, but they were not open. We did meet a nice man there named John. He was doing the Lewis and Clark Trail by canoe. He is also a biker. He has gone accross the U.S. three times. He also keeps a Blog online. To see it, click here. After talking to him for a while, we set off for the campground 40 miles in. When we got there, we were disappointed. The campground was private, which usually means a better campground and there was also a restaurant. It was about 1:00, so we tried to get a bite to eat. Both the restaurant and the campground were closed. We then explored the campground. It was not mowed, had no picnic tables, and there were no other campers there. After making a freeze-dried meal for lunch, we left the campground at about 1:45 to start our next 50 miles to Bismarck. The route was very hilly. Maybe not the steepest or longest of the trip, but definitely the most plentiful. There was not a stretch longer than a mile that was flat. Speaking of flat, ClarkWheel had one about 10 miles out of Bismarck. It was a bit disappointing since we were so close to our destination. We met a very nice man along the trail today; he passed us, then pulled over and gave us two ice-cold sodas. It was very refreshing. Finally, we came to Bismarck at about 9:00! Thankfully, we were at a hotel, so after getting a bite to eat, we quickly went to the hot tub and relaxed. And relaxed some more... and some more. This high-mileage day called for a low mileage the next day. The shortest we could come up with was a rest day, which was fine with both of us. We took our bikes to a bike shop, got them checked over and replaced ClarkWheel's tires, did some laundry, and found the hot tub once more.

Seventh Grade Question: We entered North Dakota today. What fraction of the Lewis and Clark expedition was spent in North Dakota in terms of time? We will give you a 5% cushion high or low.

*Special note- For those of you seventh graders attempting the questions, we are thinking of the following as a possible prize for the most correct answers: A GPS unit OR we have a 2-person Kelty tent we used on the trip last year. We used it only about 10 times and it is excellent shape. Both prizes are worth somewhere in the $100 range. We are still thinking of other possible prize options.

-SpokeWrench

Mobridge, SD to Pollock, SD- Day 22- 41.45 mi.

2005-07-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

We said our goodbyes to the Kinseys and left around 9:00. We did a little shopping, ate at a convenience store, and left Mobridge. It was a hilly ride, but with a favorable wind it wasn't so challenging. There were some formidable hills, but hills have tops and downhills unlike headwinds. We rode to the town of Pollock with the widest main street in South Dakota and just a couple miles from North Dakota. We went to the Lakeview Campground. It didn't look like much of a campground, but the folks there were very kind and helpful. The bathhouse water wasn't working so we were able to use a room in the motel for showers and toilets. The washer wasn't working, so they told us to use the motel maid's washer and dryer. As we were preparing to do some laundry, Arthur, the owner, came over and said he would like us to see the town's Lewis and Clark Center. He jumped in his truck and drove down to see if it was still open. The center was closed but he called someone to open it up just for us. There we met Vina. Vina was one of the center's caretakers. She took us on a tour in the building. It contained a surprising amount of artifacts, not only of Lewis and Clark, but also bones of prehistoric creatures found in the area, antique tools, old historic photos of the town, and crafts. She also gave us interesting information about the history of Pollock. The crafts had been made by some of the citizens of the town. I was quite interested in a wooden M & M dispenser that was on display. I commented that it would be good in a classroom to dispense M & Ms for prizes. Vina went right to the phone and called the maker of the dispenser and told me I could take it; he would make another for the center. Although she didn't ask, I donated $5.00 for the dispenser. This was a great little town. Sometimes when we travel like this, we have special memories of certain places that are always fondly in our minds. This was one of those places. Last year our special place was Hartsburg, Missouri and the Globe Hotel, a small bed and breakfast where we spent the night.
Seventh Grade Question: Vina mentioned that she felt Sacagawea died across the river from Pollock at the age of 35. Many towns along the river claim this and the age of her death is also contested. Sacagawea was very helpful to the Corps, but was never paid for her services. Who received the pay that probably should have rightly gone to her?

-ClarkWheel

Akaska, SD to Mobridge, SD- Day 21- 31.84 mi.

2005-07-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

David was up at 6:30 and on the road by 7:30...a very efficient traveler. We, on the other hand, were up at 7:30 and out by 9:45...we enjoy biking in the heat and wind! Speaking of wind, we were still facing that same NW wind. That is 3 days out of the past 5. I'm ready for a tailwind. We left Akaska with a 9 1/2 mile dirt road ride, not the most pleasant, but the road was very well-maintained. At about the halfway mark, we came upon an restaurant that was not marked on our maps....a rare event. Considering the headwind, it turned out to be the highlight of the ride. The wind is demoralizing, because it is a forever uphill! And speaking of hills, we encountered some serious hills, combined with the headwind, it was a challenging day. We arrived at our designated campground to Mike and Judy Kinsey holding an ice-cold Gatorade out for each of us. We were prepared to set up the tent, but Mike and Judy had rented a cabin that slept 8 and they invited us to join them. We had arranged ahead of time to meet up with Mike and Judy to bring us the second half of the journey's food. All 4 of us went to the Pizza Ranch in Mobridge for dinner and we went in their CAR...the first car we have ridden in since Platte City, MO. Following a delicious pizza and chicken buffet, we continued on to the Sitting Bull Stampede, our first rodeo. We had a great time and really enjoyed watching the rodeo. This was followed by another great fireworks display. All-in-all, a very enjoyable and relaxing evening and a good night's sleep!
Seventh Grade Question:
Speaking of a rodeo, what are the 7 events of a standard rodeo? (1 point for each you can name)

-ClarkWheel

2005-07-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

Seventh grade question for day 20.

Bob's Resort to Akaska, SD- Day 20- 36.20 mi.

2005-07-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

The first 10 miles out of Bob's Resort was a great ride....but then we turned into the wind. The storm the night before, brought in a 30 mph NW wind and we were headed NW after that first 10. Our speed slowed from about 14 mph average to 7 or 8 and those were labored. We struggled against the wind most of the rest of the day. We arrived in the town of Akaska, SD (Pop 52) at about 4:00 p.m. The campground had only 1 site left. We took that site and set up. This was Akaska's July 4th celebration a day early. The campground owner spoke of a parade and fireworks. About 1 hour later, another biker pulled in. David was from Washington State. He was biking alone and had started just 2 weeks ago in St. Louis. Although he wasn't pulling a trailer, he had a full load of panniers and was riding about 90-100 miles a day and planning to ride the entire trail. Since all the sites were taken, we invited him to set up his tent on our site. We had a pleasant evening talking with David. Good luck on your ride, David. At about 7:30 the parade started on main street in Akaska. It was a fairly lengthy parade taking approximately 45 minutes...many interesting and entertaining floats and entries. At dusk, the fireworks started. It was an impressive display that continued for another half hour or 45 minutes. They tell me that afterwards the private fireworks continued until 1:00 a.m., but I never knew it. I was tired.
Seventh Grade Question:
Look at the picture ahead of this blog. What is this a picture of and what is its purpose?

-ClarkWheel

Pierre, SD to Bob's Resort (No town)- Day 19- 57.05 miles

2005-07-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

The big event for this day was the weather. It was fairly hot and humid. As we biked along we were able to watch a thunderstorm develop to our south and west. Here on the praire, one can see so far and so well (with no trees to block the view) that we could actually see the storm get revved-up, complete with lightning and heavy rain. The storm remained off to our left and never reached us. Anyhow it carried on for about 1 hour then as quickly as it developed, it dissapated and disappeared. Interesting! This was a difficult day for only one reason. We miscalculated our mileage. We both thought we were doing a 44 mile day, which isn't too bad...but around noon we checked the map and realized that it was a 60 miler instead. That bummed both of us out. We had started later in the morning, thinking it wouldn't be too long, then when we are over halfway there, we realize we have a third more to go. It's hard to stay motivated. We finally arrived at Bob's Resort, sort of in the middle of nowhere. We had not seen any sign of a town, restaurant, or even a convenience store in 60 miles...nothing but prairie! It seems so strange. Back in Indiana, one cannot go for more than 15 or 20 miles until coming to another town. We did see pheasant and prairie dogs along the roadside and we tried barking at the praire dogs...they were not fooled. Bob's Resort had an open campground with just a few small trees, a bathhouse, a convenience store, and an evening restaurant. I must say a word about the restaurant. It was located on a bluff about 1000 feet over the Missouri River. One could look out its expansive picture windows on the winding Missouri with a beautiful old bridge crossing it. The view was worth the cost of the meal alone. That night about 11:00 p.m. a storm hit us like no other I had ever experienced! It lasted for almost 4 hours. 60+ mph winds, torrencial rains, and constant lightning. At the height of the storm, I was bracing the southwest pole of the tent to keep it from collapsing on us. Holding a metal pole in thunderstorm is probably not the most sane thing I have ever done, but the lightning was mostly cloud-to-cloud and I didn't feel too threatened by it. The rain stopped long enough at 2:30 a.m. for me to go out and check the tent stakes and guylines I had set up in the afternoon. Everything held well and the tent remained almost completely dry. Another crisis averted.
Seventh Grade Question:
There is a very handy and simple formula (that could save your life) that calculates the closeness of a thunderstorm to your location. What is the formula? Hint: It involves the speed of light and sound.

-ClarkWheel

Fort Thompson, SD to Pierre, SD- Day 18- 65.73 mi.

2005-07-01T18:56:00.001-07:00

Hey! Finally, good wind! The wind was light from the southeast today. What a wonderful change! We turned out 65+ miles today to get us to Pierre, SD. We were able to do the 65 miles in approximately the same amount of time it took us to do the 30 miles yesterday against the wind. Today we bicycled through the Crow Creek Sioux Indian Reservation for most of the day. We saw a great deal of open range. In several cases, we could see all around us for perhaps 20 miles and couldn't see anything but prairie; no houses, buildings, or signs of civilization. As we came into Pierre, we stopped at the Farm Island State Campground to secure a site. Again we ran into the, "Campground Full" problem. This time, however, we couldn't get a site at all....I forgot, this is the July 4th weekend. So we turned around and headed on into the city of Pierre. We stopped at a Subway for a bite, having not had anything to eat for about 50 miles, and inquired about other campsites in the area. Everyone was pretty vague about where and how to get into one, so we finally just called around and found a Days Inn for the night. A soft bed and hot shower sounds pretty good anyway. We also stopped at the only bike shop we have seen since Council Bluffs, IA. Yesterday, I didn't mention that I wore out my rear tire. It developed a bulge early in the day and it popped just before arriving at Fort Thompson. The tire was destroyed, so I replaced it with my spare, but that meant we were without a spare. I said all of that to explain why we went to the bike shop in Pierre today. I bought 2 new tires for Tai's bike and replaced his. Now we will use his old tires for spares because they will fold up and fit in our trailers (the bike shop didn't have any folding tires).
Seventh Grade Question:
Tonight we are Pierre. Most people outside of South Dakota pronounce Pierre, (Pea AIR). We soon found out that South Dakotains do not pronounce it that way. What is the South Dakota pronunciation for Pierre? There are two words that are homonyms of how it is really pronounced. Just give us one or both of those homonyms.
-ClarkWheel

P.S. Just so there is no confusion, I will always answer your comments on the SAME day you made the comment. Don't forget to go back to that day to see our responses to your comments.

2005-07-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

Picture for the seventh grade question.

Chamberlain, SD to Fort Thompson, SD- Day 17- 33.92 mi.

2005-07-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

Belgian waffles for breakfast and back on the bicycle seats. It took us a while to get started. We had to buy groceries and some camping supplies today. It took 3 stops at 3 different stores to find all we needed. When we finally got out on the road, we were still frustrated with the wind. Although it had calmed down a little from yesterday, but I judged that it was still steady at 25 mph with gusts to 35, yep, you guessed it, right in our faces. We struggled to maintain an 8 mph average. It was a difficult day to say the least. We didn't arrive until 4:00 p.m. dog-tired! Our selected campground was below the Big Bend Dam in Fort Thompson, but when we arrived, a sign said, "Campground Full." We looked around and found some empty sites, but then realized that they were all tagged. We were about to leave, when we noticed someone in the ranger's office. We stopped in and asked and sure enough, there was just then a cancellation. We had us a spot for the night. We hit the sack early after a freeze-dried meal of turkey tetrazzini and Kraft macaroni and cheese.
Seventh Grade Question:
Look in the picture above. We saw several of these on our route today. What is it called and what is it's purpose?
-ClarkWheel